'Net Features : sitelinks

Sitelink Extensions in Bing Ads

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:06:00 GMT

In its ongoing quest apparently to be just like its main rival Google, Microsoft this month released Sitelink Extensions in Bing Ads.

Just like its Google counterpart, Sitelink Extension in Bing Ads offer advertising an opportunity to showcase relevant/important sections of a site, adding additional messaging or information without modifying text ads or keywords.

Bing noted that during the pilot phase of Sitelink Extensions, "most" of its advertisers experienced an click-through rate increase of between 15 and 25 percent when compared to standard search ads.

Bing Ad Sitelink Extensions can be added through the Big Ads user interface, the desktop editor or directly through the Bing Ads API.

Google’s Ad Sitelinks Enhanced

Administrator — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:00:00 GMT

AdWords advertisers have had advertising sitelinks at their disposal for quite some time and, by all accounts, they seem to work pretty well. According to Google, in fact, the click-through rate is 30 percent higher for advertisements with sitelinks than those without.

Sort of makes you want to run off to your AdWords account and set up sitelinks if you haven’t already, doesn’t it? Hold on one moment before you go, though – Google just enhanced those sitelinks and did so in a rather innovative way.

Google is now incorporating text from other ads in your AdWords account that are related to your sitelinks. So, for example, if you’re a pizza place and advertising your order page, a page profiling locations, and a page offering deals, those text ads will now appear as enhanced (extended) sitelinks with text descriptions instead of one-line hyperlinks.

To be eligible for the enhanced ad sitelinks, advertisers must have ads with sitelinks that show above Google search results (probably safe to assume that means in the first or second position) and accounts must contain active ads closely related to the sitelinks in the campaign.

Traditional Ad Sitelinks at Google

Enhanced Ad Sitelinks from Google

Google's Extended Sitelinks Exposed

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:45:00 GMT

Google’s new extended Sitelinks are sending Webmasters scrambling to find out how they too can secure more virtual real estate on the world’s most popular search engine – now estimated at well over 60-percent market share. So, are there any tricks to making sure your site is returned with the highly coveted extended Sitelink? Yes, there are. Let’s expose the secrets to getting extended Sitelinks.

It is difficult to know what signals Google uses in its Sitelinks algorithm, but a close inspection of the search result pages for queries which return an extended Sitelinks – and a thorough look at the Google Webmaster Guidelines – do provide us an opportunity to make some reasonable assumptions. There are in fact several signals that websites should consider addressing if the allure of extended Sitelinks is too much to ignore.

Know the Most Popular Site Sections

Based on the current research, it seems that whether Google includes Sitelinks is heavily dependent upon the behavior of users. Since search results page listings include tracking info, Google can/could easily determine which pages or categories of your site are most frequently visited. Thanks to this click stream data, Google is able to improve its search results and give users direct access to the sections of your Web property which are of the greatest interest or importance. Google generates sitelinks automatically but with a little strategic thinking, it is possible (somewhat) to influence extended sitelinks. If you don't already know the most popular sections of your website, it's time to dig into your website analytics.

The Navigation Imperative

Perhaps most noteworthy within the Webmaster Guidelines is the recommendation to make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. If Google cannot understand what sites or individual sub-pages are about, it is unlikely that extended Sitelinks will appear. To increase the likelihood of extended Sitelinks appearing for your site on important queries, consider rethinking navigation.

For example, consider refining the navigation to include but a handful of the most important links. Fewer navigation choices will help you funnel users to specific destinations, and giving Google enough click stream data to make some choices on your site’s behalf. Take a look at Apple.com’s navigation, and then at the extended sitelinks Google has returned on the search results pages, and tell me that there is no correlation between navigation links and the sitelinks that returned.

Page Titles & Page Names Provide Clear Signals

Google needs not look very far for perhaps the strongest signal of a page’s worthiness to be included in Sitelinks. SEOs should focus much of their energy on the quality of page titles (keeping them brief but accurate) and doing the same for the actual file names of pages as both are strong signals that specific pages are of importance. Take a look at the Ameritrade example below. See how the titles are short in length? That is certainly one good indicator. But dig deeper into the “Rates & Fees” Sitelink and you’ll see that the page itself is named ratesfees.html. If the aim is to obtain extended Sitelinks, considering a site’s naming conventions (titles and pages) is a vitally important task.

Anchor Text of Internal and External Links

Another opportunity is to ensure that the internal links within your site and external links pointing to your site from third-party websites use an appropriate keyword anchor text. The aim should be to identify which pages are most representative of the site in question, and to set about acquiring a mixture of links with the keyword or key phrase anchor text you want to have your site appear with extended Sitelinks.

Extended Sitelinks are obviously a new addition to the search results pages of Google, so expect development to continue over the next several months and years. As it stands today, the sites of well known (established) brands are those which are receiving the extended Sitelinks. Take the necessary steps today to acquire extended sitelinks and you will likely be pleased at the virtual real estate you secure on the search results pages.

Adwords Embedded Sitelinks

Administrator — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 23:40:00 GMT

Several enhancements have been made to Google’s Sitelinks offering for Adwords advertisers since its launch in 2009 and the list of features for the ad format keeps getting longer - and better.

Google introduce embedded sitelinks this week, a feature which will enable advertisers to include an alternative targeted link to their website directly from within the ad. The text within ads that exactly matches one or more of the Sitelinks set up within a campaign will be linked automatically to that Sitelinks destination URL.

Google provided the following example; “If you have separate Sitelinks set up for the words “appliances,” “furniture,” and “flatware,” those words would be hyperlinked in your ad text, leading potential customers to a page for the specific part of the ad that drew their interest.”

Advertisers interested in showing embedded sitelinks must first enable Ad SiteLinks in their campaigns. Google indicated that only those ads appearing above the search results are eligible for embedded sitelinks and they will only be shown when the ads fail to meet the general requirements for one-or-two-line Ad Sitelinks.

Example of an embedded sitelink:

Google SiteLinks Variation

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:55:00 GMT

File this under interesting but not yet widely available. The Google Operating System blog picked up from milivella at Google Blogoscoped that Google has started to show some modified sitelinks for Wikipedia articles.

Sitelinks, which are links to popular sections of a site that users can navigate to directly from the Google SERPs, are typically displayed only for the top search results and only if the query was navigational in nature. Now however, sitelinks are available for other results.

The development was spotted for Wikipedia listings exclusively, and by the looks of it only for musicians at this point. What is interested here is that Google is sending users to specific sections of a page, not just to a different page on the same domain.

There has been no official word yet from Google on the development. If you've got long-form article content on your site, would you want one of the new sitelinks?

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Google Reorganizes SERP Sitelinks: What You Need to Know

Mike Phillips — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:20:00 GMT

Google has been displaying site links - the linked words below a main search result that leads to internal pages of that website - for some time now. But there has been a restructuring. Now, instead of the stacked appearance of several links, in several columns, more sitelinks are being seen on one line, just four across at the bottom of the result. As such, you can expect to see more results on the results page, as there will be more room. But the ramifications don't stop there.

For advertisers, it's possible that paid links will become more prominent in the eyes of users. When sitelinks are stacked, it could be argued that attention is drawn to the larger real estate that the result inhabits, thus garnering more attention - and clicks - away from smaller paid ads. The larger sitelink sections might even be confused with ads themselves, as they simply look different than regular results. So, one could theoretically see a rise in clicks on PPC search ads, which could result in a more competitive landscape, or more opportunities for advertisers.

It also means that as a site owner, you need to pay close attention to how your sitelinks are being displayed within search results. In the past, one would see upwards of eight sitelinks, where now there seem to be no more than four. That means the choices for users are fewer, and so is your opportunity to capture a Web surfer. While there are no official guidelines or rules as to how Google displays sitelinks, some correlations can be found. Anchor text, page navigation, meta tags, even ALT tag text have been rumored and seen to show up in sitelinks. This means that internal navigation is a key element to how (and whether) sitelinks show up in your search results. Like most things Google, we don't know for sure, but it is a reminder to optimize these elements of your website.

For now, it appears that the change is not sweeping - some results still show the older version of sitelinks and some results are using the new system. Google will continue to test and tweak, so keep a close eye out for developments.