Google’s John Mueller said it might be bad if your site depends on Google Discover for traffic. He said on Mastodon, “If your site depends on Discover traffic, that sounds bad regardless of your specifics.”

Why did he say this? Well, John quoted its Google Discover documentation that says:

Given the serendipitous nature of Discover, traffic from Discover is less predictable or dependable when compared to Search, and is considered supplemental to your Search traffic. Our ongoing work to improve Discover’s user experience means sites may see changes in their traffic unrelated to the quality or publishing frequency of their content.

Gary Illyes from Google a few years ago also warned against depending on Google Discover traffic. Gary Illyes said back then, “I just hope people realize that this may go away overnight and they don’t build their whole business model around it.”

So while it is great to get a blast of Google Discover traffic often, it is not something you want to build a business solely on.

Forum discussion at Mastodon.