Unfortunately, Google does not always display the right Sitelinks. This article explains how to check your Sitelinks and how to make sure that Google displays the right Sitelinks for your website.
How to check which Sitelinks Google displays for your website
It seems that Google only return Sitelinks when they are confident that the search query is looking for a specific site.Which type of Sitelinks does Google display for your website?
If you want to see the Sitelinks for your website, search Google for your domain name without the .co.za or for any other keyword for which your website is listed on the first position.
For example, if your domain name is "bluewidgets.com", search Google for "bluewidgets".
If you search Google as explained above, Google will display one of the following Sitelinks below your listing:How to get better Sitelinks
- Google shows up to eight text links that are identical to your website navigation links. If you see these links, the navigation of your website can be parsed by Google and it divides your website into separate categories. This is good.
- Sitelinks that go to random pages on your website. If you get these links, the navigation of your website probably can't be parsed by Google and Google took the pages with the most backlinks for the Sitelinks. This is not so good.
- Google does not display any Sitelinks. If Google does not display any Sitelinks for your website then it's very likely that your website is not search engine friendly and that your pages cannot be parsed correctly. This is bad.
Google generates the Sitelinks for your website based on your website navigation and based on the links that point to your website.Site links can make your website listings on Google's result pages more attractive. However, they have nothing to do with the position that your website gets in Google. If you want to get high rankings on Google for the keywords of your choice, you must make sure that your website has both optimised content and good backlinks.
If Google shows the wrong Sitelinks or no Sitelinks at all for your website then you should work on your website navigation:
If your website has a clear navigation, it will be much easier to get Sitelinks for your website.
- Avoid JavaScript and Flash navigation and try to use regular links as often as possible.
- If you use images for your website navigation, make sure that the images contain alternative texts that allow Google to categorize your links.
Do not use too many navigation links and make it easy for web surfers and search engines to find out which pages of your website are the most important pages. The better a web page is linked, the more likely it is that it will appear in the Sitelinks.