Mediarun Search Marketing News

Google Test Mega site links

By Matthew Kynaston

August 16th 2011

Search Engine Optimisation News

At some point within the last week, Google has introduced and been testing what we call “mega site-links”. Although not common as yet in the SERPs, some sites have been lucky enough to have it appear when the search term has been specifically their brand name.

original image spotted on .com SERPS by Webmaster World

This is how it looks in the UK:

Sitelinks spotted on Google UK when searching for the BBC

What this means for SEO

Primarily, it is good news for your brand. It pushes all competition off the first SERP, which may include negative reviews, alternative suppliers etc. It is also great because it highlights all the different services and areas of the business you offer, increasing product/service awareness. The user then has more of an idea if your website is what they are looking for, and it limits the choice they would have for another site.

For SEO it means that there is yet another area to be optimised. You have another area of text and display that can be optimized to sell your site. Typically you’d replace the truncation with 34character limited description text. It also means that your title tags are more important than ever. They have to represent exactly what is on the page and they have to be clean.

Google already gives you the option to remove links you may think irrelevant or less unattractive on the SERP. However, the best decision may be to have as much space taken up on the SERP as possible. So consider your architecture and what elements are important to feature on these sitelinks especially if it turns out they are here to stay.

To find out about the performance solution we can offer you and your business, speak to one of our consultants on +44 (0)8009 550 176 or contact us.