Something to consider.. Re – Title & sitelinks

There have been many questions appearing lately about site links. Here are some observations that people should consider.

Google appears to have vastly increased the use of site links in recent times. A site link is/should be brilliant for conversions as it shows you site as a very close match for a search query. It is hard to imagine people not clicking on the site with the site link when one comes up.

Thus the question. How do I get a sitelink?…. Here are some things to consider based on my observations and reading on the topic.

Firstly site links are generated dynamically not by humans. The pages that get the links appear to be those pages that get the most traffic and/or have large amounts of deep links.

My site now has ten search terms that I have found that give me a site link. Many of these are search terms and not my companys name. BUT most of them are for different versions/abbreviations of my business name. The others are search phrases that I have little direct competition in.

You do not need the term in your title to get a site link for that term. BUT it is most likely that a sitelink will come for your company name. Consider this when choosing you title and anchor texts for backlinks. IMO if you include you company name in your title and in anchor texts you are much more likely to achieve sitelinks… You do not see many website that get sitelinks that do not have there company name near the beginning of their title.

The other big points are I think is deeplinks and user behavior. I have 8 indents most of these are my link bait pages that get the most deep links and the pages on my site that get the most traffic. Some of the pages I get in my sitelinks have no links but get lots of page visits ie contact details.

Thus I would think if you want to increase your chances of getting a sitelink. Then 1) Include your business name in your title 2) Include your business name in many anchor texts to your site. 3) Get deep links into your site 4) Make your site sticky and have low bounce rates.

NOTE: All the above is my opinion based on my own experience and research on the topic.

Thank you for sharing your experience, gazzahk.

I've seen speculation that Google will only put in sitelinks for old sites. I am curious, how old was your site when you first noticed sitelinks for it?

Around 2 years old at the time. But the sitelinks came at the same time as many other people suddenly got them. Google changed the way these were given at that time.

I also have them on sites which are over 5-8 years old, I don't remember when they first appeared. I would agree that it has more to do with traffic and linking than age, but of course, those 2 things usually only come with a more mature site.