Problem · Traffic and rankings dropped
Our Google Discover traffic disappeared. Discover is earned story by story.
Discover traffic can be large and volatile. When it stops, the cause is usually in content quality, images or trust signals, or in a broader update.
Is this you?Signs we usually see
- Discover clicks fell to near zero
- Search traffic held up better than Discover
- New articles no longer appear in Discover
- The drop lines up with an update
01 / Quick checks
Three checks you can run today
Each takes minutes. Together they tell you whether this page is about your problem.
- Open the Discover reportIn Search Console, compare Discover clicks by page before and after the drop.
- Check image settingsLarge images (at least 1200px wide) and max-image-preview:large allowed?
- Read the headlinesAre titles accurate, or do they tease more than the article delivers?
Discover eligibility and exposure journal
Separate Discover exposure from ordinary web-search performance and inspect the affected article templates.
| Situation to check | Proposed scope | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Open the Discover report | In Search Console, compare Discover clicks by page before and after the drop. A concentrated loss on image-led stories needs a different review from a whole-site availability fault. | Discover distribution is variable and no stable traffic allocation is promised. |
| Check image settings | Large images (at least 1200px wide) and max-image-preview:large allowed? | Keep an unchanged comparison sample so this check can distinguish the proposed cause from unrelated variation. |
| Clickbait-style titles | Discover policies penalise misleading or exaggerated headlines. | Treat this as a hypothesis until the affected URL or account evidence supports it. |
| Ready to commission a fix | Record content eligibility, image access and policy checks; judge later exposure without promising reinstatement. | [CONFIRM: access, scope, owner, fee and review date before work begins.] |
Discover eligibility and exposure journal
Illustrative blank specification. This is a diagnostic structure, not a client result.
- Affected population
- Separate Discover exposure from ordinary web-search performance and inspect the affected article templates.
- Decisive observation
- A concentrated loss on image-led stories needs a different review from a whole-site availability fault.
- Alternative explanation
- Discover distribution is variable and no stable traffic allocation is promised.
- Acceptance evidence
- Record content eligibility, image access and policy checks; judge later exposure without promising reinstatement.
- Supporting check
- Are titles accurate, or do they tease more than the article delivers?
- Approval
- [CONFIRM: accountable owner and authorised next step.]
What the first handover should make clear
- Separate Discover exposure from ordinary web-search performance and inspect the affected article templates.
- A concentrated loss on image-led stories needs a different review from a whole-site availability fault.
- Record content eligibility, image access and policy checks; judge later exposure without promising reinstatement.
- The original observations, unresolved questions and any client access needed for the next scope.
02 / Likely causes
What usually causes it
In the order we usually check them. Most cases have more than one.
- Clickbait-style titlesDiscover policies penalise misleading or exaggerated headlines.
- Small or missing imagesLarge, high-quality images matter for Discover.
- Content quality signalsSame signals as core updates: expertise, originality, trust.
- Policy issuesContent that breaks Discover content policies.
- Topic fatigueRepeating the same angles readers stopped engaging with.
03 / What we do
How we fix it
Four steps, in order. You see the evidence and the plan before anything changes on your site.
- Step 01Audit recent articlesTitles, images and policy fit, article by article.
- Step 02Fix templatesImage sizes, meta settings and author details.
- Step 03Rework the editorial mixOriginal reporting and expertise over rewrites.
- Step 04TrackDiscover and Search clicks reported separately.
04 / Services
Services that fix it
Starting prices in USD. TopClick is not VAT-registered. Scope and price in writing before work starts.
TopClick is not VAT-registered
SEO content ↗Pages built on a reader decision, evidence and a concrete example.From $[X] /pageRequest
Content refresh ↗Pages that used to rank, updated with current facts, intent and internal links.From $[X] /pageRequest
Technical SEO ↗The causes behind crawl, rendering and indexation problems, found and fixed.From $[X] /projectRequest
05 / Questions
Questions about this problem
01Can Discover traffic be predicted?
Not precisely. It moves with interest and with updates. We focus on what makes articles eligible and attractive, then measure.
02Should we rely on Discover?
Treat it as a bonus on top of search and direct readers, not as the base of your traffic.
03Where do we start?
With the free snapshot: we check your site for this problem, confirm the likely cause and send a written first scope with a price.
Start here
Check your site for this
- 1Send your site — we confirm the cause and where we would start
- 2We check search and AI visibility
- 3PDF by email: five website problems and AI visibility, within two business days of receiving your website URL
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