Yesterday, Eddie Shleyner wrote an article about how to increase your Google traffic with easy writing techniques. You can also increase your Google traffic by making your Google results stand out from the pack visually. Remember, you only have one second to convince most readers that your website is worth their time--make your first impression count.

5) Google Product Ratings

Google may display product ratings (1-5 stars) in its unpaid search results if you have customer reviews encoded with rich snippets. For example:

How to Improve Your ROI with Ratings: 

If your reviews are favorable, having reviews featured in your Google results usually increases clickthrough rate by 20-30%. Strong reviews help show that your company is trustworthy and popular, and the golden stars stand out enough to catch many readers’ attention even if the reviewed website isn’t the top result. If your team is technically savvy, I’d recommend checking out Schemas for more advice about how to implement rich snippets. If Schemas are too advanced, I’d recommend encouraging your users to leave reviews on your Google Places page.

 6) Videos

If your page has a video, Google may include the video in the organic search results. For example:

How to Improve Your ROI with Videos: 

Adding a video to your search results will generally increase your clickthrough rate dramatically, especially on informational searches (e.g. hydraulic pump installation instructions). Readers are more likely to notice the picture than they would notice a text-only result. In addition, if Google is only showing a video next to your result, Google users may interpret that as a vote of confidence from Google.

To make sure that Google and Yahoo can easily access your video content, Google recommends adding a few lines of markup to your video pages.

7) Google+

If a Google searcher has followed you on Google+, your results will show higher.

How to Improve Your ROI With Google+

We strongly recommend that you ask your customers/readers to follow you on Google+. This will help promote repeat business down the road by increasing the likelihood that Google shows these readers your listings in the future. Additionally, if your website is popular on Google+, Google will incorporate that into your listings as well, which helps establish that you’re credible and professional.

Grab the reader’s attention with this space by including unique, intriguing and/or exciting information that’s relevant to the search term (which, again, will appear bolded). Talk about an award you’ve won; an exciting sale or promotion you’re having; or any other evidence that expresses your credibility.

8) Google Authorship

If you’ve signed up for Google Authorship, Google may display a picture of the author next to any articles.

How to Improve Your ROI With Google Authorship

Signing up for Google Authorship is very easy and can make a significant impact in marketing your content. If your author is popular on Google+, Google will mention how often he/she has been shared, which will help convince readers you’re your content is worth their time.

Lastly, having a picture of the author displayed next to your content will make it look more colorful and eye-catching. In addition, studies have shown that having an image of a human on a page generally increases conversion rate, so it’s reasonable to infer that having a picture of a human next to your search result will increase reader interest. As with any authorial photos, we recommend that the author dress professionally, incorporate some warm colors, and use a more interesting angle/orientation than directly facing the camera.

For more information, inquire with your SEO or visit Spectrum today!