Posted by Bill Haenel on 11-Sep-10

What are those links under the main search result listing in Google?

Ever wonder what the links under the main Google search results are called? You know, the ones that look like they outline the main sections of the website they're listed under? If you don't know what I mean, do a Google search for something you know will turn up a well traveled site, such as "ncpr". Then look at the first site listed in the search listing results. You should notice a list of links under that first result which show you the primary content sections of the site in question.



Google calls those "Sitelinks". They're kind of like a site directory or index (seen in the above image as "Weather", "Programs", "Calendar", etc.), and Google maintains exclusive control over their output and display.

An associate of mine recently Emailed me with a question about these links, wondering if it is possible to change them or add/remove items to that list. This seems like a reasonable request. However, it just isn't possible. At least, not right now. Here was my reply to my associate's inquiry:

Everyone wants to know about this, as it’s poorly documented and seems like something a site owner would want to control. However, a site owner cannot control it much other than to remove specific links, but then only if you have a Google Webmaster Tools account.

Google call it Sitelinks. You can read a bit about it here:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47334

In short, Google creates that listing automatically. It’s totally based on site traffic, search frequency and link structure. I would think that at a bare minimum it’s a good idea to have a Webmaster Tools account, but I wouldn’t guess that would have much effect unless Google has already decide your site should be sitelinked.

So this is what I know about it. If you know a bit more, please comment below. THe hardest thing about learning about this Google feature is that it really isn't notated very well in very many places. So think of this post as my contribution to the online documentation covering Google Sitelinks. If you have something to contribute to the conversation, maybe you can think of your comments as continuing that documentation?

Anonymous said:

Hello Fella, What you ˙have here surely have me wceikd up to the last word, and I hafta say to you I am not that typical man who read through the full length post of blogs because I most of the time got sick and tired of the junk that is presented searching google on a daily basis and I simply end up checking out the pics and maybe a headline, a paragraph and so on. But your headline and the first paragraphs were great and it immediately grabbed my attention. I definitely wanna see more. Thanks, really. (posted 6:02pm, 10Jul12)

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