Google Sitelinks expand

In their ongoing efforts to give better search results to users, Google is continuing to test the viability of providing jumbo-sized search results for search terms. Google is offering expanded Sitelinks display on searches by displaying a dozen or so links below the main search result. Testing of the expanded sitelinks feature began in April. A week back, Google finally came out with official confirmation that the expanded sitelinks feature is here to stay.

Google explains that the Sitelinks that appear below search results will be URL’s added to a single line of text. These links will be quite similar to regular search results. By expanding the number of links to twelve from eight, Google makes this feature more robust and dynamic.

In addition to the whopping number of results displayed by Google, the search engine has also improved their search algorithm. They explain that by combining sitelink ranking with regular result ranking, they have been able to produce better quality of links. By doing this, Google says they have been able to get rid of result duplication. Search results are more refined and the results are organized better in the results page too.

Although Google has tried to produce expanded results, users have observed that twelve results may not always appear for all brands. In some cases, certain brands produce as few as 6 site links also. However, the number of results produced increases when more description is added to the query string. This could point to certain algorithms used by Google to produce the optimal number of Site links. In this sense, Google could have found a brand new way of rewarding brands that are doing quite well through other forms of advertising.

Although webmasters have greeted this upgrade with mixed reactions, Google on their part is still experimenting with this feature. They are still in the process of identifying the best links to show. If times are a little unsettling, webmasters could use Google analytics to determine changes in bounce rates and make use of strong SEO optimization techniques to get good traffic to inside pages too. This will definitely help in search engine rankings.