We discussed some common myths in part-1 of Common Myths about Google SiteLinks. Here I am with more of them. Coming straight to the point this time.
Myth5: Google SiteLinks require a lot of traffic from Google Search especially for the term for which the sitelinks have been allotted.
Do you really think people search for Yack Yack. Absolutely not. SiteLinks have more to do with the brand name than the SERPs traffic. However, a lot of people use Google Search for shortcuts to the sites, taking myself as a live example; I normally search for a sitename instead of typing full URL in the address bar (we lazy webmasters..). This minute traffic I think plays some vital role because it is a traffic with 100% CTR (Click Through Rate) in Search listings.
Myth6: Only those pages are chosen as SiteLinks who have more links than other ones.
Nope. I have seen a lot of inconsistencies in the way Google is choosing these pages. But, this is for sure that, a page with zero external link can also be listed as a SiteLink. I’ll update you with a live example.
Myth7: Anchor text for SiteLinks is same as Title Tags of the SiteLink’ed pages.
It is normally the case but not necessary. Check this, the third SiteLink reads Blog Statistics for October 2007 but when you look at the page title, it reads Sizlopedia Blog Statistics for October 2007 Did you notice how Google scrapped off the word Sizlopedia from the title. This is an interesting case, because sizlopedia itself is the word for which that site has been allotted SiteLinks. We would shed some more light on how the words are scrapped, but later in some separate post.
Myth8: A website needs to have good meta description and keyword tags for getting SiteLinks.
This is a comparatively less common myth, but it still exists. I have seen people talking about this factor in public forums. Let me tell you that none of my sites have meta tags and still quite of few them enjoy the SiteLinks. Myth8 busted!
That brings us to the end of Part 2 of "Common Myths about Google SiteLinks". I am still doing further research on SiteLinks, and there are very good chances that I’ll publish the third part of this series. I hope you liked these two parts. Do you have any question about SiteLinks? Ask me.
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these tips really helped in understanding lot more things…thanks for sharing
nice points you have to explain things to people who are unable to differentiate between myth and reality :)
[...] not) part of the series - Common Myths About Google SiteLinks. You can check out the first part and second part before reading this one. You may also like to read about Google SiteLinks in general if you [...]