What are the most important things I need to do to encourage Google Sitelinks?

Question

My website used to have sitelinks and now it doesn't. It's very possible that it's due to changing the website to a sidebar design instead of having an "interstitial" type landing page which limited the number of choices, but I'm not sure.

Here is how sitelinks might look for a site:

What are some things that I can do to improve my chances of getting sitelinks?

Solution 1

You will need to have quite a bit of traffic to your site to get those. Keep creating great content. Google will not give those out easy.

Be sure that you have your navigation marked up with semantic HTML and include an id of nav or navigation on your menu. This will help Google know what links are your navigation. (as opposed to a list of links).

Also, once you get them Google will give you an option to control what links you want in your sitelinks via Google Webmaster Tools.

There is no easy way or publicly know algorithm that will give you sitelinks. And I'm sure that algorithm changes all the time.

DO NOTS:

• Don't use JavaScript For links and menus.
• Don't think about it too much and give it time, sitelinks are rare.

Solution 2

Excerpt from Googler Maile Ohye's explanation on Sitelinks in Google Webmaster Help -

Sitelinks are often produced when there's a high probability that the site is the top match for the user's query. In other words, to have sitelinks ... you'll probably need to be the definitive first result

Sitelinks are completely automated & based on Google's algorithms. To get Sitelinks for a site it helps to have a well-structured website.

Solution 3

Sitelinks are usually taken from the home page. Make sure Google is able to see those links; if your website used heavy JavaScript to construct the DOM it's possible that Google simply doesn't see any link.

To see if this is the case open your website with a command line (no GUI) web browser, such as links (Linux). Alternatively, try to disable JavaScript in your own browser.

Solution 4

You may also maintain a footer that is rich in (text) links; make sure you use good labels. You can think of the footer as a subset of your complete sitemap. This might suggest Google that those links / contents are quite important since they are repeated across the site (assuming all pages have the same footer).

Removal of sitelinks is more straightforward: you can do it via the Google Webmaster Tools.

Solution 5

Google Search Console Help - Sitelinks:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47334

Demote a sitelink URL:

1. On the Search Console Home page (formerly "Webmaster Tools"), click the site you want.

2. Under Search Appearence, click Site Links.

3. In the For this search result box, complete the URL for which you don't want a specific sitelink URL to appear.

4. In the Demote this sitelink URL box, complete the URL of the sitelink you want to demote.

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Comments

[DisgruntledGoat]

Correction: Javascript for menus is perfectly fine, as long as the underlying structure is present in the raw HTML.

[Kevin]

JavaScript is fine for enhancing the behavior of navigation but should not be used to create one. This can lead to many accessibility problems. JavaScript "on" not "for" menus.

[Stephan Muller]

Also make sure the navigational element looks the same in every page of your site. This helps Google determine what is a site-wide navigation and what is page-specific.

[Stephan Muller]

Do note that once you removed a sitelink and re-add it it'll take three months before the sitelink is allowed back, starting from the moment you re-added it. Remove it in january, re-add it in july, it'll still take until october before they're back.

[Goboozo]

I'm not so sure about the "You will need to have quite a bit of traffic to your site to get those" sentence. I run a website that has only a couple hundred visitors a day and we have sitelinks as well. The relevancy seems key. You need to be considered 'authority' for a particular subject (read query).

[Kzqai]

Good advice on the nav stuff, probably a great reason to use html5 nav tags.

[Kzqai]

Yeah, if you run a search for, say, yourexactsitedomain.com, and have a site with moderate visibility already, you're likely to have sitelinks pop up because you're so obviously the main result for that query.

[bekay]

Actually you do not need much traffic at all, that has little relevance. I have seen site links on sites with less than 100 visits per month. It has more to do with the search query, content, and competition.

[Andrew Truckle]

I don't see "Site Links" listed now.