“The user is passive: they consume whatever the feed serves them”. Here’s why Discover matters so much in France (and not only there)
Welcome back to SEO Confidential, the column where I introduce you to the most authoritative figures in the world of SEO.
We usually meet across the ocean, among made-in-USA strategies and English-speaking markets. But this week we are staying in Europe, and there is a very good reason for it.
France is experiencing something extraordinary, and you probably haven’t heard enough about it yet. Google Discover, which many in Italy still (wrongly) consider a secondary channel or too unpredictable to invest in, is the main driver of organic traffic for major publishers and news sites across the Alps. We are talking about figures between 65% and 90% of total audience.
If you work in publishing, news, digital media, or you simply want to understand where SEO might be heading in the coming years, this interview is for you.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Virginie Clève, a French professional, founder of Largow and one of Europe’s leading experts in SEO for media, with a deep specialization in Google News and Discover. With her I explored how to stabilize a channel considered as volatile as Discover, what is changing with the arrival of AI (and what news and publishing stand to lose), and why LinkedIn could become the next strategic move that few have understood so far.
Enjoy the read.
“Reputation is too precious an asset to be sacrificed for ephemeral clicks,” Virginie told us
In France, Google Discover still generates significant traffic volumes: where does it stand today compared to traditional search for French publishers?
Traditional SEO has suffered a considerable decline for media publishers. Today, for some of my clients, traffic from “classic SEO” accounts for only 5% of their total volume. Google Discover has become absolutely dominant and hegemonic: it often generates between 65% and 90% of a media outlet’s total organic audience.
Discover is often described as highly volatile: what concrete signals indicate that a piece of content has real distribution potential rather than being just a random spike?
Yes, Discover is often described as volatile. However, the work we do with my clients proves the opposite: we manage to stabilize the audience throughout the month with steady month-over-month growth. Of course, algorithm updates create plateaus, but that is not inevitable.
The key lies in the editorial vision:
- Developing a specific editorial angle.
- Aligning the published content with the site’s actual expertise as perceived by Google.
- Demonstrating legitimate authority on the topic.
Many publishers chase Discover with content designed to “please the algorithm”: how much does this influence editorial decisions in newsrooms?
You have to strike a balance. My approach is not to create content exclusively for Discover, but rather to ensure that all editorial content becomes a gateway to Discover.
I prioritize sustainable SEO: content expertise should drive performance. If you follow the algorithm’s whims too closely without building a long-term strategy, you risk a backlash. For major media outlets, reputation is too precious an asset to be sacrificed for ephemeral clicks.
What are the most common mistakes you see publishers make when they try to increase their visibility on Discover?
The main mistake is mass-producing content “for Discover” to the point of losing the platform’s fundamental identity. Discover should not be used solely to generate ad views; it should also be a conversion engine for subscriptions.
“The more I publish, the more audience I’ll get” is a completely outdated strategy: publishing more no longer guarantees a larger audience. If the content lacks added value, originality and relevance for your site, it simply won’t work.
Today, audience is also built on the quality of the headline, the choice of photos and the timing of publication. The other major mistake, especially with the Discover Core algorithm soon to be rolled out outside the United States, is pushing the “click-to-click” strategy so hard that it reduces the article’s ability to stand out.
How important is brand on Discover today? Do stronger publishers have a real advantage over those producing similar content with less authority?
In a constant flow of information, a brand is a guarantee. When it comes to sensitive topics (international conflicts, crises), internet users click on the news site they consider most trustworthy.
For smaller players, the strategy should be niche-focused: don’t try to cover everything, but demonstrate unbeatable expertise on a specific topic to trigger positive quality signals from Google.
In France, are there clear differences between sectors (news, lifestyle, e-commerce) in terms of Discover performance?
Yes, absolutely. We observe very marked disparities depending on the topic:
The winners: national outlets and regional dailies (PQR), which have seen strong growth over the past six months.
The losers: the “People” and Lifestyle sectors have suffered a significant decline. The saturation of spammers in these areas has led Google to tighten its criteria. A few years ago, lifestyle and celebrity content dominated Discover. Now, local news reigns supreme. Google is also catering to readers’ wishes in this area.
I think the trend is to distribute lifestyle content on Discover through the integration of X or Instagram. E-commerce and brands have not yet fully grasped the Discover opportunity; there is growth potential in this sector for the years ahead. But it’s true that we don’t see them much on Discover. Shopping guides are the exception, but at this stage those articles are produced by the major media outlets.
Many complain about becoming too dependent on Discover when it works: how do you build a strategy that leverages this channel without relying on it too heavily?
What we have seen in recent years is a significant shift of audience from Google News to Discover. In reality, it is the users themselves who have chosen to spend less time on Google News and much more time on Discover. And there is not much we can do about it. The user has become passive: they no longer type keywords, they consume whatever the feed serves them.
It has to be said: it is impossible to regulate the Discover audience (and let me remind you that opting out is impossible anyway).
The solution for publishers is not to try to limit SEO traffic, but to diversify its sources: you need to strengthen direct access (I mean truly direct access), newsletters and social media to reduce dependence on Google.
Looking ahead, do you think Discover will remain a fundamental traffic driver for publishers, or will its role change with the rise of AI and answer engines?
In France we have neither AI Overviews nor AI Mode for now. We are obviously watching what is happening abroad with great interest, and we are seeing drops of between 30 and 50% in other media outlets. But not everyone has the same enormous weight of Discover in their audience as in France.
And it’s true that for a French publisher currently getting 85% of its audience from Discover, 10% from Google News and 5% from traditional SEO, even if it lost 50% of its traditional SEO, it would actually lose 2.5% of its total SEO audience, which is not huge.
This could easily be offset by the arrival of Discover on desktop, which we have been waiting for a long time, and I still wonder why it hasn’t been launched, given that the product is clearly ready and has been for quite a while.
On the other hand, what we are seeing is that Google is increasingly testing the insertion of AI-generated content into Discover, tests which, in my opinion, are not all successful. I don’t think people want a lot of AI-generated text in Discover. They want images. And so, my impression is that these attempts have not been successful.
On the other hand, what really worries me about the arrival of AI in Discover (and in Google News) is the automatic rewriting of headlines being tested in the United States. I have already seen catastrophic cases where AI distorts information (false accusations, erroneous death announcements). This is dangerous ground for the fight against disinformation and for Google’s own reputation. As for the impact on audience, it is too early to say. But it’s true that concerns are growing.
As for LLMs like ChatGPT, for example, my impression is that with Gemini 3 Google has regained the upper hand and is not willing to give it up. So, if Google becomes the king of AI-powered search engines, well, we are already starting to see what tomorrow’s playing field will look like. I am convinced that only regulation will allow the media industry to survive, and I am doing my part in this area.
LinkedIn’s entry into Google Discover is taking professional content beyond the platform: are you already seeing concrete effects on traffic and visibility for those who publish regularly?
The integration of LinkedIn into Discover still seems to be in a testing phase in France, with modest traffic. So, at the moment I don’t have much to say about it. The posts I have seen appear in the tools that analyze Discover visibility were posts that hadn’t received many likes or comments, and they weren’t even particularly interesting. I think we’ll have to wait and see (at least for France) how the situation evolves.
LinkedIn posts are increasingly being used as sources in AI-generated answers: how strategic is it today to treat LinkedIn as a genuine SEO channel rather than just a social platform?
Yes, LinkedIn is a really interesting tool. Although probably not for every website. If you cover celebrity news, I’m not sure LinkedIn is the best channel for that. But it’s true that I have always been a bit surprised by the somewhat timid strategies of French media on this subject.
The problem (I don’t know whether this applies in every country) is that journalists don’t necessarily want to speak on behalf of their company or outlet on LinkedIn. Some do, but many choose not to. There are also freelancers working for several outlets, for whom it is more difficult.
In my opinion, the integration of LinkedIn into Discover is a game changer, because it becomes far more strategic. Journalists need to become ambassadors. A news organization whose authors share and engage on LinkedIn generates much stronger traction and valuable quality signals for algorithms like Google’s or the LLMs’.
We have so many exciting projects ahead of us!
Convince the reader that what you wrote is worth their time
This interview left me with a few thoughts I can’t stop turning over in my head.
The first: publishing more no longer works. We’ve been saying it for years, but France is proving it with numbers. The winners are those with unbeatable expertise on a specific topic, not those who produce the most. It’s a lesson that applies in Italy too, where far too many publishers still chase volume instead of depth.
The second: the user has become passive. They don’t open Google and type a keyword: they wait for the feed to bring something interesting in front of their eyes. It’s a huge shift, because it means you no longer have to answer a question: you have to stop someone who is scrolling.
And to do that, the headline has to hit in half a second, the photo has to stop the thumb, and the moment you publish can make the difference between being seen and disappearing. In traditional SEO you optimized for an algorithm answering a search. On Discover you optimize for a human being who wasn’t looking for anything, and you have to convince them that what you wrote is worth their time.
The third, the one that worries me most: the automatic rewriting of headlines by AI, already being tested in the United States. Virginie is right when she says it is dangerous ground.
A headline badly rewritten by AI is a problem of truth.
False accusations, deaths announced by mistake, distorted news: the damage to readers is immediate, the damage to reputation is lasting. Google bears an enormous responsibility here. And so do we, who work with content: we need to start guarding this ground with far more attention than we are giving it now.
And finally, reducing dependence on Google is increasingly a strategic necessity. If 90% of your traffic comes from Discover today, you are completely at the mercy of an algorithm that can change tomorrow morning without notice.
The solution is not to stop using Discover, but to build parallel channels that no one can take away from you: a newsletter with loyal readers, direct access to your site, a community that comes back because it wants to come back.
The traffic that comes from Google is rented.
The audience you build yourself is truly yours.
And so we come to the end of this episode of SEO Confidential. Our heartfelt thanks to Virginie for her clear and precise answers and for bringing us up to date on the situation in France. See you in the next episode! As always, I will keep introducing you to the ideas and viewpoints of the world’s most authoritative SEO experts.
See you soon.
