For a long time, each time we sent a query to the search engine, we found a single search result for each website, which directed us to a specific page. Though these days, more and more search results are becoming complex search results: they provide us, the users, the opportunity to choose not only the main link to the relevant site, though also the links to the internal pages that would appear to be the search engine that might interest us.
Sponsored sitelinks versus sitelinks for natural results
Let’s start from the bottom line: When we start a sponsored SEO campaign, we can choose to use sitelinks to improve CTR and user targeting. In contrast, for the organic results, those that are organically promoted, the website owners do not have control over the internal sitelinks, and in particular whether they will be displayed and which ones will be displayed. In the case of organic SEO, the search results will be displayed in the format decided by the search engine, not the webmaster. This is how it looks:
How to improve the chances so sitelinks be displays organically?
Well, this is great question and the answer is hierarchy. Website that is A hierarchically well-constructed website will send Google some of the most important pages on the website and most of them Google will display as sitelinks.
4 benefits for sitelink users
A website that sitelinks has been built for, whether through these or that campaign settings in the process of sponsored SEO, or naturally by the search engine, can enjoy a number of benefits that will give it priority over websites returned in search results and do not use this mechanism. Here are some of them:
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Shows authority
Websites that sitelinks have been built for, appear to be more authoritative and more reliable websites that offer diverse and rich content. Beyond the CTR that are expected to increase, looking at the search results can indicate something about the range of content on the website. Want to read more about authority and how to make a website authoritative? click here.
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Increasing relief rates
In many cases, using sitelinks – can encourage more users to click on one of the links pointing to a page on a website. Increasing CTR is a basic method of improving the performance of any website. For the full article of improving clickthrough rates (CTRs) click here.
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Perceiving valuable real estate space
When it comes to a sponsored campaign, one of the ways to make our ad preference over the others is to push competitors beyond the scrolling range. In such a configuration, it is possible to further improve the chances that the user will choose to click on a link to our website and not bother to reach the competitors.
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Targeting the user
A "lazy" user can find what he was looking for also when he used a generic, general and non-targeted search phrase with the variety of pages presented to him through the sitelinks mechanism – that way we can earn a large amount of users on the one hand, and allows them to focus on areas that interest them on the other hand.
In conclusion
The use of sitelinks is an important element of any sponsored SEO campaign, and also in organic SEO. Using sitelinks has many advantages, including targeting the user, finding valuable real estate space in the search engine and increasing the CTR.
