Recently, Google employee Paul Bacaus, who is closely associated with the Web Stories format, answered a question about a possible blocking of a site’s display in the Discover recommendation feed.
For example, one of the webmasters asked if there are plans to launch site blocking alerts in Search Console in this vertical. Specifically, he was referring to a content format such as Web Stories.
Backaus responded that Google does not block sites from appearing in recommendations. Once the issues preventing the content from showing are resolved, the site may reappear in Discover.
Search co-worker John Mueller also joined the discussion. He recalled that traffic from Discover is subject to strong fluctuations.
The main thing is to monitor the quality of content and create it not for Google, but for people.
NIX Solutions reminds that earlier this month, Google clarified what content isn’t showing in recommendations. According to the official documentation, Discover focuses on content based on user interests (articles and videos) and filters out those materials that can degrade UX (vacancies, petitions, sarcastic content, etc.).
The search engine also began testing the updated recommendation design this month.