In 2026, This is How You Increase Google Website Traffic

If you have a website and you want more traffic, from Google. From social media. From anywhere. What I'm about to break down is going to be the most important thing you've read in ages.

Here's why.

There is something you can do.

It'll take you about an hour.

And it separates you from every AI-generated piece on the internet. It's not theory. It's structural. It's based on how you set up your site and how you publish. And it gives you a massive advantage. Even if you're starting from absolute zero today.

It's based on the thing I've been talking about forever.

Trust.

Not the kind of trust you're thinking of. Not the warm fuzzy kind between two people. I mean the kind of trust you build into your website.

With a file.
With a structure.

Something the algorithm can actually measure. Something that gives you a dramatic boost over everyone else publishing online.

You need to turn this on immediately. This advantage compounds over time. This is your opportunity.

Most people will never know about it. Google has a framework called E-E-A-T. You can use it to survive the AI slop filter. Most won't realize it exists until it's too late. After they've been demonetized. De-indexed. Completely wiped off the map.

So what is E-E-A-T? Let me break it down. And pay attention. Because what I'm about to explain changes how you think about every single piece of content you publish.

Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It's the framework Google's own quality raters use to evaluate content on the internet.

And yes. Google uses real humans called Search Quality Raters to assess whether your content meets these standards. It's not just an algorithm. There are actual people checking.

Here's what each letter means in plain language.

Experience. "I've done this." You've actually used the product. Visited the place. Lived the thing you're writing about. It's content backed by real-world doing. Not rewriting someone else's article.

Expertise. "I know this." Deep knowledge proven through credentials, training, or a track record. Experience is doing. Expertise is knowing. And here's what's powerful. When you're involved in the doing, that experience leads to expertise. It's a one-two punch.

Authority. Others recognize you. When other experts and reputable sites point to you as a go-to resource, that's authority. It's not something you claim. It's something you earn through consistency and being referenced by others.

Trust. The foundation. According to Google's own guidelines, "untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T no matter how experienced, expert, or authoritative they may seem."

Trust is the most important pillar. Without it, the rest doesn't matter.

This is how you slowly build up E-E-A-T over time. Experience leads to expertise. Expertise builds authority. And all of it compounds into trust. But here's the part most people miss. There's a way to accelerate this. Structurally. On your website. Right now.

If You're Just Getting Started

"I just don't have much."

I hear you. But the moment you get started and add the structure we're about to cover, you'll boost your score. Which gives you a far better chance of driving more views, being indexed, and ranking.

• You don't have to fake it.
• You don't have to buy links.
• You don't have to guest blog your way to authority.

You just show up and share your experience about a subject you care about.

That's it.

We're going to cover a lot of ground in this article. Don't think this has to be done all at once. Small steps over time really add up.

But first, let me show you what's happening right now. Because once you see the numbers, you'll understand why this matters more than ever.

Since July 2025, YouTube has demonetized more than 12 million channels. Wiped out an estimated $10 million in annual creator revenue. Overnight.

On LinkedIn, view counts have dropped 50% as the platform aggressively down ranks anything that looks engineered instead of human. On Google, sites under two years old now account for less than 2% of top 10 rankings. Authority domains with 15+ years of history dominate the rest.

Every major platform is sending the same message. And it all boils down to one question.

Can I trust this content? Can I trust this website?

That's the question the algorithm is asking. And it matters more now than it ever has before.

You should know. This article is written for both you, and for the Google algorithm. I'm not just writing about how to build trust with Google. I'm literally doing it on this page, right now. Everything I'm about to walk you through, step-by-step from the author page, the schema markup, the bio structure. I've already built it into this site.

You're looking at it in action.

This is just one more page of me trying to make it easy for the Google algorithm to trust this new domain and link it to my history online. You can do the same thing. And it'll all make sense as you continue to read.

So, by the end of this article, you'll know exactly how. So that when the Google bot comes crawling your site, the answer is a definitive yes. I can trust this site.

And it starts with understanding what just changed.

Google Ranking Factors in 2026

You've probably tried everything. Or simply read about these methods like me and thought no way I'm not spending time creating content on other platforms and so on. Backlinks. Social media posting. Content calendars. And the traffic needle barely moved.

It's not your fault. The rules changed. And nobody told you.

It's always been about three things. You and your content. The audience you want to connect with. And the algorithm standing in your way.

I've always said you have to honor the audience. But if you ignore the algorithm, you will get your ass handed to you.

And right now? The algorithm just got ruthless.

Back in 2013, I started writing a book called Trust Funnel. The premise was simple. Trust is the math behind everything online. I finished it in the summer of 2014. That same year, Google introduced E-A-T into their Search Quality Guidelines.

• Expertise
• Authority
• Trust

The algorithm was catching up to what I'd already figured out. To be fair, this is common marketing strategy and goodwill and it's been around forever. It's not like I invented it. But the fact of the matter is this, you can't ignore it. You can't try out to outsmart Google, or Facebook or YouTube.

For a long time, that's what it took, E.A.T. You needed to be an expert. You needed authority. You needed to be trusted. That was hard. Especially if you were just getting started.

Then in 2022, Google added a letter. E-A-T became E-E-A-T. And things changed. A lot. But the real earthquake? That hit just weeks ago.

This is How to Survive the AI Slop Filter

In March 2026, they cranked up the signal harder than ever. Giving those in the know a huge advantage. Anybody can do it. But it takes guts.

The Trust Funnel was never about tricks. It was about understanding that trust is the currency. In 2014 that was theory. In 2026 it's code. Google literally measures it now. And you can add that trust directly to your website as a JSON file. More on that in a minute.

But first. Let me show you what this looks like when it actually works.

Increase Traffic & Engagement with Experience

A week and a half ago I wrote a story about Frank Kern. My thoughts. My ideas. My marketing experience. All tied together. 20,000+ people read it. The comments were insane.

To be fair, a couple people called me out because I wrote it with AI. But here's what they don't understand. I used my own writing framework. A framework based on ensuring my personal experience is wrapped around the whole piece. It was relatable. It worked. And people responded.

Big time.

You can do the same thing.

I'm dyslexic. I've left a trail of typos visible from space. People love to correct me. And yet I've done well online. Typos and all. I'm mentioning this to let you know it's not about perfection. You don't have to be anything than what you already are. Authentically you.

Doing that allowed me to quit my day job back in 2003 and never looked back. AI helps me clean that up. AI helps me be more prolific without ever losing sight of who I am and what I stand for. It's not about perfection. It's not about push button content, creation, either. It's about presence and experience. And over time, that experience leads to expertise and even more trust. The stuff all most important site value, sites like YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and yes, Google.

That's the human side. Now let me show you the machine side. Because what Google did in March 2026 changes the game for anyone paying attention.

Google Update March 2026: Rewarding the One Thing You Already Have

Here's what Google actually did in March 2026. They rolled out a core update on March 27th. Within days, over 55% of tracked websites saw ranking changes. Sites without clear author credentials or first-person experience markers got hit the hardest.

And here's what they turned down. The old playbook.

Keyword density? Dead. An analysis of 1,536 Google search results found zero correlation between keyword density and ranking. The average keyword density of a top 10 result is 0.04%. Basically nothing

Backlinks? Google literally dropped the word "important" from their own documentation about links in March 2026. Links are now "a signal." Not "an important signal." So if it's not keywords. And it's not backlinks. What is it? What do they actually reward now?

What Actually Matters in 2026

Links aren't dead.

But they don't hold the same weight they used to.

What matters more is what's behind the link. Personal insights. Web properties that are uniquely yours. A YouTube channel, a website, a podcast. Places where you share your actual experience. The stuff ai can't generate.

Citations matter. Being mentioned, featured, referenced, quoted. Those are trust signals. Google is looking for proof that you exist across the web as a real person with a real track record. Not a link farm. Not a bot. A human with properties and experience that can be verified. This is the Trust Funnel at its core. Building trust across multiple touchpoints so everything points back to you.

So what actually works?

Your website has to anchor your experience. And it's as simple as building one single page. Your author page. Link it the right way. Link out to your properties. Link in from every post. Add the JSON code that maps your identity for Google.

That's it.

Then you structure the rest of your site around that authority. And the way you do that? It's a strategy most people have never heard of. But once you see it, you can't unsee it.

SEO to Increase Website Traffic in 2026

Here's how it works. Google doesn't just rank individual pages anymore. It ranks websites as entities. It's not about one article doing well. It's about your entire site building authority around a focused subject.

This is literally the niche website concept all over again. It's funny how the things that mattered back when I wrote Trust Funnel are still the things that matter today. Stay in your lane. Go deep. Don't spread yourself thin.

I could easily talk about a million things when it comes to AI. But I don't. I stay focused on content creation, digital marketing, and using AI to amplify both. Not as a push-button solution. With experience. Google needs to understand that I have authority and expertise in this space. If I start writing about random AI topics that have nothing to do with my core subject, I dilute that signal.

Staying focused is the foundation. But there's a specific way to connect your content together that supercharges the whole thing.

Hub and Spoke: The Linking Strategy That Changes Everything

How you structure your site matters even more than the content itself. There's a powerful linking strategy called hub and spoke. The idea is simple.

You create broad, in-depth pieces. Your hubs. These are big articles with real depth for the reader. Then you create supporting articles. Your spokes. Each spoke links back to the hub. Each spoke goes deeper into a specific angle.

Here's an example. I have one article on this site about content creation using Claude. It covers seven frameworks that are personal to me. Over 3,000 words of real depth.

I know what people want is a push-button solution. But that article took me a couple hours to write with Claude's help. It used to take me three to four days on my own. Trust Funnel took months. Tube Ritual took weeks. Locked away by myself. AI speeds up the process without losing my identity or experience. It's just done in a new way.

Now when I write about other content creation strategies using Claude, I can link back to that hub. And that helps Google understand. This page matters. This is what this site is about.

This article you're reading right now? It's a hub too. It's about the power of trust and authority, how to build it over time, and how to literally do it mechanically in an afternoon. The right site structure, the right JSON file, your author page, and more.

When I launched this domain, I started by targeting somewhere between four and seven hubs in the first month. Then I publish a new article every other day. A spoke about a specific topic. A new AI model. A new skill I created for content creation. Whatever fits. And each spoke links back to a hub.

Research shows that sites with strong topical authority gain traffic 57% faster than those without. And when you hit 25+ articles in a single tightly connected cluster, keyword rankings increase by 40-70% within 3-6 months.

This isn't about manipulation. It's not gray hat or black hat. It's just understanding what Google rewards. Imagine two pieces of identical content. One on a site with a powerful hub and spoke structure. One with no structure at all. Same words.

Completely different results.

Now here's where it gets real. These are the exact steps. The ones I've already done on this site. The ones you can copy today.

The long game starts right now with these steps. Here's the exact setup I'm using. Copy this.

Step 1: Create Your Author Page. Don't Call It "Author."

Look at the top navigation of this site. You won't see a link that says "Author" or "About." You'll see my name. Brian G. Johnson. When you click it, the URL isn't /author. It's /brian-g-johnson. That's my entity name.

That's what Google indexes.

Your author page should be filled with information the crawlers can verify. YouTube channels. Podcasts. Articles you've been featured in. Anything that connects you to the broader web.

That's the foundation. But there's a piece of code you can add that takes it to a whole different level.

Step 2: Add Schema Markup (The Code Behind the Scenes)

If you really want to take it to the next level, add special code to your website called JSON-LD schema. It's a little technical, but here's what it does. And if you're not sure how to get started, this is the perfect kind of thing for AI. I could have this done for you in a manner of moments.

JSON-LD schema, it hands Google a literal map. My code tells the bots, "The person who owns this site is the same person with the YouTube channels, the same person featured on Social Media Examiner." It connects the dots so Google doesn't have to guess.

The author page tells Google who you are. The schema proves it. But there's one more piece that ties every article you publish back to your identity.

Step 3: Write a Trust Bio for Every Post

Every time you write an article, you need a bio at the bottom. Write it in third person. Focus on your authority, your accolades, and your experience.

That bio needs two specific links. Your picture links directly to your author page. So bots crawl straight to your verified info. And a text link back to your homepage. On mine it says "Brian writes at Future Creators." That creates a closed loop. Every piece of content you publish pushes authority back to your author page and your homepage.

Author page. Schema. Bio. Those three build the machine. Now you need to feed it.

Step 4: Publish Your Experience on Your Own Domain

This is where you build your history for the machine. Every post is a new brick in your foundation. Spamming the search engines is the very thing that wiped out those 12 million YouTube channels we talked about at the top of this article. It's the exact thing that's going to wipe out millions of people who flood Google with AI slop.

You don't have to do that. You just have to prove you're real.

And once you're publishing, there's one more thing that multiplies the whole system.

Step 5: Share It on Social Media

One idea becomes multiple pieces across multiple platforms. Take your article, share the core idea on Facebook. Pull a quote for LinkedIn. Turn it into a YouTube video. Every touchpoint reinforces your experience signal. For the humans and the algorithm.

How to Increase Website Traffic in 2026

"Brian, that's great for you. You've got 25 years of history online. I'm starting from scratch."

It doesn't matter.

You don't need 25 years. AI has zero history. Zero experience. Zero identity. The moment you publish your actual point of view on your own domain, you are starting your clock. You are giving Google an entity to track and giving humans a reason to care. Day one, you already have more than any bot ever will.

Yes, this takes time to set up. Building your author page, learning about JSON-LD schema, structuring your site. That's real work. But once it's done, it's done. Adding an article once a week isn't that time-consuming. Especially if you're already making content for YouTube or a podcast. You already have the words. Take a transcript, feed it into an article, wrap your experience around it. You're not creating more work. You're showing up in more places with what you already have.

So get started. Add your author page. Set up the JSON-LD code. Pick a subject. Execute. Small steps over time really add up. And the long game is the only game that's left.

I dare you to make it happen.

Publish something real.

Brian G. Johnson

Content strategist, author of Trust Funnel and Tube Ritual, and YouTube Silver Play Button recipient with over 25 years of experience helping creators build audiences online. He writes at FutureCreators.tv.