Sitelinks

What Sitelinks are

Sitelinks are the extra indented links Google shows beneath a search result, pointing to pages inside the same site. They're generated algorithmically, so you can't add them by hand or buy them, but you can influence which pages qualify by giving Google a clean site to choose from. The stakes are real: sitelinks grab more of the result, push competitors down, and route people to the exact page they want on the first click.

What they look like

Search your brand name and you'll usually see a fuller version: your main result on top, then a block of two to six deep links under it. On non-brand queries you'll more often see a single inline sitelink or a small row. A typical brand result looks like this:

Acme Tools : Professional Hand & Power Tools
https://acmetools.com
Acme Tools sells professional-grade hand and power tools...

  Shop All Tools        Support Center
  Power Tools           Track My Order
  Hand Tools            About Acme

You didn't mark up those six links. Google assembled them from your site structure, internal linking, and what users click. Your job is to make the right pages the obvious candidates.

What you can and can't control

The line between "influence" and "control" is where most confusion lives. Here's the honest split.

How to check it on your own site

1. Search Google for your exact brand name and note which sitelinks show. That's your current baseline.
2. Compare those to the pages you actually want featured. Gaps tell you where to push.
3. Check your main navigation. The pages you want as sitelinks should be reachable in one clean click from the home page.
4. Audit internal links to your priority pages. Thin internal linking is the most common reason a good page never becomes a sitelink.
5. Review page titles on candidate pages. Short, distinct titles make better labels than long, keyword-stuffed ones.
6. Add breadcrumb structured data so Google reads your hierarchy correctly.
7. Re-check after a few weeks. Sitelinks shift as Google re-evaluates structure and click behavior.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Hunting for a "sitelinks" button. There isn't one. You can't submit or purchase them. Focus on structure and let the algorithm do the choosing.
• Trying to demote a bad sitelink the old way. Google retired the demotion tool in Search Console. To lose an unwanted link, improve or noindex that page, or make better pages more prominent.
• Burying priority pages three clicks deep. If your best pages aren't near the top of the architecture, they rarely qualify. Flatten the path and link to them from the home page.
• Bloated, near-identical page titles. Google needs distinct labels. Rewrite titles so each candidate page reads cleanly on its own.
• Assuming sitelinks help every query. They're strongest on brand and navigational searches. Don't expect a full six-pack on generic head terms.

Why sitelinks are worth the effort

Sitelinks are not a ranking factor, but they change the economics of a result you already own. A brand result with a full block of sitelinks takes far more vertical space in the results page, pushes competitors below the fold, and hands the searcher a direct route to the exact page they wanted on the first click. For navigational and brand queries, that is the difference between owning the result and merely appearing in it.

They also act as a quiet audit of your SERP presence. If Google is surfacing pages you would rather hide, or ignoring the pages you care about, that gap is telling you your internal linking and navigation are pointing at the wrong things. Fixing the structure to earn better sitelinks tends to improve crawl priority and user paths at the same time.

Frequently asked questions