What Are Sitelinks? How to Influence Them
Site links are the links to the other pages that appear below some Google search results. These are meant to navigate the user to relevant information quickly. Sitelinks became official in 2006 after coming into existence in 2005.
Sitelinks have continued to evolve and their appearance has changed in Google, below are descriptions of different sitelinks.
Types of site links
Paid site links are those which are displayed as ads and it gives the freedom to control the text and URL length. This ability makes paid site links different from organic sitelinks. The organic site links appear most often in a branded search and there will be up to six in number which appear at the top of the search. For different types of queries, there are organic online site links. Online site links contain four links. An organic sitelinks search box is where the user can dive directly into search results. It is an automatic feature from Google and you can add structured data so that your audience can discover your brand.
Importance of site links
Site links will help you direct your users to better and faster information when they are looking at your website.
Influencing site links
Algorithms developed by Google determine the site links. Site structure is very important, if the site link appears to be flat then Google will use other signals to show the site. Ensure all pages are linked properly or non-indexing pages will remove them from showing site-links. Also think about what your user wants and provide the exact details so that possibly in an organic search what your user is looking for appears. Href Flags are useful as well as the table of contents. Use if you do not want the site link search box to show up.
Controlling site links isn’t easier but the tips above can be applied in multiple ways. Contact Webby360 for more information on sitelinks.