When engaged in search engine optimization, businesses compete for rank positions on search engine result pages. While showing up on the first page of Google can be enormously beneficial for driving traffic to a site, other means such as Sitelinks can be almost as potent in that regard.
What are Sitelinks?
Sitelinks are a collection of links automatically generated and randomly chosen by Google’s algorithm. They appear below a website’s search result and link to various pages within that site. Sitelinks are designed to provide searchers with more relevant search results.
An important question you should consider is, do your Sitelinks reflect what you want emphasized to consumers or searchers?
While Sitelinks generally appear on well established, keyword-rich, and search engine optimized sites that are deemed relevant by Google, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to touch base with your own website’s Sitelinks.
Even if your site is still in the process of SEO and has not yet reached the first search results page, you’ll still likely want to check the Sitelinks Google has chosen for you. How? Simply type in your company name or brand and check out the links below the search query. (insert screenshot here)
Sitelinks should be checked because the pages that Google randomly chooses may not be the ones you want to promote. While we can’t control the algorithms Google uses to choose Sitelinks, it’s possible to block the pages you don’t want to appear in the search results.
Here’s how:
On the Google Webmaster Tools homepage, click on the site you want to manage. Under “site configuration,” click Sitelinks and click on “block” next to the Sitelink you want removed. Note, however, that Sitelink information will only be displayed if these links are available for your site.