Key takeaways
- Web Stories are full-screen, tap-through stories that live on your own website.
- Google says they can appear in Search and Discover, but doesn’t guarantee they will.
- Google’s own advice: use video, keep text short, and follow its technical and policy rules.
- There is no guaranteed income from Web Stories. Treat any earnings as a bonus, not a plan.
This article is general information, not financial advice. Results vary, and nobody can promise traffic or earnings.
What are Web Stories?
Web Stories are visual, full-screen stories that readers tap through, a bit like the stories on social apps. The AMP project describes them as “visual storytelling for the open web,” and says the format is free and open. Unlike a social post, a Web Story is a web page on your own site.
You can make them without coding. Several editors exist, including the Web Stories plugin for WordPress.
Where they can appear
Google’s Search Central documentation says Web Stories can show up:
- In Google Search, as a single result, in all regions and languages where Search is available.
- In Google Discover, as a tappable card. Google says this is “most likely to appear in the United States, India, and Brazil.”
“Eligible” doesn’t mean “guaranteed.” Google describes the steps as ways to make a story eligible, not a promise that it will appear or rank.
What Google requires
To make a story eligible, Google says:
- The story must be valid AMP. Test it with the AMP Validator or the Web Stories test tool.
- It must include required metadata: title, publisher, publisher logo and a poster image.
- It must be canonical: each story points to itself as the preferred address.
- It must not be blocked from Google by robots.txt or a
noindextag. - Google must be able to find it: link to it from your site, or add it to your sitemap.
- It must follow Google’s Web Story content policies.
You can check a story’s status with Search Console’s URL Inspection tool and the Page Indexing report.
Google’s best-practice advice
Google sorts its advice into critical and recommended tasks. The critical ones include:
- Use video as much as possible, supported by images and text.
- Keep text short: about 280 characters per page, roughly a tweet.
- Avoid distracting or repetitive animations.
- Provide high-quality, complete content.
- Titles: under 90 characters, with under 70 recommended.
- Poster image: at least 640 × 853 pixels (3:4 ratio), with no text in it.
- Publisher logo: at least 96 × 96 pixels (1:1 ratio).
Recommended extras include sharing your own point of view, building a story arc from page to page, keeping each video under 15 seconds (60 at most), and adding alt text to images.
How to make your first one
- Pick a topic your readers care about. One idea per story.
- Plan 5 to 10 short pages: a cover, a few content pages, and a closing page that links to your full article.
- Create it in a Web Stories editor.
- Fill in the metadata: title, publisher name, logo and poster.
- Test it for valid AMP, then publish.
- Link to it from a relevant article or category page, and make sure it’s in your sitemap.
- Check Search Console after a few days to see whether it’s indexed.
Can you earn money from them?
Honestly, it depends, and there are no guarantees.
- The AMP project says stories can carry Story Ads (full-screen ads served through Google Ad Manager) and that publishers can add affiliate links to organic stories.
- Ad Manager is a different system from AdSense. We haven’t confirmed that AdSense can place ads inside Web Stories, so check Google’s current AdSense policies before you plan around it.
- If you use affiliate links, say so clearly. The FTC expects a disclosure wherever you link to products you earn from.
- Don’t trust income promises. Articles that claim “$200 to $500 a month” or “passive income” have no reliable source behind them. Traffic from Search or Discover can be small or zero, and Google can change how stories appear.
A realistic way to think about it: Web Stories are another way to present your content and possibly reach new readers. Make them because they help your readers, not as a quick income scheme.
Frequently asked questions
Are Web Stories only for mobile?
They’re designed for phones, but Google says you can add landscape support so they can appear in desktop results.
Do they replace articles?
No. A story works best as a short, visual companion that links to a fuller article.
Will my story show up in Discover?
Maybe. Google says Discover is most likely in the US, India and Brazil, but it doesn’t promise any story will appear.
Do I need the plugin?
No, you can use any tool that produces valid AMP stories. The plugin is one easy option.
Sources
- Google Search Central, Enable Web Stories on Google (updated July 2026)
- Google Search Central, Best practices for creating Web Stories (updated June 2026)
- AMP project, Web Stories
Money note: this article is for general information and is not financial advice.