How to Take Advantage of the New Google Site Links

Wow, just take a look at those (very) juicy site links in Google search results. Type in a branded query in Google and you’ll find a list of site links that now occupy an enormous amount of space in the search results. For this example, I typed in ‘Delineo’ to see what appears. Here’s a snippet:

Now, this is great apart from one glaring issue: Google has displayed site links we don’t necessarily want to appear for. Half of the Delineo site links direct people to individuals who work at Delineo, which is a bit of a problem. Of course, it’s nothing to do with who’s appearing, but it’s not exactly what we want to display. We want Google to pull information about our services. But how can this be done?

It all boils down to Webmaster Tools. In Google’s infinite wisdom, we’re not allowed to choose which links appear, but it’s possible to do so indirectly using the ‘demote this site link URL’. Google tells us that it will only ‘take this into account’, but it’s worth a try nevertheless. Here’s what to do:

 

1. Go to your Webmaster Tools account

2. Navigate to Site Configuration and select Sitelinks

3. From here you can add the links you wish to demoted. Add them (unlucky if you have a huge website!)

4. Pray to Google God and hope the correct site links will appear in the near future.

 

And that’s it. I’ve done this with the Delineo site and will report back if Google God decides to change them for me. Please, Google!

Paul Gardner: @binarychange