Google’s John Mueller answers the question of what strategies are used to make certain pages appear as sitelinks in Google’s search results.
The answer provided by Mueller clearly matches the additional links in the official Google Search Center documentation, although he adds more nuances than in the official documentation.
Still, Google’s new tightly controlled SEO Office Hours format is starting to show some limitations.
How can I make the page appear as a sitelink?
The person asking this question wants to know how to influence Google to show specific pages in sitelinks.
Sitelinks are sitelinks to pages that appear in search results, so one search result contains multiple links.
“Is there any strategy for getting desired pages to appear in Google search results as sitelinks?”
Mueller starts by explaining what sitelinks are:
“So, sitelinks are additional results that sometimes appear below search results and are usually just one-line links to different parts of the website.”
Next he explains how Google generates sitelinks:
“And no meta tags or structured data can be used to force sitelinks to appear.
Also, when the user views this web page, our system also tries to find out what is actually relevant or relevant to the user. “
Finally, Mueller offers advice on what to do with sitelinks:
“To that end, our advice is essentially to have a good site structure, with clear internal links so that we can easily identify which pages are relevant to those pages, and have clear titles and display types that we can use as sitelinks.
With this, there is no guarantee that any of these will show up like that.
But it helps us figure out what’s relevant.
If we do think it makes sense to show sitelinks, then it’s easier for us to actually choose one based on that information. “
The answer is similar to the official google documentation
Previously the SEO Office Hours format allowed real-time questions and answers. It’s gone now.
Google shows pre-screened questions and pre-screened answers.
The new format gave Mueller time to select questions and research well-researched answers ahead of time.
The answer provided by Mueller is good, but it also highlights a shortcoming of Google’s new Q&A format, which feels scripted and secure to the point that the information closely resembles Google’s official documentation.
On the downside, the new format feels like Mueller googles your answer and then interprets what’s on the Google developer page.
This is What’s on the Google Search Center page:
“We only show sitelinks for results if we think they are useful to users. If the structure of your site does not allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or if we don’t think your site’s sitelinks are relevant to the user’s query, we will not will display them.
- Make sure the text you use as page titles and in headings is informative, relevant, and compact.
- Create a logical site structure that is easy for users to navigate and make sure you link to your important pages from other relevant pages.
- Make sure the anchor text of your internal links is concise and relevant to the page they point to.
- Avoid duplication of content. “
The sitelink documentation on the Google Search Central page is nearly identical to the answer provided by John Mueller.
This isn’t meant to be interpreted as a criticism of the new format, just a reminder that the new format is a little embalming because it’s not really a Q&A.
It feels like a quiz theater.
What was missing was the search for the humane banter and follow-up questions among members of the community that sometimes led to Mueller’s unexpected and spontaneous answers.
The previous style featured out-of-the-box spontaneous questions that were not always found in Google’s official documentation.
Yes, users of the old format are breaking the rules against questions about why a site isn’t ranking.
So it’s understandable why Google would try another format.
However, Mueller’s ability to tease out potential problems has improved”What’s wrong with my website“Questions become useful to the wider search community, providing useful answers by turning seemingly useless questions into insights.
The problem isn’t that people keep asking “What’s wrong with my site?”
Old-style questions can be seen as people who don’t know what’s wrong with their site, so they don’t know how to ask questions. Is the problem a technical one? Is there a problem with the quality of the content?
Mueller sometimes tackles those lower-quality issues with general advice that is still useful.
Is the new format right for you?
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Watch John Mueller answer questions at 16:01 min
