How Brands Can Leverage Google Discover: Insights from Clara Soteras
At Google Search Central Live in Zurich last December, Clara Soteras shared strategies for brands and ecommerce sites to use Google Discover effectively. Discover is a major traffic source for news publishers, and so far, it has resisted much of the disruption caused by AI—making it an intriguing opportunity beyond traditional newsroom contexts.
However, as Google’s John Mueller emphasized, Discover traffic is free but volatile: it can vanish at any time, just like organic Google traffic has for many brands.
Clara Soteras, head of innovation and digital strategy at AMIC and a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, discussed what’s working, what’s breaking, and where real opportunities lie heading into 2026.
“Discover gives you the possibility to reach people who don’t even know they need you yet.”
Discover: A Powerful Channel, With Caveats
According to the Press Gazette, for 2,000 global news websites, 68% of traffic now comes from Google Discover, versus 32% from search.
Clara confirmed that Discover is a primary traffic source, especially for publishers:
“Google Discover is the first channel of traffic for the majority of publishers. It’s an excellent way to reach new audiences and generate page views.”
However, she cautioned against treating Discover as just an extension of search:
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Ranking factors differ from search.
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Images, headlines, and entity relevance matter more than traditional SEO signals.
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Content categories also impact performance; lifestyle, sports, and culturally relevant topics tend to dominate, while politics and niche subjects rarely surface.
The Volatility of Discover
At Zurich, Mueller reminded publishers not to rely on any single traffic source. Clara reinforced the warning:
“Discover traffic is free today, but it can be zero tomorrow. Publishers relying on 90% of traffic from Discover risk losing their audience overnight.”
She emphasized that Discover is passive traffic, injected algorithmically into feeds. To build loyalty, publishers must diversify:
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Social media strategy
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Collaborations with content creators
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Community building around topics
Applying Newsroom Strategies to Brands
Clara’s key insight: brands can adopt newsroom methodologies for Discover to drive ecommerce and brand visibility.
Discover now allows users to follow entities, creators, and companies, not just publishers. For brands, this creates opportunities to reach new audiences who don’t yet know they need your products or services.
Her approach mirrors high-performing newsrooms:
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Monitor social conversations and trends
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Align content with current events or trending topics
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Move quickly to publish relevant material
“When creating a strategy for a brand, we need to talk about trending topics and tie them closely to our product or service.”
Execution tips include:
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Headlines longer than 13 words
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Strategically selected images
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Publishing around entity clusters consistently over time
“The best ranking factors are image, headline, and working with the entity every day to establish authority.”
AI Content vs. Human Content
AI content can appear in Discover—Google reports roughly 20% of sites recommended by Discover are AI-generated. Yet, Clara highlighted a key performance gap:
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AI-assisted content often underperforms human-created material.
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Example: AI-assisted article → 100 views vs. human-written article → 12,000 views.
She concluded:
“AI can help with ideas and strategy, but the content itself needs to be created by humans. Discover rewards human editorial judgment.”
Opportunities AI Overviews Can’t Touch
As AI Overviews dominate evergreen informational queries, Clara notes that breaking news remains an area AI cannot fully replace:
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Real-time journalism drives visibility in the top stories module
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Speed, entity authority, and trend alignment remain human advantages
For 2026, publishers should focus on:
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Breaking news
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Reinforcing entity authority
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Trend-aligned content
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Diversifying traffic channels beyond Discover
Human Expertise Remains the Advantage
Discover is powerful, but algorithmically volatile. The true opportunity for brands and ecommerce sites lies in human expertise, editorial judgment, and the ability to act quickly on what matters now.
By applying newsroom methodology to commercial content, brands can leverage Discover for growth while staying resilient against AI disruption.
Watch the full interview with Clara Soteras for deeper insights.
