By Longer (SEO Tribe)
It's easy to become an SEO professional; mastering the basics of SEO and having an experimental website is all it takes. However, to become a senior SEO expert, one must not only focus on planning websites based on SEO principles and improving rankings but should also understand sitelinks. What are sitelinks? SEO Tribe has invited renowned online marketing planning expert Longer to reveal some secrets about sitelinks.
What Are Sitelinks?
Through Google Webmaster Tools, we can quickly find an item called "sitelinks" under the links section. Many webmasters who click into this section only discover a brief introduction from Google without any link prompts. This is because your website has not yet met Google's criteria for sitelinks, so you have not received the sitelinks reward. If your website achieves the sitelinks effect, there will be a prompt at the bottom of the links page in the Google Webmaster Tools: “Current sitelinks Last updated *****” (the asterisks represent the date), informing you when the recent sitelinks were generated.
We can understand the sitelinks phenomenon as follows: It is a reward from the Google search engine for your website in the search results for certain keywords. Through sitelinks, your website can gain more presentation methods. A regular natural ranking shows 10 results per page, but after your website receives the sitelinks reward, multiple text links for website content or directories can be displayed below the first ranking position.
The Renowned SEOWHY Gained the Sitelinks Phenomenon in SEO Search Results
Case Study: SEOWHY – When searching for "SEO" on Google, the top-ranked website is SEOWHY, which has received the sitelinks reward. Achieving both the top rank and this effect is indeed no easy feat, showcasing their capabilities.
SEO Tribe Also Gained the Sitelinks Reward in Its Search Results
Case Study: SEO Tribe – When searching for "SEO Tribe" on Google, you can see that they have also received the sitelinks reward.
Why Are Sitelinks Important – What Can They Bring Us?
Sitelinks can create the effect of multiple ranking positions from a single ranking position in the search results. For example, if the top-ranked website in the search results gains the sitelinks reward and gets an additional 8 links displayed, it allows searchers to directly access multiple directories of the website through one search action. For large e-commerce websites, utilizing the sitelinks phenomenon to present multiple different category products in the search results can help increase sales of related products. For instance, if someone searches for "cars," and the top-ranked website in the search results has received the sitelinks reward, other categories such as "car engines, car beauty, imported cars, or others" could be displayed simultaneously. Through the search for "cars," customers can directly see displays for multiple products.
Many companies have experience with bidding on advertisements, like Google AdWords, which is very popular among domestic foreign trade companies. However, the effects aren't fully realized. For example, if I want to advertise for several product categories, since these product pages differ, they are scattered across different search result pages, causing significant resource waste. If the website achieves the sitelinks effect, then there’s an opportunity to gain multiple display links from one search.
How to Obtain the Sitelinks Reward
Websites that obtain the sitelinks reward typically possess the following characteristics:
1. The website has a PR value.
2. The website ranks first in the search results for a specific keyword and maintains this position over time. Previously, I've seen websites ranked first on the third page also achieve the sitelinks phenomenon, but after the last two Google updates, this seems no longer to be the case.
3. The website has gained a large number of backlinks or a few high-quality backlinks.
4. Internal linking is reasonable. Here, I need to clarify the explanation of internal linking. Many webmasters excessively pursue exchanging links with others, believing this is the only way to increase backlink numbers, which is incorrect. Backlinks also include internal links. Many excellent websites initially optimize their internal link structure to self-enrich their backlinks.
5. Links in the sitelinks reward have PR values. (During Google's first sitelinks update for your website, all the links displayed in your sitelinks have PR values).
From the above characteristics, we can see that achieving PR values in the ranking results is essential to gradually progress towards the sitelinks phenomenon and advance to becoming an SEO expert.
What Determines the Impact of PR Values on Sitelinks?
When Google performs PR updates, we can observe changes in the website's PR value through the Google Toolbar. If you're a meticulous SEOer, you'll notice that the links displayed in sitelinks all have PR values. However, during Google's PR update period, accessing these pages directly through the links displayed in sitelinks does not show the PR value (as shown in the two figures below), and this persists for about one to two weeks after the PR update. This also confirms that PR updates are not necessarily the start or end markers of Google's major updates, even though PR remains an important factor in Google's algorithm.
(During the PR update period, accessing the SEOWHY forum via sitelinks shows no PR value, although it actually possesses one.)
(One condition for sitelinks: the pages of the displayed links have PR values. During the PR update period, clicking on the displayed links shows no PR value, but they actually do have PR values.)
After Google's major update ends, the pages displayed in the sitelinks phenomenon return to normal. Accessing them through the displayed links in sitelinks, we can again see their PR values. An interesting phenomenon occurred once after a PR update: a product directory page of my client obtained PR3, but when accessed directly through the sitelinks display area, it showed PR2. This phenomenon persisted until the next PR update. Isn’t that interesting? Please analyze the specific reasons yourself.
From the above, we can see the importance of PR values in achieving the sitelinks phenomenon, and it also demonstrates that PR values still hold a place within the Google search engine.
Advanced SEO - You Must Understand Sitelinks
If you are an advanced SEO expert, helping your clients achieve the sitelinks effect truly completes the transformation from "ranking first" to "sitelinks."