Over the last few days we have seen some examples of Google rolling out massive new Site links on many websites. Late last week they seemed to have disappeared, and they aren't appearing today either, but this is typical when Google is testing new search result layouts and I fully expect them to be back.
Site links are the secondary links that appear below the main link to a website and are typically only provided to a site once that site has demonstrated a certain level of trustworthiness.
In the past they have been quite small but as of about Thursday last week we noticed Google testing them on a number of sites.
They are only appearing in searches for a specific brand or business name and the listing has multiple sub links with what seems to be a small meta description beneath the link. Interestingly they do not appear when you do a keyword research.
In addition they only seem to be appearing when you are logged into a Google service an Google Instant is on.
The implication is clear. If Google thinks that you are looking for a specific business or brand they are giving you as many links as possible to the internal pages on the target site in an effort to get you to your destination as quickly as possible.
The result is a complete ownership of the top half of the search results page. Pity the company who's trying to rank for a brand name either in the organic or paid search markets.
Takeaways
- Work on being a brand. Figure out how to increase the level of brand searches in the organic results as a signal to Google that people are looking for you and that you are worthy of site wide links.
- Choose a domain name that is as unique or related to your business or brand name as possible and that can't be confused with another high volume keyword search.
Edmund Pelgen is the Director of Search Engine Optimisation at Traffika. For more of Ed, follow him on Twitter @edmundpelgen
