Sitelinks: The Extra Links Under a Search Result
Sitelinks are the extra links that appear under the top result, helping users jump to key sections. Learn how search engines pick them and how you can steer them.
Sitelinks are the extra links that appear beneath a search result, helping users jump straight to key sections of a site.
How Sitelinks Appear
Sitelinks are auto-generated. They usually show for the top result of a well-known site, and search engines decide which sections deserve a shortcut.
A site cannot buy them, and no setting turns them on; they are earned through a structure the engine considers worth displaying.
What Makes Good Sitelinks
Clear navigation, descriptive page titles, and strong internal links all help the engine see which sections matter most.
Sites that earn useful sitelinks tend to have a small set of stable, deeply linked sections instead of a sprawling archive.
Steering Sitelinks
Because the block is auto-generated, the main lever is site structure: keep the primary sections obvious and repeatedly linked.
A specific link that should not appear can be demoted through search console, but the overall set stays in the engine's hands.
Getting Started
- Keep the main navigation stable and consistent across the site.
- Use descriptive titles on the section pages you want featured.
- Link to those sections from the homepage and every relevant page.
- Demote any sitelink in search console that should not appear.
The site: a software company ranks first for its own name, a result with ten links under it.
The reading: the block shows Pricing, Docs, and Blog, the three sections the site links most heavily.
The fix: the team keeps those three prominent in the nav and boosts the release notes section with internal links.
Why it works: the sitelinks become a shortcut menu that sends the right visitors to the right pages.
Quick Tip
Treat sitelinks as a mirror of your architecture: whatever you link most loudly is what the engine will offer as shortcuts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sitelinks, Bottom Line
Sitelinks turn a single search result into a shortcut menu for the most important parts of a site.
You cannot order them, but you can build the clear structure that makes them appear.