Google sometimes displays subcategories underneath search listings as indicated with the red arrow below. These subcategories are what are known as ‘sitelinks’. They were designed by Google in order to make website navigation easier and more efficient for search engine users, saving time and allowing relevant information to be found quickly.
Information on how to give your website the best chance of obtaining Google sitelinks
Unfortunately, there is nothing webmasters can do in order to guarantee whether Google displays sitelinks under your search listings or not. This is controlled by Google who only display sitelinks when they believe it may be useful or relevant to the search engine user.
However, there are certain things Relevance can do in order to ensure the best chance of sitelinks being displayed for your search listings. We ensure that the structure of our websites have the correct architecture in order for Google algorithms to find good sitelinks. We also carry out full internal linking audits to ensure that the correct anchor text is being used for your internal links, making sure to be informative, relevant and compact. This is something which Google uses to understand your website content. If Google robots discover relevant, informative and useful content, and the website has good architecture, there is much more chance of sitelinks being displayed.
Sitelinks are excellent for a number of reasons:
• They ensure your company/brand is taking up a large part of the first page of Google.
• Site navigation is easier for search engine users who are looking for your products and services.
• Sitelinks can help to knock down competitor search engine listings.
• They are also associated with professionalism and a powerful company/brand.
On the other hand, if for any reason you believe your sitelink URL’s to be inappropriate or incorrect, Google gives the facility to demote them. When you demote a sitelink, this informs Google not to consider that particular URL as a candidate for a specific web page on your site. Whilst Google can give no guarantee that demoted sitelinks will not appear, they do take it on board, and aim not to display them.
For more information on Google sitelinks or for a free website architecture and internal linking audit, please contact our expert SEO team.