Google Results Are we Special?

[Steven1976a]

Ive seen on some big websites previously like Amazon or high street stores in google results it sometimes displays the main page of the website and then under this it has links to different areas of the site.

I came across the same thing for our website when searching "Body jewelry Shopping" body jewelry shopping - Google Search

1. It is quite pleasing to see but does anyone know why it decides to show the results with links to other sub catagories
2. Can we control which links it displays?

steve

[Peter (IMC)]

Steven,

You're talking about sitelinks. You can get more information about the sitelinks of your own website from Google Webmaster Tools (www.google.com/webmasters/tools).

Get your account, verify your website and Google will give you additional information.

[incrediblehelp]

Yes those are sitelinks and now when some branded searches are typed in you can see a Google custom search box that searchers can use.

Look at this search for Amazon:

amazon - Google Search

[alhefner]

Google makes the decision of just what internal links, if any, to display with a site listing. The only control you have over them is your own SEO practices.

Yep, your site is special! Really, it isn't every site that is set up well enough that google will index and display sitelinks.

[incrediblehelp]

Actually you can control them by letting Google know which you dont want to show. This is done through Google Webmaster Tools.

[raza]

Much like Steven1976a's "body jewelry shopping", my site is also a 3-word domain name. When I searched by those three words with a space in between like Steven1976a's example, I also had identical results, with a range of multiple deep links displayed.

Yes, it was very nice to see that. Felt like a big boy!!!

But, on a serious note, is it purely an attribute of successful SEO, or is it also a function of the domain name itself?

If instead of bodyjewelryshopping.com, Steven1976a's domain was stevenjewels.com, for instance, and we searched for "body jewelry shopping", would the result still be the same, or different?

Regards!

Raza

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Yes those are sitelinks and now when some branded searches are typed in you can see a Google custom search box that searchers can use.

Look at this search for Amazon:

amazon - Google Search

Sitelinks already show up for my site: seo workers - Google Search

Do you think that the custom search will only be shown for e-commerce sites?

[subhzash]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Actually you can control them by letting Google know which you dont want to show. This is done through Google Webmaster Tools.

How it is possible to get that kind of listings?? Is it possible only through well optimization??

[datetopia]

Here is what we get for Datetopia.com in webmaster tools:

Sitelinks are additional links Google sometimes generates from site contents in order to help users navigate your site. Google generates these sitelinks periodically from your site's contents.

Because we generate sitelinks dynamically, this list can change from time to time.
An example image showing Google search results containing sitelinks for the google.com website
Current sitelinks
packages - Products [block]

Help us improve! Tell us why you want to block this sitelink.
Reason
Comments
Portfolio - Portfolio [block]

Help us improve! Tell us why you want to block this sitelink.
Reason
Comments
Compare Datetopia Dating Scripts - Compare [block]

Help us improve! Tell us why you want to block this sitelink.
Reason
Comments
Contact - Contact [block]

Help us improve! Tell us why you want to block this sitelink.
Reason
Comments
Live Dating Software - Live [block]

Help us improve! Tell us why you want to block this sitelink.
Reason
Comments
Services - Services [block]

Help us improve! Tell us why you want to block this sitelink.
Reason
Comments
Articles - Articles [block]

Help us improve! Tell us why you want to block this sitelink.
Reason
Comments
Affiliates - Affiliate Reseller Plans [block]

Some time ago this section was empty for our website. But after years of SEO the main pages got identified and we can remove what we're not satisfied with (like pages that are not longer accurate or important for current website content).

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by subhzash

How it is possible to get that kind of listings?? Is it possible only through well optimization??

I seriously dont think you are reading threads. Like I said you can deletes ones you dont want in Google Webmaster Tools. Do you know what GWT tools is?

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

I seriously dont think you are reading threads. Like I said you can deletes ones you dont want in Google Webmaster Tools. Do you know what GWT tools is?

Now that was really funny.

[keyon]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

I seriously dont think you are reading threads. Like I said you can deletes ones you dont want in Google Webmaster Tools. Do you know what GWT tools is?

Dear Incrediblehelp....
No need to be nasty. What people are talking about here is how to get the Google site listings in the first place...not how to keep Google from doing it.

[incrediblehelp]

Keyon the member above has been posting some misinformaiton in other threads. Considering you just joined and and only have one post I can only assume that you are coming to his defense directly. Reading through this thread you can see that I clearly pointed out that GWT does the job for you.

Not being nasty just pointing out the obvious.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Keyon the member above has been posting some misinformaiton in other threads. Considering you just joined and and only have one post I can only assume that you are coming to his defense directly. Reading through this thread you can see that I clearly pointed out that GWT does the job for you.

Not being nasty just pointing out the obvious.

To be honest I fully agree with you. Great discussions/threads have been ruined because of all that. I was again almost ready to draw myself back from the community because of all that.

[keyon]

Originally Posted by raza

But, on a serious note, is it purely an attribute of successful SEO, or is it also a function of the domain name itself?

Aside from the issue of controlling which pages Google might include in your sitelinks, what about raza's question about what gets you a sitelinks in the first place? Is it purely an attribute of successful SEO, or the mere size of your website, or something else?

thanks

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by keyon

Is it purely an attribute of successful SEO, or the mere size of your website, or something else?

It is purely algorithmically and no one can tell you for sure.

[raza]

Ranging from seoworkers to datetopia to bodyjewelryshopping to gulfjobsites.

Why does it appear that the keywords in the domain name itself are playing a role?

When I googled "dating software" (without the quotes to keep it a regular search), datetopia appeared near the bottom of the first page, in single entry, like any other results. All of its haram of sub links were gone.

I googled "gulf jobs" (again without the quotes) and gulfjobsites also lost its sub-link entries which had appeared when I had earlier searched the keywords "gulf job sites" (without quotes).

I googled "seo consultants", "seo work", and our friends from seoworkers.com would just not show up all the way to 6th/7th page. I then googled "Search Engine Optimization Consulting Company" straight from their title tag and they appeared at the top result, but without the sublinks.

Then I googled a more natural permutation "seo consulting company", and they disappeared from the results again.

Would the gurus like to shed some light on whats happening. I reckon that by getting all the fancy results from searches which are a direct replica of the words in the domain name, we are simply fooling ourselves, or boosting our egos unnecessarily.

[Webnauts]

Nobody can tell for sure, since this is an algorithm which Google did not reveal.

But from my observation so far I assume that these are some points how it works:

• Your website must have a stable #1 ranking for a searched keyword. Especially brands: seo workers - Google Search
• The web site should be at least 18 months old.
• The number of searches for a certain keyword seem to be considered. Most probably the number of clicks that a site gets for a certain keyword too.
• The number of backlinks with the searched keyword and the anchor text seem to have influence.
• It seems like only main keywords of the site appear. That is why not all keywords of a site gets listed.

So stop bothering. There is no real method to influence that.

I hope this info helps.

P.S. Maybe the SEO expert member subhzash can tell you more.

[inertia]

It does it for my URL / company name. It doesn't do it for any of my main keywords. Add this to the other evidence here and i reckon it only happens when the keyword relevance is very very high (e.g. brand names). Google obviously takes the decision that the keyword you used was meant specifically to find that site and displays more options because of this.

Have i explained that right?!

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Nobody can tell for sure, since this is an algorithm which Google did not reveal.

But from my observation so far I assume that these are some points how it works:

• Your website must have a stable #1 ranking for a searched keyword. Especially brands: seo workers - Google Search
• The web site should be at least 18 months old.
• The number of searches for a certain keyword seem to be considered. Most probably the number of clicks that a site gets for a certain keyword too.
• The number of backlinks with the searched keyword and the anchor text seem to have influence.
• It seems like only main keywords of the site appear. That is why not all keywords of a site gets listed.

So stop bothering. There is no real method to influence that.

I hope this info helps.

P.S. Maybe the SEO expert member subhzash can tell you more.

I think it's actually more related to website hiarchy and relations between keywords + the actual search term used. So it is possible to influence the site links. But it is good for Raza to realize that sitelinks are for the visitor and so they will only show up if they have some actual use for the visitor. They are not meant to be an advertising billboard for a website.

[Steven1976a]

thanks for all the great replies. I especially like the comment from inertia about the "brand name" i kind of brought up the subject as the results i was noticing seemed to be branded searches and brand names.

Moving swiftly along on the same topic, why when i type "Tesco" as a search term in the google results it shows a Search Bar under their result which says search Tesco? Is this a new feature in google or is this something you could add in google webmaster section? I dont see the point or practiability myself for it but just curious.

steve

[littlegiant]

I have to admit that I'm a little baffled as to why Google will implement site links. Of my two main sites, one is much younger, has only a fraction of the content of the other and receives much less traffic and ranks for keywords that get less traffic and yet it's the one that gets sitelinks (albeit, only for the site name, but still...)

[inertia]

Originally Posted by littlegiant

I have to admit that I'm a little baffled as to why Google will implement site links. Of my two main sites, one is much younger, has only a fraction of the content of the other and receives much less traffic and ranks for keywords that get less traffic and yet it's the one that gets sitelinks (albeit, only for the site name, but still...)

Thats it! It only does it for your site name. There must be so little mentions of that on any other website that google decides the user was searching for your site and no other...giving you a more comprehensive listing.

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by inertia

Thats it! It only does it for your site name. There must be so little mentions of that on any other website that google decides the user was searching for your site and no other...giving you a more comprehensive listing.

Actually no. They do it when it makes sense to do so. Search for example for: new york

Not site name related, but very useful to the user. So if you have a site that has a lot of different information on a very generic subject, you´ll likely to have good sitelinks for it.

It does however make sense that when you´re looking for a brand name, that sitelinks show up. A brand name is a very generic subject.

[Janna122003]

Originally Posted by Steven1976a

Ive seen on some big websites previously like Amazon or high street stores in google results it sometimes displays the main page of the website and then under this it has links to different areas of the site.

I came across the same thing for our website when searching "Body jewelry Shopping" body jewelry shopping - Google Search

1. It is quite pleasing to see but does anyone know why it decides to show the results with links to other sub catagories
2. Can we control which links it displays?

steve

that site was considered by google as authority site.