How can we get Google links to get traffic?

Building links wasn't my strong suit. Writing outreach emails terrified me, and I had little experience creating killer content. Instead, I focused on the easy wins.

While off-page factors like links typically weigh more heavily than on-page efforts in Google's search results, SEOs today have a number of levers to pull in order to gain increased search traffic without ever building a link.

For experienced SEOs, many of these are established practices, but even the most optimized sites can improve in at least one or more of these areas.

1. In-depth articles

According to the MozCast Feature Graph, 6% of Google search results contain In-depth articles. While this doesn't seem like a huge numbers, the articles that qualify can see a significant increase in traffic. Anecdotally, we've heard reports of traffic increasing up to 10% after inclusion.How do you get more traffic to your website? 

Link building is hard, but it's not the only way to make traffic gains in Google's search results.

When I first started SEO, building links wasn't my strong suit. Writing outreach emails terrified me, and I had little experience creating killer content. Instead, I focused on the easy wins.

While off-page factors like links typically weigh more heavily than on-page efforts in Google's search results, SEOs today have a number of levers to pull in order to gain increased search traffic without ever building a link.

For experienced SEOs, many of these are established practices, but even the most optimized sites can improve in at least one or more of these areas.

1. In-depth articles

According to the MozCast Feature Graph, 6% of Google search results contain In-depth articles. While this doesn't seem like a huge numbers, the articles that qualify can see a significant increase in traffic. Anecdotally, we've heard reports of traffic increasing up to 10% after inclusion. Read More

By adding a few signals to your HTML, your high quality content could qualify to appear. The markup suggested by Google includes:

• Schema.org Article markup – NewsArticle works too)
• Google+ Authorship
• Pagination and canonicalization best practices
• Logo markup
• First click free – for paywall content

While Google seems to favor authorities news sites for In-depth Article inclusion, most sites that may qualify don't have the proper semantic markup implemented.

2. Improving user satisfaction

Can you improve your Google rankings by improving the onsite experience of your visitors?

In many ways the answer is "yes," and the experience of several SEOs hints that the effect may be larger than we realize.

We know that Google's Panda algorithm punishes "low-quality" websites. We also know that Google likely measures satisfaction as users click on search results.

"… Google could see how satisfied users were. … The best sign of their happiness was the "long click" – this occurred when someone went to a search result, ideally the top one, and did not return."

-Stephen Levy from his excellent book In the Plex

The idea is called pogosticking, or return-to-SERP, and if you can reduce it by keeping satisfied visitors on your site (or at least not returning to Google to look for the answer somewhere else) many SEOs believe Google will reward you with higher positions in search results.

Tim Grice of Branded3 reports a saying they have at their SEO agency:

"If you have enough links to be in the top 5, you have enough links to be position 1″

While we have no direct evidence of pogosticking in Google's search results, we've seen enough patents, interviews and analysis to believe it's possibly one of the most underutilized techniques in SEO today.

3. Rich snippets from structured data

Google constantly expands the types of rich snippets it shows in search results, including events, songs, videos and breadcrumbs.

The first time I heard about structured data was from a presentation by Matthew Brown at MozCon in 2011. Matthew now works at Moz, and I'm happy to glean from his expertise. His Schema 101 presentation below is well worth studying.

Link building is hard, but it's not the only way to make traffic gains in Google's search results.

When I first started SEO, building links wasn't my strong suit. Writing outreach emails terrified me, and I had little experience creating killer content. Instead, I focused on the easy wins.

While off-page factors like links typically weigh more heavily than on-page efforts in Google's search results, SEOs today have a number of levers to pull in order to gain increased search traffic without ever building a link.

For experienced SEOs, many of these are established practices, but even the most optimized sites can improve in at least one or more of these areas.

1. In-depth articles

According to the MozCast Feature Graph, 6% of Google search results contain In-depth articles. While this doesn't seem like a huge numbers, the articles that qualify can see a significant increase in traffic. Anecdotally, we've heard reports of traffic increasing up to 10% after inclusion.

By adding a few signals to your HTML, your high quality content could qualify to appear. The markup suggested by Google includes:

• Schema.org Article markup – NewsArticle works too)
• Google+ Authorship
• Pagination and canonicalization best practices
• Logo markup
• First click free – for paywall content

While Google seems to favor authorities news sites for In-depth Article inclusion, most sites that may qualify don't have the proper semantic markup implemented.

2. Improving user satisfaction

Can you improve your Google rankings by improving the onsite experience of your visitors?

In many ways the answer is "yes," and the experience of several SEOs hints that the effect may be larger than we realize.

We know that Google's Panda algorithm punishes "low-quality" websites. We also know that Google likely measures satisfaction as users click on search results.

"… Google could see how satisfied users were. … The best sign of their happiness was the "long click" – this occurred when someone went to a search result, ideally the top one, and did not return."

-Stephen Levy from his excellent book In the Plex

The idea is called pogosticking, or return-to-SERP, and if you can reduce it by keeping satisfied visitors on your site (or at least not returning to Google to look for the answer somewhere else) many SEOs believe Google will reward you with higher positions in search results.

Tim Grice of Branded3 reports a saying they have at their SEO agency:

"If you have enough links to be in the top 5, you have enough links to be position 1″

While we have no direct evidence of pogosticking in Google's search results, we've seen enough patents, interviews and analysis to believe it's possibly one of the most underutilized techniques in SEO today.

3. Rich snippets from structured data

Google constantly expands the types of rich snippets it shows in search results, including events, songs, videos and breadcrumbs.

The first time I heard about structured data was from a presentation by Matthew Brown at MozCon in 2011. Matthew now works at Moz, and I'm happy to glean from his expertise. His Schema 101 presentation below is well worth studying.

Schema and Open Graph 101 - SMX Munich from Matthew Brown

If you're just getting started, check out this amazingly helpful Guide to Generating Rich Snippets from the folks at SEOgadget.

Two of our favorite types of markup for increasing clicks are videos and authorship, so we'll discuss each below.

4. Video optimization

Pixel for pixel, video snippets capture more search real estate than any other type of rich snippet, even more than authorship photos. Studies show our eyes go straight to them.

Why More Website Traffic?

Website traffic is both an important indicator and driver of business growth. It can help you to:

• See how well your marketing is working

• Gather insights about your audience to make decisions

• Improve your SEO and search engine credibility

• Generate more leads, increase conversions, and get more customers

Yet achieving these benefits requires driving traffic to your website the right way, and a focus on driving quality traffic. In this post, we’ll cover free ways to drive traffic to your website in a way that impacts your bottom line.

Free Traffic vs Quality Traffic

Traffic to your website helps to improve your rank which in turn generates more traffic, but you want to make sure that the increase in traffic is associated with an increase in engagement as well.  If your traffic is increasing but your conversion rates are decreasing, you’re not bringing in the right traffic.

There are a number of ways to optimize your website for conversion—such as by including calls to action and lead capture forms in the right places, providing the information your visitors are seeking, and making navigation easy and intuitive. But the first step is to be attracting the right visitors to your site in the first place. Your goal when it comes to website traffic is to be driving more qualified visitors to your site. That is, those who are most likely to convert into leads and customers.

Channels that Drive Quality Traffic to Your Website

There isn’t one set-it-and-forget-it tool that generates free and high-quality website traffic to your website. Rather, there exists a mix of channels that work together to drive visitors. Some require effort, some require time, and some require money. Some of the strategies and channels that drive traffic to your website include:

• Online directory listings

• On-page SEO

• Off-page SEO

• Email

• Social media

• Online ads

• Blogging

In the next section we’ll go into more detail on the most effective (and reliable) ways of increasing website traffic for free.

Free Ways to Increase Website Traffic from Google

1. Create a Free Google My Business Listing

Did you know that an optimized Google My Business listing gets 7x more visits than an incomplete one? Don’t forget that your listing links to your website, so this is a great way to get more traffic to your website.

Keep in mind also that Google is getting smarter and smarter with results. If your listing provides all of the information a potential customer needs to make a decision, they might forego your website and contact/visit your business directly—even better than a website visit!