Hello [NAME],

It’s time we talked again about the traffic that finds its way to news sites through Google.

In recent years, many clients have come to us wanting better insight into traffic from Google Discover. We can now show this clearly in several features – though it did take some technical wizardry to make that happen.

Discover is a news feed that appears automatically on Android phones and, for example, in the Google app (on iPhones too). It’s no wonder publishers are interested: on average, more than one in five pageviews on a news site arrive via Google Discover. Add in visitors from Google Search (those clicking a link after entering a query) and you’re looking at roughly one in three pageviews is coming via Google Search visits. For some clients, it’s more than half!

The next question is obvious: how do you make sure your stories appear more often and more prominently in Google Discover? We asked Natalia Żaba from the Google News Initiative this during a recent webinar, and her answer was sobering: you can’t.

Don’t try, she advised, because it muddies your editorial mission and strategy, and in the long run it could even backfire. The algorithms that determine what appears in the feed are both smart and interchangeable. Tweaks can change things overnight, and there’s simply too much you can’t control – including what your competitors publish.

What does work is what works everywhere: write strong stories that match your audience’s needs. And yes, let them occasionally ride the wave of trends Google recognises and promotes.

If you’re lucky, Google will spot the value. But more importantly, your visitors will. They’ll recognise and appreciate your place in the news ecosystem. With traffic from these channels still high, it makes sense to focus on ways of keeping those visitors once they arrive. As we’ve seen with Facebook, the tide can turn.

A tool like smartocto can help with this, for example, through notifications like:

Google Discover creates a lot of traffic for context-driven stories. Check out why this would be the case and develop a content strategy that aligns with the popularity of this user need.

In other words: always link what’s working to the unique perspective you can bring.

Influence of Google AI Overview

With Google reshaping its services around artificial intelligence, publishers are understandably nervous. Google AI Overview summarises news stories, removing much of the need to click through. TechCrunch has even reported experiments with summaries appearing directly in Google Discover.

In this week’s blog, we look at AI Overviews and other tweaks to the Google algorithm. An SEO specialist from DPG Media (one of our largest clients) has been tracking the numbers and shares what’s happened at one of their popular magazines: significantly fewer impressions for service-oriented stories, and even fewer clicks. Which means the fear is, unfortunately, justified.

Do you know what’s happening with your own titles? And do you have a strategy to deal with it? I’d love to hear from you, as I’m collecting inspiring examples.

Read the blog

Webinar: The User Needs Growth Hacks

With 61 sign-ups so far, our 2 September webinar is already shaping up to be a busy one. We’re also getting questions from media professionals – which we love, because these sessions are for you. Registration is free.

We’ll be talking about growth hacks: experiments (using user needs) that can lead to growth. We’ll hear from Antti Karvanen of Finnish publisher A-lehdet about what a baseline report set in motion for them, and from Aliya Itzkowitz, who regularly helps newsrooms develop and implement clear user needs strategies.

I’ll be quizzing them, but also summarising and interpreting our latest publication on user needs.

In around 60 minutes, you’ll learn:

  • What growth hacks are, and how they can help you achieve specific editorial goals
  • How baseline reports can identify strengths and weaknesses in your newsroom’s performance
  • How to convince colleagues of the power of user needs with smartocto’s ‘smoking gun’: focused articles perform better
  • How to create your own simple and effective growth hacks
Sign up right now!

Reading tips

  • While looking for pieces to recommend in this newsletter, I spotted that Press Gazette has also been covering the influence of Google AI Overview and Google Discover. Chartbeat data looks almost identical to ours, though the dip is more pronounced, probably because they have more US-based clients. Either way, it’s worth reading their take.
  • It’s always nice when someone lines up good examples of paywalls. This blog from The Audiencers focuses on enticing already logged-in visitors to subscribe.
  • Sometimes it helps to look at idealistic news brands if you want to understand how to build lasting audience connections, proves this piece of The Fix. The Romanian outlet Átlátszó Erdély earns trust by telling stories that bring communities together rather than drive them apart, by actively listening to readers, covering underreported topics, and seeking personal interaction.

Thanks for taking the time to read this newsletter. If you find what we send out every two weeks valuable, why not share it with your colleagues? And one more reminder: sign up for the 2 September webinar – I’ll do my best to make it worth your time.

See you soon!

Stefan ten Teije, senior editorial strategist @ smartocto