Google Introduces One-Line Sitelinks
By Anna Johnson on April 28th, 2009Google has introduced ‘one-line sitelinks’ to its search engine results pages (SERPs).
Instead of simply displaying sitelinks on the first search result and just showing one sitelink per search query, Google will now display a row of links for any number of search results.
To date, sitelinks – the links that lead to specific pages deeper within a website – have only appeared beneath the first search result. They have also traditionally taken the form of two columns of links.
Now, if applicable, Google will remove the two columns of sitelinks for the first search result, and replace it with a horizontal line of up to four sitelinks. What’s more, it will do the same thing for other search results on the page.
Google’s change does not mean every search result will include sitelinks. These are, like the search results themselves, generated algorithmically based on Google’s perception of the expected benefit to users.
Google does, however, believe the display of one-line sitelinks will increase the visibility and traffic to websites.
Webmasters that don’t want certain pages to appear as sitelinks can arrange for this via Google’s Webmaster Tools (they need to have a Google account first).
Source: Doantam Phan, “One-line sitelinks,” Official Google Webmaster Central Blog, April 16, 2009
