Image generated with AI. Art direction: Grafica.
Google Discover is the feed of articles in the Google app and on many Android home screens. The reader does not search for anything. Google decides what appears. Because of that, it matters what a setup can and cannot deliver.
Three checks · our own 15 posts
On Google13 of 15
2 not indexed yet that day
Large preview allowed15 of 15
max-image-preview: large
Main image 1200 px or wider15 of 15
12 at 1600 px · 3 at 2500 px
Shown in Discover
0 impressions
29 Sep to 6 Oct 2026
Eligible does not mean chosen.
blog.grafica.group · read signed out and in our own Search Console account, 9 October 2026
What Google asks for
Google’s page on Discover, last updated on 9 March 2026, is short. A page can appear if Google has indexed it and it meets Discover’s content policies. No special tag or structured data is needed.
It then recommends, without requiring them, three things about images: an image at least 1200 pixels wide, a setting that allows large previews, and a picture that represents the article and is not the site’s logo. It also says that being eligible is no promise of being shown.
Our own reading
On 9 October 2026 we read the 15 posts this blog held that day from outside, signed out, and then in Search Console.
- On Google: 13 of 15. The other 2 were unknown to Google that day, one of them published that day. Those 2 cannot appear in Discover until they are indexed. This check comes first.
- Large preview allowed: 15 of 15.
- Main image: 1600 pixels wide or more on all 15. All above the 1200 Google recommends.
Search Console’s Discover report for this site, covering 29 September to 6 October 2026, showed 0 impressions.
That zero is not a verdict on the posts. The report ends on 6 October, three days before our reading. It is a starting line, not a result: 13 pages on Google with the settings in place, and no evidence yet that any has been shown. Eligible does not mean chosen.
Update, 10 October 2026: we read Search Console again. Both posts that were unknown to Google on 9 October are now on Google, and the Discover report, which now runs from 29 September to 8 October, still shows 0 impressions.
The part no setting gives
My position: a website has become cheaper to start and no cheaper to get right, and I read Discover the same way. The settings take an afternoon. Whether Google shows an article depends on the article and on who reads it, and that takes longer than an afternoon.
So I distrust anyone who sells Discover as a configuration. Our case study of a site whose first build took one day with AI tools makes the same point about speed: the first build was the fast part, and two more days of guidance made the finished site.
Three checks you can run on one page
- In Search Console, paste the address into URL inspection. If the page is not on Google, nothing else on this list matters yet.
- View the page source and search for max-image-preview. It should read «large».
- In the same source, search for og:image:width. Many sites declare their main image’s width there. The number should be 1200 or more, and the picture should not be your logo.
If all three pass, the main configuration is in place. Ask whoever offers you more of it what, exactly, is left to configure.
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