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Where Have All My Google Authority Sitelinks Gone?
Category: SEO & Web Design
A couple of months ago I had the privilege of gaining favour with Google on one of my sites. Search for “free iPhone” on Google UK and you would find the site at number one spot with additional site-links annotated, like you see in the picture I have used as an example.
Clicks and conversions improved no end as a result and everything was good in the World of Steve!
The general idea is that Google considered the site to be the trusted authority on free iPhones (and they were right of course!). Well, maybe I should phrase that in the past tense. The site still ranks in the same position but the site-links have gone, disappeared into the ether.
I’ve not changed anything on the site and hope that continued link building will rectify the position. In the meantime, in the words of Toyah Wilcox, it’s a mystery.
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I have never understood how to get those site-links. There is a page in Google webmaster tools that mentions them but I never have any. I just assumed they would come when my site was old enough or when google decided it was time to put them there. Google is a funny thing.
You are right when you talk about Google deciding, I’m not sure how much influence you can bring to bear yourself.
Google intentionally rotates who appears in those links. They probably believe (and are mostly correct) that sellers will start counting on those extra sales and when their free links disappear they’ll increase spending on ads to make up for it.
I strongly recommend cultivating other sources of traffic. You can’t trust Google ads or search placement. It is all a game: they’re the master and we’re all just pawns.
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wow, for a freebie site to have one of them, must have been pretty good.
I only every see very well known, companies like microsoft, ebay and people. Never would have expected to see your site up there, just shows how much work you put in!
Google seem to be a hard nut to crack, nobody really knows what the algorithms are and it looks like a lot of guess work going on with alot of the SEO sites out there, whatever you are doing Steve its working. If you ever feel like sharing im all ears
steve, its nice to see you facing seo problems too.
…meant in the nicest possible way pal
James, hi, fortunately this was posted in January, things are good now! Well, apart from a slight drop on “free iPhone 4″ (: