Ask a News SEO: Gerard Kijlstra

The CEO of Newsifier demystifies Google Discover and talks about how understanding audience interests can drive viral performance

Aug 17, 2026

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Hello, and welcome back. Jessie here, back from a lovely weekend spent camping. We roasted vegan marshmallows on the campfire, swam in the Elora quarry, and enjoyed being able to see the stars. Ontario has so much beauty to offer, it’s a luxury to enjoy every scenic nook and cranny of the province.

This week: Gerard Kijlstra! The CEO of Newsifier outlined how artificial intelligence can help demystify Google Discover and the importance of understanding how audience interests drive viral performance on the platform.

Let’s get it.

THE INTERVIEW

WTF is SEO?: Let’s start with Google Discover. Is there an optimal Search to Discover traffic ratio?

Gerard Kijlstra: No, I don’t think so — but it also depends on the publication. Publishers with more evergreen content are at risk, of course, with AI Overviews.

A lot of clients that do more news and have less evergreen content, they don’t see less of an effect with AI Overviews, but there’s no ideal ratio. Some of our clients have mostly Discover traffic, more than 60 per cent. But on the other hand, Discover can also be really volatile.

Although the more you dig into it, I think the less of a black box it is.

WTF is SEO?: A lot of publishers think Discover is a black box, what can we know about how it works?

Gerard Kijlstra: We have a real-time analytics tool and it also tracks Discover traffic, and we do continuous AI analysis on top. When we look at the content on Discover, you can really see that Google Discover assigns you authority on certain topics but also certain content formats.

For example, we have one lifestyle publisher using the tool to identify stories where it says you have authority. He publishes articles about how much a pilot earns, for example. Every time you have that content and format, it goes viral again on Discover. Every time, he picks a slightly different angle, but it’s still the same interest. His audience is always coming back because they consciously see things that are in their interest.

AI is really interesting because it can dig deeper than just the basic topic level. It’s not always about the topic. It’s sometimes also what a certain demographic has the most interest in.

For example, when you see that the audience cares a lot about money, and is a bit lower income, something about a discount works really well. AI can say: if they care about this, they probably also care about a discount in another shop or how to save money.

AI can do deeper research than you could normally do at surface level. It goes beyond topics and more into the interest of the audience.

WTF is SEO?: What are your top tips for strong visibility on Discover?

Gerard Kijlstra: We do a lot of research into this.

There has to be a minimum word count of 400 words, above that it doesn’t do much extra. Related articles and related links matter. Use enough subheadings. It’s a no-brainer but: add images, not just a featured image.

Discover can have a lot to do with how much time on the article people spend. If the article is longer and richer, it helps. Content that goes deeper than service level.

Of course, a technically optimized website. We had one client with really bad Core Web Vitals, and just by optimizing Core Web Vitals, he unlocked a lot of Discover traffic. Apart from that, nothing changed.

A really good article experience matters, too. We say sometimes to add a poll in an article. People spend more time on the article, so that also helps. Google of course measures the post-click experience.

If you’re a publisher with less original content, and more aggregated content, you can use this to make your own original story. Sports publishers are doing it a lot. They use the poll to make an extra article. It’s interesting because these articles normally do pretty well on Discover. If you create less original content – and have more aggregated content – you can use the poll to make your own original story.

So for example, publishers ask “who needs to be the next coach of this team?” Then the publishers use that to write a new article on the opinion of the readers. A lot of the time it also gets picked up well. Publishers also use the comments section, too. If something big happens, and they write about it, and there are a lot of comments. That becomes an original story, so that works. It’s emotionally charged – and that works really well on Discover.

Sensational headlines and emotionally charged headlines still work really well in Discover. Emotionally-charged headlines, a curiosity gap, conversational headlines all work.

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WTF is SEO?: What is the value of Discover traffic? Someone who searches your publication name wants your content. Someone who scrolls and clicks on Discover is engaged with that headline. Is there real value in Discover?

Gerard Kijlstra: I see Discover more as advertising for your publication. But then you should convert [the reader] to newsletter subscribers or mobile app subscribers. That will become more important.

Discover is a great way of getting your content noticed.

If you know why readers engage and why they are coming back on Discover, and then constantly feed that content to the audience. It can be recurring traffic. But of course, you never have the guarantee.

WTF is SEO?: Final question: What’s one thing you wish you knew earlier in your SEO career?

Gerard Kijlstra: Google Discover is not a black box. At first, I had no clue before we started measuring everything. When you start measuring, then you think, “oh wow there is actually a way that you can continuously get Discover traffic.”

It’s not a 100 per cent guarantee, but if you actually apply that feedback loop, then you really get Discover traffic. And before we thought it’s a black box and just to try to write nice headlines.

THE JOBS LIST

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The Telegraph is hiring a Head of Community Editorial (London, England).
Boston Globe is hiring an Assistant Editor, SEO (Boston, Massachusetts).