LowFruits Case Study Site, Month 7: Going Viral with Google Discover

I’ve seen hockey-stick growth on my sites before, but what happened this month was just ridiculous:

You’ve guessed it: Google Discover picked up one of the articles on my case study site.

What happened next? Let’s find out!

How Many Clicks and Impressions Did I Get from Google Discover?

Before you get too excited, here’s what the total clicks on Google looked like by the end of April:

Google Discover picked up my article on April 6. It continued to receive a bevy of engaged Google Discover users daily through April 28.

What Made This Article Special?

The article is a “Can You Do [X] With [Y]?” post about an outdoor cooking technique (last month, I revealed the niche: BBQ).

There’s nothing special about this article—no Canva infographics, hand-drawn illustrations, or embedded YouTube videos. 

It was an informative 1,200-word piece on a topic by a knowledgeable author (a 7c/word Writer Access freelancer).

Is There a Secret to Showing up on Google Discover?

Overall, the article received the following results from Google Discover:

• 12,000 clicks
• 184,000 impressions
• 6.5% CTR

There is no secret to appearing for Google Discover that I know of. 

Over the years, I’ve published thousands of articles. Since Google Discover launched, no more than a dozen of my posts went “viral.” I wasn’t able to draw any lessons from them other than:

If you want to show up on Google Discover, create good content around topics people care about.

I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Still, it’s nice when it happens. It brought me 15,000 users. But don’t expect to ride the Discover wave forever; the traffic comes and goes. 

Eventually, my spike ebbed. The traffic from Google Discover leveled off at a humble 15 visitors/day.

Since I haven’t monetized the site yet, I only have a nice screenshot to show for it. 

If I had put ads and the site’s RPM (Revenue per Mille/thousand visits) was $25, I would’ve made $375 just from Google Discover.

I am not in a hurry to install ads, but this is a good confirmation of my original hypothesis.

LowFruits Tip of the Month

Google Discover often picks up information posts. So if you’re looking for ideas for informational posts, fire up the LowFruits Keyword Finder.

Add a seed keyword and go to the “Questions” tab once the report’s ready. 

(This tab—and I’m not exaggerating—is where I spend 90% of my time using LowFruits.)

Find informational keywords with the highest number of blue fruits. 

Find informational keywords with as many blue fruits as possible. Then, get your content orders drafted!

If you see something like this, it’s time to add new keywords to your hit list and get those content orders drafted:

4. Metrics Over Time

Content

In April, I published 12 posts, double the minimum monthly commitment I set for myself. 

I published 13,585 words for the month, and the average article length was 1,132 words.

To date, the case study site has 75 posts with a total word count of 97,508 words and an average word count of 1,175 words. 

All of the posts are informational; I haven’t gotten around to writing the “Best [X] For [Y]” posts yet—but I will soon!

Rankings

Date Checked	May 10, 2022
Avg. Position (Google, USA, Mobile)	11.78
Avg. Position (Google, USA, Desktop)	12.11
Positions in Top 3 on SERPs	18 (-2 Month-over-Month)
Positions in 4-10 on SERPs	21 (+4 Change Month-over-Month)
Positions in 11-100 on SERPs	18 (+9 Month-over-Month)

Source: Ubersuggest

Traffic

Time Period	April 1, 2022 – April 30, 2022
Monthly Pageviews	16,000
Avg. Engagement Time	0.50 s
Engaged Sessions / User	0.25
Pageviews / Published Post (PPP)	213.33

Source: Google Analytics

Earnings

Time Period	April 1, 2022 – April 30, 2022
Total Revenue Since Start of Site	$0
Total Revenue YTD (2021)	$0
Monthly Revenue	$0 Of which $0 from display adsOf which $0 from affiliate commissions
Revenue / Published Post (RPP)	$0

Who I Am

Hey!

My name’s Dim.

Thanks for reading (or skimming) this far.

I started my first site in 2007 after I stumbled upon a blog about making money online. I’ve been buying, growing, and selling sites ever since.

These days, I own an indie media company and run an email newsletter for online publishers called “Publetise.”

Don’t be a stranger: Subscribe to my newsletter at Publetise.com and get my best strategies and tactics delivered to your inbox once a week.