There is no way to Limit Content Just for Discover Feed, Google States

“Google Confirms: No Option to Block Content Exclusively from Discover Feed, Unlike News – Highlights Limitations in Crawling Control”

You cannot prevent specific content from crawling for Google Discover, although content blocking is available for Google News.

Google officials confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that blocking content from appearing in Google Discover is impossible, even though such control is available for Google News.

The discussion was sparked by Lily Ray, who highlighted a recurring issue where certain content may not fit the Google News or Discover criteria but performs well in organic search results. Ray remarked:

“We’ve encountered numerous cases with publisher clients where it would be beneficial to prevent specific content from crawling or indexing solely for Google News and Discover.

However, this content often excels in organic search, making it impractical to noindex it entirely.

This content frequently exists in a gray area concerning Google’s News and Discover guidelines but still generates significant SEO traffic. We’ve observed that an overabundance of such content can negatively impact Discover’s performance over time.

Outside of SafeSearch guidelines, has Google considered implementing a way to exclude individual pages from News or Discover?”

Google’s Response

In response to Lily Ray’s inquiry, Google’s Search Liaison referred to the existing methods for blocking content from Google News. However, after consulting with John Mueller from Google’s Search Relations team, the Liaison confirmed that these methods do not apply to Google Discover.

The Search Liaison commented:

“John [Mueller] and I discussed this, and we’re fairly certain there isn’t an option to block content solely from Discover.”

Acknowledging the potential benefit of such a feature, he added:

“That would be useful, so we’ll pass this feedback along.”

What Does This Mean?

Google’s admission underscores a gap in publishers’ ability to control how Google crawls their content.

While there are tools to manage content for Google News and organic search results, the absence of similar controls for Google Discover presents a significant challenge. Google’s Search Liaison acknowledges the potential for more granular controls but notes no immediate plans to introduce content-blocking features for Discover.

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