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How to get Google Sitelinks for your website
Many webmasters wonder how they can make Google display
additional Sitelinks for their websites. What exactly are
Sitelinks, how can you get them and are they worth the effort?
What are Google Sitelinks?
Google Sitelinks are a collection of links that appears
below the result of a website. These additional links link
to main pages of the website. They are randomly and automatically
chosen by Google's algorithm.
As an example, here are the sitelinks that you get for
HP.com when you search for "HP":
Sitelinks only appear for general search
terms. You'll get Sitelinks if you search for "HP" but
you won't get Sitelinks if you search for a term like "HP
printer supplies". Sitelinks show up most often for
searches on brand names.
Which links does Google use for the
Sitelinks?
Google seems to use the first level links on a website
for the Sitelinks. That means that all links that are not
present on the homepage of your site won't be used as Sitelinks.
The links should be descriptive text links or image links
with a descriptive IMG ALT attribute. JavaScript or Flash
links are not considered for Sitelinks. Google uses 2 to
8 links for the Sitelinks of a website. Unfortunately,
it's unclear how Google assigns the number of links to
each website.
How can you get Sitelinks for your website?
Unfortunately, there is nothing certain about Google's
Sitelinks. The following factors seem to influence whether
Google displays Sitelinks or not:
- Your website must have a stable #1 ranking for the
searched keyword. Other websites don't seem to get Sitelinks.
- Your website must be at least 2 years old. It seems
that younger websites don't get Sitelinks.
- The number of searches and the number of clicks that
your website gets for a certain keyword seem to be considered.
Keywords that aren't searched often enough don't get
Sitelinks. It also seems that your website has to get
many clicks for the searched keyword.
- The number of links that point to your website with
the searched keyword as the anchor text seem to influence
the creation of Sitelinks. Sitelinks only seem to appear
for the main keywords of a website, not for all keywords
for which a website is listed.
If your website meets these criteria Google might assign
Sitelinks to your website for your most important keywords.
Sitelinks can be a nice addition for searches for general
keywords but they usually won't appear for searches that
consist of two to four words. These words are the most important
keywords for website promotion and search engine optimization.
People who search for multiple word keywords are more likely
to purchase goods or services than people using fewer words
(source: Oneupweb Research). Use IBP to find
these keywords and to get
high rankings for these keywords.
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