Google sitelinks: how your navigation shapes them

Key takeaways

Google sitelinks are the extra links shown under a site's main result, usually for brand searches. Google generates them automatically and you cannot choose them directly. Clear navigation, descriptive link text and sensible page titles make useful sitelinks more likely, because Google builds them from your site's structure.

• Sitelinks are chosen automatically by Google's systems.
• There is no setting to add or pick sitelinks.
• Clear structure and informative link text help Google choose well.
• To drop an unwanted sitelink, improve or remove that page.

What are Google sitelinks?

Google sitelinks are additional links to pages within a site that can appear beneath its main search result, helping searchers jump straight to a section. Google's documentation says they appear only when its systems think they will be useful, and that they are generated automatically. They are most common for searches on a business's name.

How does navigation influence sitelinks?

Google says it analyses a site's link structure to find shortcuts that save users time. It recommends a logical structure and anchor text and alt text that are informative, compact and avoid repetition. In practice, your main menu is the clearest map of your structure, so specific labels such as 'Boiler servicing' and 'Prices' make better candidates than 'Solutions' and 'More'.

• How clear website navigation improves user experience
• Menu labels: words visitors understand at a glance

Can you choose or remove sitelinks?

You cannot choose them. Google removed the old Search Console option to demote sitelinks years ago. If an unwanted page appears, such as an old offer or a login page, improve your structure, remove or noindex the page if it should not be in search, and make the pages you want more prominent in your navigation.

Why are sitelinks worth caring about?

For brand searches, sitelinks take up more space in the results and send searchers straight to the page they need, such as contact or prices. They act as a preview of your navigation in search. Poor ones, such as a privacy policy or an empty tag page, waste that space.

What other signals help?

Unique, descriptive page titles help, because they often become the sitelink text. Breadcrumbs with structured data show hierarchy. A site name that Google recognises, set through structured data and consistent use, helps the main result too.

• Breadcrumb navigation: does your website need it?
• Does website navigation affect SEO?

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a brand search shows sitelinks for 'Terms', 'Cookie policy' and 'Blog page 3'. The menu uses generic labels and the service pages share one title. Giving each service a specific menu label and page title, and keeping policies in the footer, makes useful pages more likely to appear over time.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Sitelinks checklist

• Specific labels in the main menu.
• Unique, descriptive page titles.
• Policies and logins out of the main menu.
• Noindex thin pages that should not be in search.
• Breadcrumbs with structured data.

• Click depth: how far key pages sit from your homepage
• Navigation and AI search: help AI tools read your site

Next step

Search your business name and note which sitelinks appear and which you would want instead.