Sitelinks

More findable on the Internet? This can be achieved in several ways. One option is to use sitelinks. What are sitelinks and how exactly do they work? This page addresses all these questions and gives you advice.

What are sitelinks?

Sitelinks are sub links that come up in a search: they show multiple URLs of your website and therefore offer more visibility of a website or page. This can be done for free, or for a fee.(1)

How sitelinks work

Sitelinks allow multiple links to come up in a search. You yourself have no control over the organic sitelinks a search engine displays. Organic sitelinks involve free links that you don’t have to do anything for. So it is potentially nice if there are multiple links visible that lead to your website. This is often the case with branded terms.

Furthermore, it is possible to deploy paid search results: in this case, for a fee, you do have influence over the sitelinks that are visible.

The impact of sitelinks on SEO

Sitelinks definitely impact SEO, especially when they are paid links over which you have complete control. Showing multiple links increases the visibility of your website: therefore, users are more likely to click on them.

It’s completely nice when a search engine shows these search results organically. But this chance is small, and besides, you don’t always have a say in the results.(2)

My advice

I recommend using sitelinks that you pay for when there is competition on your branded terms. This can be arranged through Google Ads: it is possible here to add extensions that make you even more visible. Note, however, if you have a high CPC on your branded terms and you have no competitors who are also on this, I would not always recommend this.