Ran across this while doing some research. Please consider the image below. My question concerns the links circled in red. I am by no means new to the webmaster game but I admit that I am a bit behind on the search engine front. My question is what is the story with all the supplemental links for this listing? I've tried several random keywords but could not find a second example that listed so many supplemental results from the same website.



Your imput is greatly appreciated.

No one really knows outside of Google. They seem to show up for the first result only, and it's hard to say which searches might bring them up. The navigation in your site seems to have something to do with it, but probably very little. This type of listing seems to go to sites Google considers an authority in their area, when someone is searching for something that's clearly a good match with that site.

They're called sitelinks, and if you sign up for a free webmaster console account, they'll at least tell you you don't have any. No offense; I don't either.

Supplemental results are a bad thing. Those are pages that Google deems so unimportant they almost never turn up, unless you search for them by title.

Forrest is right. Those are called sitelinks and not supplemental links. They show up when Google considers a particular site to have a lot of authority for a given query.

You'll see it a lot if you search for a company name. Naturally IBM will have a lot of authority for the query 'ibm.' Google will add the sitelinks to pages it thinks you're likely to want. Chances are if you're searching for 'ibm' you're looking for something on the IBM site. This is Google's way of helping you get to pages beyond the home page might be what you really want. I would guess they choose the sitelinks based on popular destination pages to the site.

From my research it also has something to do with the way the site is mapped out - but I couldn't find any information about what Google is actually looking for in terms of anchor text or structure.

<rant>
If they plan on giving some sites this advantage over others it would only be fair if they published guidelines for how to get the added links so other sites might enjoy this privilege upon grabbing first place...
</rant>

Ok - I feel better now.

has anyone ever asked the google guys, what is it they actually look for before they qualify a site for sitelinks?

Links pointing to the "home" page with the phrase/word in the anchor text seems to be all it needs.

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...17GB217&q=dmoz
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...ry&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...217GB217&q=odp

I thought that site links also looks a lot like any other indexed site in SERPs that contains the title page, its meta description or some text that describes the site, and the url of the link. The one showed on the image is some what different for a normal site link that I used to see. can anyone give another sample of this? what term to search in SE to see some more of this if anyone knows just for more samples.

Try putting American Civil Liberties Union into the search and you'll see it.

Google is pretty sure what I'm searching for with this query. The only doubt is do I want to find the ACLU's site, or do I want to hear people talking about them? Maybe it's because they know my search history, that I use news.google.com often, that makes it clear that I'm looking for the horse's mouth.

Since Google knows exactly what site I want, they can present me with a list of options. Do I want their action center? Immigrant rights? To contact them? Or to donate?

John I don't think it's a personalized search sort of thing. It's natural that a search for American Civil Liberties Union is going to bring up the aclu.org site. I think the idea is that you might want more than the home page so Google is offering some of the more common pages people visit. I'm not sure how or why they pick the sitelinks they do.

Chris I think it's more than links pointing to the home page with the phrase. Otherwise most every home page would show the sitelinks when you search for the domain. I think the site needs a certain amount of authority in the eyes of Google before they show any sitelinks, though that's more speculation on my part than actual fact.

Its my personal observation based on some of the searches I have done and don't quote me if I am wrong on it.

What I have seen is if you search for something where you have many pages which are relevant to those result then it displays something like what we see in the screen shot.

Lets take an example

We search for Arelis. The SEO software. Now Arelis will have lots of pages where it will have backlinks to the pages with keywords like "download arelis", "pricing of Arelis" And google just displays them near to that Arelis results.

Something like search for related keywords of and displays those pages as well.

I think the site needs a certain amount of authority in the eyes of Google before they show any sitelinks

Basically to Google, authority for a keyword = backlinks with that anchor text

I think it's more than links pointing to the home page with the phrase

Yep, I was being a little simplistic.

It is as shabbirbhimani notes;

We search for Arelis. The SEO software. Now Arelis will have lots of pages where it will have backlinks to the pages with keywords like "download arelis", "pricing of Arelis" And google just displays them near to that Arelis results.

The combination for site links is;

Lots of links to the home page with the particular word plus plenty of "deep" links to other pages on the same host and it is the presence of the deep links that trigger the cascade.

The vast majority of "expert" & link builders only ever go begging for links to the home page, they simply do not understand that "home" page links only are not and will never be "natural".
A truly authoritative site will have all manner of external links to the individual pages that make up the website, not just the "home" page.

thanks john for the sample...

I noticed something, is it the navigation menu of the site that is listed there? So this things are possible to be shown in SERP. After seeing it, now I'm wondering how it is done. Is it exclusive only for those kinds/types of site? I mean is it possible for those .com or .net or .info etc... sites or is it just for .org as for the two examples I recently seen?

I noticed something, is it the navigation menu of the site that is listed there

No

If you read the two posts immediately before your last one you will be able to read how it is "done"

a little testing would soon demonstrate how it works
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...7GB217&q=yahoo
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...217GB217&q=msn
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...17&q=microsoft

Wow, thank you all for your responses. So, it's looking like this is a new and little understood phenomenon on Google. I would like to see a continuation of this thread as it would seem to be an important aspect of Google we need to explore.

I'm in a position where I am competing with a site which has the #1 position for my primary keyword and is afforded these sitelinks, giving them an enormous advantage though they really are no more relevant than my site is (My site is also on the first page of results for my keyword). So, is this only the case for #1 listings or has anyone seen sitelinks in lower SERP positions?

It's most definitely not new, they have been around almost 2 years

Yes, only the top result get them.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

It's most definitely not new, they have been around almost 2 years

Yes, only the top result get them.

Thank you for the correction. As I said, I am a little behind in my SEO studies. Laziness bred from complacency. Haven't had to worry about it much with my site as I've been on the first page of SERPs for my primary terms for a long time. Guess it wouldn't hurt to force myself the occasional refresher.

Chris your explanation makes sense. I assume the key to having them show up is the abundance of deep links. Otherwise they would show for a site when you search for it by domain.

Originally Posted by Ovis Suburbanus

Ran across this while doing some research. Please consider the image below. My question concerns the links circled in red. I am by no means new to the webmaster game but I admit that I am a bit behind on the search engine front. My question is what is the story with all the supplemental links for this listing? I've tried several random keywords but could not find a second example that listed so many supplemental results from the same website.



Your imput is greatly appreciated.

Well......only google knows all about it....we can only guess. We can get our pages which are in main index of oogle by entering site:www.yourdomain.com/*

all other pages which are not in main index are may be in suplemental indexed or may be not indexed yet.

Oh please, read the thread and obviously LOOK at the image,

We HAVE established that the question was NOT about the non-existent supplemental index but about the extra links, called sitelinks.