There are many dynamics that affect what appears on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
In the current way that Google describes search results, SERPs can include text results, visual results, rich elements, Exploration features, and more.
The more space and the more real estate you can have in the SERPs, the better your chances of getting the clicks and website traffic you want from your target audience.
An important and often overlooked aspect of SERPs, and your chance to gain visibility, is through sitelinks.
What Are Sitelinks?
Sitelinks are additional links or navigational elements for a specific website or domain that appear with text results or advertising results in the SERP.
More broadly, they are navigational in nature and allow searchers to see more than the way they can click on your site.
In today’s context-focused SEO and emphasis on user engagement and experience (which I fully embrace and agree with), sitelinks are a great way not only to own real estate, but also to get important clicks and have users stick when they are. land on your site.
In organic search, Google’s algorithm only shows sitelinks for pages it deems relevant and useful for users.
One of the benefits of sitelinks is that they can increase click-through rates (CTRs), because they increase the amount of real estate the text results have on the SERP. In doing so, they push down other results potentially below the fold, or out of view.
Sitelinks can increase the visibility of internal pages. Underperforming pages can see increased traffic if they appear as sitelinks on more popular pages.
Having sitelinks with your organic results and paid advertising is an important opportunity that is often overlooked.
CTRs, getting users to stick around, and matching them up to the content they want from us is very important for success in the SERPs.
Sitelinks can be a part of doing more with your positive rankings and further provide quality opportunities for searchers.
Types Of Sitelinks
There are several types of common sitelinks:
Inline Sitelinks
Inline sitelinks are typically shown as four links in a horizontal row below the primary search results.
Screenshot from Google, December 2022
Expanded Sitelinks
The version that may come to mind first for you – as it is not for me – has developed group sitelink.
They take up the most real estate in the SERP and appear as a list underneath the primary text (or organic) results. It also includes a description, which can be pulled from the meta description or text that Google has chosen to be relevant to the user’s search.
Screenshot from Google, December 2022
Search Box Sitelinks
A sitelink search box is a brief search box that appears below the primary text result. This allows users to access your site’s search engine directly.
Screenshot from Google, December 2022
Paid Sitelinks
This is tied to advertising and most can be controlled by the site owner.
Sitelinks can be created and added to relevant campaigns and ad groups and appear in the text ad link and especially copy.
Screenshot from Google, December 2022
Note that I have also seen other types of sitelinks in short-lived instances. A recent example is the horizontal, swipeable carousel of sitelinks on mobile that appears inactive or in the wild again.
How To Get Sitelinks
There is no way to tell Google to show sitelinks or add or remove them directly.
However, you have specific ways you can take action and implement best practices to try to capture and manage them indirectly.
Text Link Sitelinks Best Practices
For organic opportunities, the best practice to get sitelinks in text results starts with using informative, relevant, and concise page titles and headers on your website.
You will also want a site structure that users and bots can navigate efficiently.
That means making sure the page is important and relevant to be linked to from the page. Using breadcrumbs can also help Google understand the structure of our site, the relationship between pages, and the overall hierarchy.
Short and relevant anchor link text is also important to factor into your site and business.
Other Sitelink Types
If you’re advertising through Google Ads, you can easily get sitelinks by adding them to your ad group and campaign.
The sitelinks search box can be an interesting and useful tool for your site as well.
For the sitelinks search box to appear in your text results, you must have a functional search engine on your site where user queries go directly to the search results page. You also need to add the Website structured data to the home page that defines the SearchAction.
How To Remove Sitelinks Search Box
Instead, to remove the sitelinks search box from your site, you simply add this meta tag to your homepage:
Management
If an unwanted page is being shown as a sitelink, consider whether the page is really necessary at all.
If it should be indexed but is not relevant to the page in the results, consider how it is linked on the page.
Through indexing and physical linking, you can have some control over getting pages out of your sitelinks if they don’t belong or are not relevant.
In the past, there were tools in Google Webmaster Tools (precursor to Google Search Console) that would allow you to remove certain sitelinks, but their control was lost. Now, your best bet is to manage what links are actually on your site and how they are presented to users and search engines.
Conclusion
Owning as much real estate as possible in the SERPs for organic results is a key goal for SEO and can positively impact impressions and clicks to your site.
With many competing types of non-organic content in the SERPs, you want to have as much visibility and control as possible.
Sitelinks can give you more space, attract users to deeper links on your site, and provide more context to the searcher before they enter the site.
Featured image: MaximP / Shutterstock
In Google’s own words: We only show Sitelinks for results if we think they will be useful for users. If the structure of your site does not allow our algorithm to find good Sitelinks, or we do not think that the Sitelinks for your site are relevant to the user’s query, we will not show them.
How many sitelinks should you have?
How many callout extensions can you have? Depending on the character space, browser, and device you use, you can show up to 10 callouts.
How do I optimize sitelinks?
How to increase sitelinks for your site
- Provide a clear structure to your website, use relevant internal links and anchor text that is informative, compact, and avoids repetition.
- Allow Google to crawl and index important pages on your site.
How many sitelinks should I have?
You need at least 2 sitelinks (for desktop), and at least one sitelink (for mobile) for sitelinks to appear in ads. The number of sitelinks that can appear varies depending on where we are served the ad: Desktop: Your ad can show up to 6 sitelinks.
Are sitelinks important?
Rich Site Links are fundamentally important in the overall SEO strategy because they are obviously useful for users, and a good way for Google to show a variety of deeper content that allows users to quickly navigate to the site’s sections and their content types. want to visit
Why would an advertiser use sitelinks?
Description: advertisers must use sitelinks to provide quick access to multiple pages of the advertiser’s website. Sitelinks can take people to specific pages on your site—your store hours, specific products, or more. Sitelinks will display in different ways depending on device, position, and other factors.
What’s the benefit of using sitelink extension?
The sitelink extension allows you to display additional links below your ads, allowing you to direct users to the most relevant pages on your website. There are several benefits of displaying sitelink extensions alongside your adverts: Allows you to fill more space on the first page of Google.
How many sitelinks can a campaign have?
Desktop: Your ad can show up to 6 sitelinks. Sitelinks can appear on the same line or fill up to two lines of your ad. Mobile: Your ad can show up to eight sitelinks.
How many sitelink extensions does Google recommend per campaign?
Search Sitelinks Campaign For sitelinks in the search campaign, at least two sitelinks will appear on the desktop. But you can also show up to six sitelinks. On mobile, at least one sitelink will appear.
Can a sitelink have a different domain?
Note: While links should usually point to the same domain as the ad URL, we do allow links to point to third-party sites, under limited circumstances. Some examples include links to select online retailers (Amazon, Best Buy), Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube videos, LinkedIn profiles, or Instagram accounts.
Where are sitelinks on Google ads?
Sitelinks appear below your ad text, helping customers find what they’re looking for on your site with just one click. Sitelinks appear in ads above and below Google search results. You can add sitelinks when you create your campaign in Google Ads.
How do I see sitelinks in Google Ads? Sign in to your Google Ads account. Click Ads and assets in the page menu on the left, then click Assets from the drop-down menu. You will now find a table with all your assets. Click the add button, then click Sitelink.
How do I manage Google sitelinks?
Prevent campaigns or ad groups from displaying sitelinks
- Navigate to the Google Ads campaign or ad group where you want to manage sitelinks. …
- Click the Extensionsâ¼ tab and select Sitelinks.
- Above the reporting table, click Manage sitelink extensions.
- Click on the applicable option: …
- Click Apply.
How do I show sitelinks on Google?
You can add sitelinks at the “account”, “campaign”, or “ad group” level. You specify the text of the link (what it shows to people) and the URL (the page they click). In some cases, Google may add a link to your site with a description that you have provided about the page.
Where do sitelinks appear?
Sitelinks are links shown below your snippet description in Google Search Results that point to other pages on your website. Sitelinks are automated by Google’s algorithm and are only displayed when they are useful to the user.
Why are my sitelinks not showing?
We only show sitelinks for results if we think they will be useful for users. If the structure of your site does not allow our algorithm to find good sitelinks, or we do not think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant to the user’s query, we will not show them.
How do sitelinks appear?
Sitelinks are links shown below your snippet description in Google Search Results that point to other pages on your website. Sitelinks are automated by Google’s algorithm and are only displayed when they are useful to the user.
How does Google choose sitelinks?
âWe only show sitelinks for results if we think it will be useful for users. If the structure of your site does not allow our algorithm to find good sitelinks, or we do not think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant to the user’s query, we will not show them.
What are the sitelink requirements for Google Ads? You need at least 2 sitelinks (for desktop), and at least one sitelink (for mobile) for sitelinks to appear in ads. The number of sitelinks that can appear varies depending on where we are served the ad: Desktop: Your ad can show up to 6 sitelinks.
How are sitelinks implemented?
How to apply sitelinks search box
- Install a search engine that works on your website or Android app. …
- Implement a Website structured data element on the home page for your site. …
- Follow the directions.
- Validate your code using Rich Results Testing.
How does Google choose sitelinks?
These are the pages that Google considers most relevant based on your website’s structure, content, and intended search terms. The pages that Google chooses for sitelinks are often product pages, price pages, about pages or blogs, which help users to find out more about the website or company.
How do sitelink extensions work?
Sitelink Extension: This extension displays an additional link to your website below your ad. These site links can be information pages, product pages, or blog posts. Sitelinks can help increase the click-through rate (CTR) of your ad.
How are sitelinks implemented?
How to apply sitelinks search box
- Install a search engine that works on your website or Android app. …
- Implement a Website structured data element on the home page for your site. …
- Follow the directions.
- Validate your code using Rich Results Testing.
How does Google choose sitelinks? These are the pages that Google considers most relevant based on your website’s structure, content, and intended search terms. The pages that Google chooses for sitelinks are often product pages, price pages, about pages or blogs, which help users to find out more about the website or company.
How do sitelink extensions work?
Sitelink Extension: This extension displays an additional link to your website below your ad. These site links can be information pages, product pages, or blog posts. Sitelinks can help increase the click-through rate (CTR) of your ad.
How does sitelinks work?
Sitelinks appear below eligible ads that play before, during, or after another video on YouTube. Sitelinks only appear below eligible ads on mobile devices. You need at least 2 sitelinks for sitelinks to appear in ads. Your ad can show up to 4 sitelinks.
Do sitelinks always show both descriptions?
All sitelinks (a headline with two lines of description) are usually displayed when an ad is in the first or second ad position in the SERP, while the ad in the lower ad position can only show the headline (blue clickable text) or may not show the sitelink. all.
How are sitelinks generated?
Sitelinks are links from the same domain that are clustered together in web results. Our system analyzes the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they are looking for. Note: The actual appearance in the search results may be different.
What are sitelinks in ads?
Sitelinks help users land on your website, directly from Google Ads ads. Sitelinks appear below your ad text, helping customers find what they’re looking for on your site with just one click. Sitelinks appear in ads above and below Google search results.
What is an example of a sitelink extension? What Is Sitelink Extension? Sitelinks are additional links that you include in PPC (pay-per-click) advertising to take people directly to specific pages on your website. It is a type of Google advertising extension (now called âassetâ advertising). It shows additional information in your ad.
What does a sitelink text look like?
Once you set up sitelinks, they will appear below your ad text giving your users up to eight additional links to click. Sitelinks contain three elements – a headline (link text) and two lines of description. The title appears as clickable text and has a 25 character limit.
How do sitelinks appear?
Google sitelinks appear in the first search results on search engine results pages (SERPs). They are internal links to the website, given a short description. Sitelinks are often found when running a brand search and they help users to navigate around your website.
What is a SiteLink extension example?
What Is Sitelink Extension? Sitelinks are additional links that you include in PPC (pay-per-click) advertising to take people directly to specific pages on your website. Here’s an example: It’s a type of Google ad extension (now called âassetâ advertising). It shows additional information in your ad.
Why would an advertiser use sitelinks?
Description: advertisers must use sitelinks to provide quick access to multiple pages of the advertiser’s website. Sitelinks can take people to specific pages on your site—your store hours, specific products, or more. Sitelinks will display in different ways depending on device, position, and other factors.
Are sitelinks important?
Rich Site Links are fundamentally important in the overall SEO strategy because they are obviously useful for users, and a good way for Google to show a variety of deeper content that allows users to quickly navigate to the site’s sections and their content types. want to visit
What is the purpose of sitelinks?
Sitelinks are links from the same domain that are clustered together in web results. Our system analyzes the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they are looking for.
How many sitelinks should you have?
A classic mistake that I see quite regularly is not having enough sitelinks per ad group or campaign. The maximum number of sitelinks that Google will show is 4 on desktop devices and 6 on mobile devices. Make sure that you have at least as much as this in each ad group / campaign otherwise your sitelinks may not show.
Are sitelinks important?
Rich Site Links are fundamentally important in the overall SEO strategy because they are obviously useful for users, and a good way for Google to show a variety of deeper content that allows users to quickly navigate to the site’s sections and their content types. want to visit
How many sitelinks can a campaign have?
Desktop: Your ad can show up to 6 sitelinks. Sitelinks can appear on the same line or fill up to two lines of your ad. Mobile: Your ad can show up to eight sitelinks.