Google Sitelinks: How to Earn Them in 2026

Administrator in Search Engine Optimization Oct 01 / 2 weeks ago

Search for a well-known brand and the top result often carries a small cluster of extra links beneath it. For example, a Chicago bank's homepage might show shortcuts to online banking, mortgage rates, branch hours and careers. Those shortcuts are Google sitelinks, and on your own brand search they are some of the most useful space you can hold.

Google picks these links itself, and you cannot switch them on, choose them or rank them. What you can do is make your site so easy to read that Google's systems find good shortcuts on their own. Every rule comes from Google's own pages, named as we go, and the opinions are mine.

What are Google sitelinks, in Google's own words?

Google's sitelinks documentation defines them in one line. Sitelinks "are links from the same domain that are clustered together under a text result." They are extra shortcuts that sit under one search result and point to other pages on the same site, so a searcher can skip the homepage and land on the page they wanted straight away.

Google's sitelinks documentation also explains where they come from. Its systems "analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for." Sitelinks are not a feature you turn on. I think of them as a side effect of a site whose structure is plain enough for a machine to read in one pass.

When does Google show sitelinks, and when does it skip them?

Google shows sitelinks only when it expects them to help. The documentation says "We only show sitelinks for results when we think they'll be useful to the user." It skips them when your structure does not let its algorithms find good shortcuts, or when it decides the sitelinks are not relevant to the query someone typed.

So Google sitelinks have to pass two tests, one about your site's structure and one about the search itself. My reading is that most sites will see them on navigational searches, such as a brand name, where the searcher wants the site itself and a menu of its main sections helps. Our guide to entity SEO and the Knowledge Graph explains how to build a brand entity Google trusts.

Can you choose or block sitelinks in Search Console?

No. Google's documentation is direct on this point: "At the moment, sitelinks are automated." It describes no setting, in Search Console or anywhere else, to pick which pages appear, to reorder them or to block one. Google adds that it may "incorporate site owner input in the future," but for now every choice is made by its systems.

My advice is to stop looking for a control and spend that time on the four best practices Google lists. Google sitelinks reward the same habits that make a site easy for people to use, so none of this work is wasted. For the wider tour of what Search Console can do, our practitioner's guide to Google Search Console walks through every main report.

How do page titles and headings shape your sitelinks?

They are the first of Google's four best practices. The documentation asks you to "Make sure that the text you use as your page titles and in your headings is informative, relevant, and compact." Short, clear titles give Google a clean label for each section of your site, which I think makes a page easier to offer as a shortcut.

For example, a page titled "Welcome to Our Services Page at Brand Name Online" tells a searcher very little, while one titled "Mortgage rates" says what waits behind the click. Google's SEO Starter Guide also tells you to "provide headings to help users navigate your pages." Our piece on why Google rewrites title tags explains what happens to titles in results, and the on-page SEO checklist covers both as part of a full page review.

How does site structure decide which pages become sitelinks?

Google's second best practice is to "Create a logical site structure that is easy for users to navigate, and make sure you link to your important pages from other relevant pages." I think the pages you want as sitelinks should sit high in your menu and get links from the pages around them, not hide deep in the site.

For example, a US retailer whose menu links to its main departments from every page gives Google an easy map. A German publisher in Munich with /de/ and /en/ folders on one domain, or a Seoul beauty brand with English and Korean sections on one domain, is in good shape too, since Google defines sitelinks as links "from the same domain." Our guides to site architecture and crawl depth and to hreflang and country sections go deeper on both.

What kind of anchor text helps Google sitelinks?

Short, accurate anchor text. Google's third best practice says to "Ensure that your internal links' anchor text is concise and relevant to the page they're pointing to." Your menu labels and in-text links tell Google what each page is, and a vague label like "click here" or "learn more" gives it nothing useful to work with.

The SEO Starter Guide agrees that link text "tells users and Google something about the page you're linking to." My advice is to name each page the way a searcher would. If people search for "store hours," a menu item called "Visit us" is weaker than one called "Store hours." Our internal linking strategy guide covers anchors across the whole site.

Why does repeated content work against your sitelinks?

Google's fourth best practice is just five words long: "Avoid repetitions in your content." My reading is that when two pages say nearly the same thing, Google has to guess which one deserves a shortcut, and it may pick the weaker one or neither. Clear, separate pages with distinct jobs make the choice easier for its systems.

The SEO Starter Guide notes that duplicate content "is not a violation of our spam policies," so this is about clarity, not penalties. For example, a Seoul skincare brand with a "Shipping" page and a near copy called "Delivery information" splits the signal between two URLs that do one job. Merge them and redirect the spare. Our guides to canonical tags and duplicate content and to diagnosing keyword cannibalization show how to find and fix those pairs.

How do you remove a sitelink you do not want?

Google names two options. Its documentation says "If you need to remove a sitelink, consider removing the page from your site or using noindex." Both work on the page itself rather than on the sitelink, so each one has a cost that goes well beyond the small block of links under your brand result.

A noindex tag keeps that page out of Google Search entirely, not just out of the sitelinks block. So first ask whether the page should exist at all. For example, if a pricing page shows up where you wanted a product page, do not noindex it, because that would cost the pricing page its own search traffic. Fix its title or links instead and let Google sitelinks settle. If you take a page down, decide whether the old URL returns a 404, a 410 or a redirect. Our guides to robots.txt, meta robots and noindex and to HTTP status codes for SEO cover each choice.

What happened to the sitelinks search box?

Google retired it. In a Search Central blog post dated October 21, 2024, Google said usage had dropped and that it would remove the search box "starting on November 21, 2024." The change would apply worldwide, and Google said it "doesn't affect rankings or the other sitelinks visual element," so normal sitelinks carry on as before.

The Farewell, Sitelinks Search Box post by John Mueller of Google Switzerland also said the Search Console rich results report for the search box would go away. You may delete the old markup, but the post says "there's no need to do so," because "Unsupported structured data like this won't cause issues in Search, and won't trigger errors in Search Console reports." Before you delete anything, note that site names use "a variation of WebSite structured data, which continues to be supported." Our guide to Google site names and favicons covers that markup, and the one on debugging structured data errors helps if a cleanup goes wrong.

How do sitelinks show up in Search Console data?

Google's Help page on impressions, position and clicks does not name sitelinks, but its general rule covers them. It says "Each element in Search results occupies a single position, whether it contains a single link or many different links or child elements." So a sitelink usually reports the same position as the brand result it sits under.

The page adds a fallback for anything it does not list: "If your element type is not described here, assume that the element position level applies to all links within each element." Grouped by property, one element counts as a single impression, and grouped by page, each URL in it gets its own. My reading is that this explains a puzzle with Google sitelinks. An inner page can show a position near 1 for your brand name because it appeared inside the sitelinks block, not because it ranks first on its own. To isolate those searches, filter brand queries with a regex, as our guide to Search Console regex filters shows. You need access to a verified property to see any of this, which our Search Console verification guide explains.

How are organic sitelinks different from Google Ads sitelinks?

They share a name and little else. Organic sitelinks are chosen by Google's systems, and you cannot edit them. Google Ads sitelink assets are written by advertisers, who pick the link text and the URLs for each one. The two can appear on the same results page, which makes them easy to confuse.

Every organic cell comes from Google's sitelinks documentation and every ads cell from the Google Ads Help page on sitelink assets.

The Ads Help page offers one tip that serves both sides: "Check your website's navigation bars for easy sitelink ideas." Our playbook on running PPC and SEO together covers where paid and organic teams should share work.

How do you audit the sitelinks on your brand result?

Run a short check that needs no special tools. Search your brand name while signed out, note which Google sitelinks appear, and compare them with your main menu. Then ask whether each linked page is one you want new visitors to see first. If you serve several markets, repeat the check for each one where you can.

Next, open the Performance report, filter to your brand queries, and group the results by page. Inner pages with a position near the top may be appearing as sitelinks. If a sitelink you valued has vanished, check whether that page lost its menu link, then treat it like any lost search feature, one branch in our guide to diagnosing an organic traffic drop.

What should you fix first to earn Google sitelinks?

Start with your main menu, because it touches all four of Google's best practices at once. Give every key page a short, clear title and a menu label that matches it, link those pages from the pages around them, and merge any near duplicates. Then leave the choice to Google, since sitelinks stay automated for now.

In order, my advice is this. First, rename vague menu items so each one names its page. Second, rewrite the titles and headings on your main sections until they are short and plain. Third, merge pairs of pages that do the same job. Fourth, noindex or remove only pages that should not be in Google at all. Fifth, record which sitelinks show today, so you can tell later whether your changes helped. None of this guarantees Google sitelinks, because nothing does. It does give Google's systems the clearest map of your site you can offer.

Frequently asked questions about Google sitelinks

How long does it take for a new site to get sitelinks?

Google's sitelinks documentation gives no timeline. What it does say is that sitelinks appear only when Google's systems can find good shortcuts in your link structure and think they will help the searcher. I think a brand-new site often has a thin structure and little brand demand, so it may wait a while. My advice is to build a clear menu, give each main page a plain title, and link the key pages to each other. Then check your brand result about once a month.

Can structured data or a sitemap create sitelinks?

Google's documentation does not say so and lists no markup for them. It says "At the moment, sitelinks are automated," and its four best practices cover titles and headings, site structure, anchor text and repetition. The structured data Google did support here belonged to the sitelinks search box, a separate element it stopped showing from November 21, 2024. Nothing in the sources used for this guide says a sitemap decides which pages become sitelinks either. Spend your effort on the four practices instead.

Why did my sitelinks change or disappear?

Because they are automated and tied to each search. Google's documentation says it shows them only when it thinks they will be "useful to the user" and relevant to the query, and only when your structure lets its algorithms find good ones. So a menu change, a page that lost its internal links or a new near duplicate could each shift the block. Different queries can also show different sitelinks, or none. Compare your current menu and titles with an older copy before you assume anything worse.

Do sitelinks only appear on brand searches?

Google's documentation does not limit them to brand searches. It says sitelinks appear when Google thinks they will be useful to the user and relevant to the query. My reading is that navigational searches, where people want one specific site, are where most businesses will see them, because a menu of shortcuts helps someone who has already chosen your site. For example, a search for a Chicago bank's name is a natural fit, while a broad question about mortgage rates is not.

Does a click on a sitelink count for that page in Search Console?

Yes, as far as the general rules go. Google's Help page on impressions, position and clicks never names sitelinks, but it says data is assigned to the URL that each link points to, and that "Click, impression, and position data are attributed to the canonical URL of the link." So a click on a "Pricing" sitelink should count toward your pricing page, not your homepage. The position, though, will usually match the brand result above it. That may be why an inner page can look as if it ranks first for your brand name.

Will removing old search box markup break my site name?

It can if you remove too much. Google's farewell post for the sitelinks search box warns that site names use "a variation of WebSite structured data, which continues to be supported." If one block of markup on your homepage serves both jobs, remove only the search box part and keep what site names need. Better still, leave it alone. The same post says unsupported markup "won't cause issues in Search," so there is no penalty for keeping it. A careful edit beats a hasty cleanup.

Can a page on another domain appear in my sitelinks?

Google's documentation says sitelinks "are links from the same domain," so a page on a separate domain should not appear in your block. That matters for groups that run a .com site next to a .co.kr site. For example, a German publisher with a separate domain for its shop should not expect the shop to show under its main brand result. The documentation does not say how subdomains are treated, so do not assume either way. If shortcuts matter to you, keep key sections on your main domain.

Do Google Ads sitelinks change my organic sitelinks?

Neither Google page used for this guide says that one affects the other. Organic sitelinks are "automated," according to Google's sitelinks documentation, while Google Ads sitelink assets are written by advertisers in their own accounts. As far as these sources show, buying ads does not let you pick your organic links. The practical overlap is your menu. The Ads Help page suggests you "Check your website's navigation bars for easy sitelink ideas," and a clean, well-labeled menu helps both systems at once.

How many sitelinks can Google show under one result?

For organic results, Google's sitelinks documentation gives no number. For paid results the Google Ads Help page is specific. An ad needs at least 2 sitelinks for them to appear, and it can show up to 6 on desktop and up to 8 on mobile, where people swipe through them in a carousel. Video campaign ads on YouTube can show up to 4, on mobile only. Those numbers apply to ads alone, so do not use them to judge your organic brand result.

Do sitelinks work the same way in Europe and South Korea?

Google's sitelinks documentation describes one set of rules and does not mention regional differences. When Google retired the sitelinks search box, it said the change would apply "globally across all search results, in all languages and countries." For paid sitelinks there is one clear difference. The Ads Help page limits link text to 25 characters in most languages but 12 in double-width languages such as Korean. If you serve Seoul, write short Korean labels for your ads and keep your Korean menu just as tight.