Google’s February 2026 Discover Core Update: What It Means for Your Business and How to Adapt

By Project Manager: Lawrence
Phoenix Wise Google Search Engine Optimization
Google's February 2026 Discover Core Update: What It Means for Your Business and How to Adapt 2

Google’s February 2026 Discover Core Update: What It Means for Your Business and How to Adapt

If your website traffic has shifted in the past two weeks and you are not sure why, there is a good chance Google’s February 2026 Discover Core Update is the reason. Rolled out on February 5, this is one of the most significant changes Google has made to how content appears in Discover feeds — and it directly affects how potential customers find your business online.

Here is what changed, why it matters, and what you should do about it.

What Is Google Discover (and Why Should You Care)?

Before diving into the update, let’s clarify what Discover actually is. Unlike traditional Google Search where users type a query, Google Discover is a personalized content feed that appears in the Google app and on mobile devices. It proactively recommends articles, videos, and web pages based on a user’s interests, browsing history, and location. Google’s official Discover documentation outlines how content is selected and surfaced to users.

For businesses, Discover represents a significant source of organic traffic, often from users who were not actively searching for your services but are exactly the kind of people who need them. Losing visibility in Discover means losing access to potential customers before they even know they need you.

The Three Big Changes in the February 2026 Update

As reported by Search Engine Journal and SE Roundtable, Google’s announcement highlighted three core shifts:

1/ Local Relevance Is Now a Dominant Signal

      Discover now prioritizes content from websites based in the user’s country and aligned with their language and regional interests. This is a major win for local and regional businesses. If you are a Toronto-based web design agency writing about topics relevant to Canadian businesses, your content now has a stronger chance of appearing in Discover feeds for users in your area.

      What to do: Make sure your website clearly signals your geographic location. Update your Google Business Profile, include location-specific content on your site, and write about topics that matter to your local audience — not just generic industry content.

      2/ Clickbait and Thin Content Are Being Aggressively Demoted

        Google is explicitly targeting sensational headlines, misleading titles, and content that overpromises and underdelivers. If your blog posts have attention-grabbing titles but shallow substance underneath, expect a drop in Discover traffic.

        What to do: Audit your existing content. Every article should deliver on the promise of its headline. If a title says “5 Ways to Improve Your Website Speed,” the article needs to contain five genuinely useful, actionable methods — not vague advice padded with filler text.

        3/ Topic-Level Expertise Over Domain Authority

          This is perhaps the most important shift. Google is no longer just looking at your overall domain authority. Instead, it evaluates expertise topic by topic. A multi-service business can earn Discover visibility in areas where it demonstrates consistent depth, even if it does not have massive overall authority.

          What to do: Focus your content strategy on your core areas of expertise. If you specialize in WordPress development and website security, create a substantial body of high-quality content around those topics rather than writing superficially about everything.

          E-E-A-T: The Framework Behind the Update

          All three changes align with Google’s E-E-A-T framework — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google introduced the additional “E” for Experience in December 2022, as explained in their official Search Central blog post. This is not new, but the February 2026 update makes it clear that E-E-A-T is now being applied more granularly than ever.

          Here is what E-E-A-T looks like in practice:

          • Experience: Content written by people who have actually done the work. A blog post about migrating a website to a new host is more valuable when written by someone who has performed dozens of migrations, not someone summarizing a tutorial.
          • Expertise: Demonstrated knowledge in a specific field. This means going deeper than surface-level advice and providing insights that only a practitioner would know.
          • Authoritativeness: Recognition from others in your industry. This comes from backlinks, mentions, and citations from reputable sources.
          • Trustworthiness: Accurate information, transparent business practices, secure website (HTTPS), and clear contact information.

          Google’s guidelines on creating helpful, people-first content provide a detailed self-assessment framework that every website owner should review after this update.

          What This Means for Small and Medium Businesses

          If you are running a small or medium business, this update is actually good news, if you are doing things right. You do not need a massive marketing budget or thousands of backlinks to appear in Discover. What you need is:

          • Genuine expertise in your field, demonstrated through your content
          • Local relevance that connects your business to the community you serve
          • Consistency in publishing quality content on your core topics
          • Honest, clear headlines that accurately represent what the reader will find

          The businesses that will lose Discover traffic are those relying on recycled content, generic advice copied from competitors, or SEO tricks designed to game the system rather than serve the reader.

          Action Steps: What to Do This Week

          1. Audit your recent content. Does every piece demonstrate genuine expertise? Remove or improve anything that feels thin or generic.
          2. Strengthen your local signals. Update your Google Business Profile, add location pages if you serve multiple areas, and reference local context in your content where appropriate.
          3. Review your headlines. Are they accurate? Would a reader feel satisfied after clicking through? Fix any that overpromise.
          4. Plan topic clusters. Identify 3-5 core topics where your business has genuine expertise. Create a content calendar focused on building depth in those areas.
          5. Check your technical foundation. Make sure your site loads fast — Google recommends a Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, as outlined in their Core Web Vitals documentation (https://web.dev/articles/vitals). Ensure your site works well on mobile and has proper indexing set up. Technical issues can block all other optimizations.

          The Bottom Line

          Google’s February 2026 Discover Core Update is not about penalizing websites. It is about rewarding the ones that genuinely serve their audience with original, expert-driven, locally relevant content. The businesses that will thrive are those that treat their website as a knowledge resource, not a billboard.

          If your traffic has dropped and you are not sure where to start, a professional audit can identify exactly what needs to change. At Phoenix Wise Solutions, we help businesses adapt to algorithm changes with strategies built for long-term growth, not short-term tricks.