LBi London

Posted by Manley April 2nd, 2009

Mini SiteLinks are appearing under results in the first pages of Google for a number of searches. Are these MSLs (which Google is identifying as oneline_sitelinks for now) a permanent feature and how do they affect your site?

Google SiteLinks is a very useful tool for any site to have. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, it describes thegroup of links below the top result for some searches:

In this example there is also a SiteLinks Searchbox shown. Earlier we saw Google experimenting with a single vertical column of links and originally these were presented as what was called ‘oneline sitelinks’, but Google seem very happy with the new format. Today, however we have a new phenomenon – SiteLinks not only for the top result, but also for other results in the page:

So, how are these MSLs determined?

Obviously I cannot say for certain, but so far these have been displayed in certain circumstances:

1. Where the search does not have the classic SiteLinks for the top result.
2. Where the site already has classic SiteLinks displayed in other results – Google only displays SiteLinks when a site has a minimum of three SiteLinks available.
3. Where, whilst there are examples of positions 3 and 4 displaying MSLs, none have been seen outside of the first page of results.

This test was, unusually, rolled out on Google.co.uk first, so we had the first view of this change. For now, the Mini SiteLinks do have extraordinarily long tracking URLs:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://www.888.com/%3Fpage%3Dpoker_tab&ei=bMTVSeCcGpSc-gaylKTKBQ&sa=X&oi=oneline_sitelinks&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNEEfTvoABibHYSw115ueosW6f14eQ

One would assume from this that Google is still tracking user behaviour before making this a permanent feature, but I for one hope that these deep links into the body of a site stay – they both reduce the advantage which a #1 position holds and allow users to access the page which they want within your site more easily.

Replacing the indented results for any one site also means that more pages appear above the fold for any given search term, giving the user more choice. Obviously, if your site is at #1, this is not a bonus but, for the rest of the first page of results, this is a huge bonus and should reduce the current massive first place benefits and improve the return on SEO across the board.

Note: These look a lot like the old Yahoo! Paid Inclusion links, but there is nothing to suggest that these are paid for in this way (or in any other – these are not AdSense links either).

Tags: Google, sitelinks

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