Discover content requirements: The Complete 2026 Guide

Discover is topic-constrained. Not every vertical performs equally well. Google's feed algorithm favors content in categories where users demonstrate sustained interest: news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, technology, health, and finance. Content outside these broad verticals can still surface, but the audience pool is smaller.

Within eligible topics, Google further filters by content quality. The 2025 helpful content system update integrated more directly with Discover, meaning content that Google classifies as low-value or unoriginal faces a hard eligibility block. Every article targeting Discover must demonstrate clear usefulness, originality, and factual accuracy.

Not eligible. Content that violates Google's dangerous content, hate speech, or harassment policies is permanently excluded. Google also excludes content promoting regulated goods and services such as gambling or pharmaceuticals without proper certification. The 2025 policy update added stricter enforcement around synthetic media: AI-generated content must be clearly labelled or it risks discoverability penalties across Discover and News.

Headlines are the most scrutinized element of Discover content. Google applies automated checks and user feedback signals to headline quality.

Accurate headlines. The headline must accurately represent the content. Misleading or exaggerated headlines trigger a demotion signal. Google's 2025 update specifically targeted "surprise me" headlines that withhold key information to force clicks. If your headline requires the user to click to understand the topic, it violates Discover policy.

Readable headlines. Headlines should be concise and grammatically correct. Title case or sentence case both work. Avoid all-caps headlines, excessive punctuation, and keyword stuffing. Google's automated quality checks flag headlines with more than 120 characters or fewer than 10 characters as potential quality issues.

News headline formatting. For time-sensitive content, include recency cues naturally. "What the Fed rate decision means for mortgages in July 2026" works. "Breaking news" without context does not.

Discover is a visual surface. The card image that appears with your article must meet specific content requirements beyond technical dimensions.

Relevance. The image must be directly related to the article topic. Google uses image content analysis to verify relevance. A generic stock photo of a person smiling paired with an article about financial planning fails the relevance check. Use topic-specific imagery.

No misleading images. Images that misrepresent the content are prohibited. This includes using images of celebrities or public figures when the article does not substantively discuss them. Google's automated systems detect facial recognition mismatches between image content and article topics.

No explicit content. Sexually suggestive imagery is excluded from Discover even if the article text is clinical or educational. Google applies a strict interpretation here. Health articles about reproductive health should use anatomical diagrams rather than photographs.

Discover surfaces content from standard web pages, AMP pages, and Progressive Web Apps. Google does not require a specific technology stack, but it does require a clean content structure that the feed parser can extract.

Full-text extraction. Google extracts the article title, image, and snippet from your page markup. Use proper article schema (Article, NewsArticle, or BlogPosting) to guarantee correct extraction. Without schema, Google falls back to heuristic extraction, which sometimes picks the wrong image or truncates the snippet.

Mobile-first rendering. Google renders your page in a mobile viewport for Discover preview generation. Content hidden behind tabs, accordions, or lazy-loaded sections may not appear in the snippet. Ensure the first screen of your mobile page contains the article title, a featured image, and at least 100 words of readable text.

No disruptive interstitials. Full-page interstitials, app install banners, and content paywalls that block the article text are prohibited in Discover. Google considers these a poor user experience and excludes pages that display them on mobile.

Google maintains a non-exhaustive list of content categories that are ineligible for Discover.

• Misinformation and disinformation, particularly around health, civic processes, and science
• Content promoting dangerous acts or challenges
• Harassing or bullying content
• Sexually explicit or pornographic content
• Content promoting hate speech or discrimination
• Content that facilitates deceptive practices such as impersonation or scams
• Tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceutical content targeting minors

• Verify all Discover-targeting pages use Article schema markup
• Audit headlines for accuracy, length (10 to 120 characters), and clarity
• Check card image relevance using manual review: does the image match the topic?
• Confirm no misleading or sexually suggestive imagery in the card
• Test mobile rendering with Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool
• Remove any full-screen interstitials or app install prompts on mobile
• Label any AI-generated content clearly to avoid discoverability penalties

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