How BJPenn sharpened its Google Discover strategy to earn 44% more clicks

About BJPenn

Founded in 2001 by UFC legend B.J. Penn, BJPenn.com is an independent MMA news publisher with more than two decades of experience covering the sport. Its editorial team publishes a high volume of timely coverage spanning breaking news, major events, fighter stories, results, rankings, and interviews across UFC, ONE Championship, and the broader MMA world.

That fast-moving approach is built for an audience that wants to stay current as stories develop, with coverage centered on the fighters, events, and conversations driving interest across the sport.

Making an unpredictable channel more intentional

MMA news moves quickly. A fighter announcement, post-fight reaction, or development around a major event can change what fans want to read within hours. For BJPenn, that creates a natural opportunity in Google Discover, but it also makes visibility difficult to predict.

With search traffic becoming more volatile, BJPenn wanted to make its Google Discover strategy more intentional. The goal was to better understand what was working and build a more intentional strategy around it—not to make Discover more predictable.

Rather than optimize for one breaking news story at a time, the team wanted a practical framework for strengthening Discover readiness across its coverage without slowing down its fast-moving publishing process.

Why BJPenn chose Raptive

BJPenn moved from Freestar to Raptive in September 2025, looking for a more transparent, hands-on partnership. Beyond strong ad performance, the team wanted a strategic partner that could help grow their audience, uncover new opportunities, and support the broader business.

As part of that ongoing partnership, BJPenn and Raptive’s SEO team held a focused working session in January 2026. In this session, the teams evaluated the site’s Google Discover strategy to uncover opportunities for improving performance.

The team reviewed BJPenn’s performance, looked for patterns in what was gaining traction, and identified practical ways to strengthen its content strategy and site experience.

Developing a repeatable Google Discover strategy

Raptive’s SEO team defined three areas BJPenn could consistently evaluate as part of its publishing process during their joint working session. 

“Rather than changing what BJPenn covered, we focused on helping the team better package and present the stories most likely to succeed in Google Discover,” said Stephanie Adamo, Raptive’s Manager of SEO Solutions.

1. Strengthen trust and transparency

The teams reviewed signals that give readers and platforms more context about who is publishing a story and why the source is credible.

That included clear author pages, visible bylines and timestamps, and an accessible masthead. For a breaking news publisher producing content quickly, those foundational signals help reinforce transparency across the site.

2. Improve story presentation

The strategy also looked at how each story appears to readers before they click.

Raptive and BJPenn focused on social metadata and image strategy, including how large, compelling visuals can help stories stand out in Discover.

For a publisher covering a highly visual, personality-driven sport, strong images and previews are important for capturing attention and encouraging reader engagement.

3. Prioritize timely audience interest

Finally, the teams looked closely at the stories already gaining traction in Discover to understand what they had in common.

Many of BJPenn’s strongest performers centered on fighters, events, and news cycles already drawing significant fan interest. The objective was to better recognize when a timely story had strong Discover potential. Then, they’d ensure the way it was presented supported that opportunity.

Following the strategy session, Scott and the BJPenn team strengthened author attribution and article bylines. They also continued to prioritize timely coverage of major fighters, UFC events, and other high-interest MMA storylines.

More Discover visibility and clicks within 90 days

In the 90 days after the strategy session, BJPenn saw meaningful gains in Google Discover.

The gains weren’t limited to impressions. BJPenn also saw substantially more Discover clicks, turning greater visibility into more traffic during the 90-day comparison period.

Many of the site’s strongest Discover performers also aligned with the patterns discussed during the strategy session, including timely coverage tied to major fighters, events, and high-interest storylines.

For BJPenn, the results showed the value of regularly reviewing what’s gaining traction, applying those insights to future coverage, and taking a more deliberate approach to Discover over time.

The broader impact of the partnership

Despite having a higher revenue share with Freestar, BJPenn has consistently earned more revenue per pageview since moving to Raptive.

That improvement is reflected in the site’s RPM performance. Estimated year-to-date RPM was 44% higher year-over-year, and during the 90 days following the Discover strategy session, RPM was 56% higher than the same period a year earlier, when BJPenn was with Freestar.

Those gains came even as BJPenn saw a decline in valuable U.S. traffic, making the performance especially notable.

Together, the results reflected the broader partnership BJPenn was looking for. Raptive helped support audience growth, stronger monetization, and a better reader experience as connected parts of the business rather than separate priorities.

Building a more repeatable Discover process

Google Discover will always be unpredictable, but BJPenn can now focus on the factors within its control and take a more intentional approach to each story. The team has a repeatable set of signals to consider as it publishes:

• Is the topic connected to what readers care about right now?
• Is the author’s context strong?
• Does the preview accurately represent the story?
• Is the image compelling? 

By learning from what performs and applying those insights to future coverage, BJPenn can make more informed decisions about its approach to Discover.

That gives the team a stronger framework for evaluating opportunities as MMA news cycles shift and audience interest changes.

BJPenn’s experience shows how deep audience knowledge, paired with focused guidance, can turn timely coverage into a more intentional Google Discover strategy.

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