Google claims age restriction can prevent sites from appearing in Google Discover

Search Engine Optimization is the key to appearing in searches. But did you know the key to not appearing in searches? Age verification.

It has been brought to light through Twitter that sites that require age verification might not appear in Google Discover. Why? We are not sure ourselves but Danny Sullivan from Google seems to think so and has said that in his tweet. He also stated that this news is not confirmed yet however it has been three days since his tweet but there has been no answer.

To be exact, he wrote that he isn't sure about it and he will find it out but it is likely that age verification on sites does not appear in Google Discover.

This was a reply to a tweet by Lily Ray, where she broke down the organic traffic derived from websites into three parts. She explained how the traffic comes from the news (6.33%), Google Discover (44.62%), and SEO (49.05%). She then went ahead to inform that even though Google says that people cannot optimize content for Discover, there is always a pattern followed. If you follow it thoroughly, you are bound to get your site up there.

In discovering this pattern, she landed upon this query. So, she went ahead to ask if age restriction has any effect on sites appearing on Google Discover. Turns out it does. And hence we have our answer from Danny.

This question was originally asked by JC, directed to inquire about the limitation behind age restrictions related to searches. It was aimed at Lily, but since she did not know the answer, it was forwarded to Barry Adams. When he didn't know either, she asked Danny.

As for us, we have browsed different sites through Google Discover. But until this query was raised, we did not notice ever seeing the age restriction feature on sites that did show up there. Hence, we can conclude with evidence that age restriction does limit your reach.

Until Danny replies, we will stick to our conclusion and work smart.


H/T: Seroundtable

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