Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink extensions allow you to display extra links below your adverts, allowing you to direct users to the most relevant pages within your website.

Here’s an example of a set of sitelinks for a money transfer website.

Sitelinks have evolved over the years; Google now features them in different ways. Sitelinks will vary by the number or appearance in the search results. 

You may see some sitelinks with outlines or images. Sitelinks may also appear in carousel format or with the option to expand.

Generally, there are two different types of sitelinks that Google shows these days:

• Search Campaigns: At least two sitelinks will appear underneath search ads. You can have up to 6 links on desktop and 8 links on mobile.

• Video Campaigns: at least two sitelinks appear underneath ads on YouTube when played on mobile devices. You can show up to 4 sitelinks.

There many reasons why we recommend always displaying sitelink extensions (if possible for your website)

1 - Occupy more space on the first page of Google.

2 - Increase CTR by having more links for users to click on

3 - Direct people to other relevant pages on the website, leading to increase in trust and conversion rates.

4 - Highlight benefits and features that didn’t fit in the ad.

Using Sitelinks in Your Ads

Your sitelinks need to be relevant to the searcher’s query or keywords. When creating your sitelinks you’ll need to think about which keywords the user will include, where they are in their buyer journey, and their overall intent.

Relevancy

In the same way that Google ranks organic search results or gives ads a quality score, Google will judge how relevant your sitelinks are to your ad and to the searcher. It does this by trying to understand what answer the searcher is looking for and how closely the links in your ad extension match that.

For example: as a printer retailer, you might show your ad to someone searching for a portable printer. A relevant sitelink would be a product page for a portable printer or a guide to buying a portable printer. 

An irrelevant sitelink would be to your blog or to your full product catalog. These pages aren’t what the searcher would be looking for with this query. 

Search Intent

The intent behind the search or keyword will also have an impact on the relevancy of your sitelinks. 

Google is getting better at understanding the meaning and intent behind every search. It can understand the difference between someone searching to buy a printer and someone researching which printer would be best for them. 

You’ll need to understand this too. Consider what keywords your sitelinks and ads are appearing for. Are you targeting keywords that are informational when searchers are just researching? Are you targeting keywords that are transactional when searchers are ready to buy? 

Usually, sitelinks are used for branded searches where searchers are using navigational keywords. In this instance, the searcher is coming to your brand for the thing you are most known for, so your sitelinks should reflect that. 

Buying Funnel

One part of determining search intent is understanding whether the searcher is ready to buy (using a transactional keyword) or is just researching (using an informational keyword). 

For example, someone researching a portable printer would not expect to see or click through to a product page. They would be more interested in buying guides, blogs, and potentially category pages. Keep this in mind when choosing your sitelinks. 

Length

Your sitelinks should be short and to the point. You’ll have around 20 characters on desktop and 15 characters on mobile to communicate what your link is. 

Any more than that length and Google will truncate your text, which might clip important information.

Testing 

Your sitelinks won’t need much more work once you’re live. However, you should be prepared to try testing different links, text, and themes to see which perform best. 

Once you have planned what your sitelinks will look like and refined your sitelink strategy, it’s time to create sitelink extensions in your Google Ads account. You can add or remove sitelinks at any time once your ad is live.

Setting Up A Sitelink Extension

With Google’s new interface, things have changed slightly. Now you can set up sitelinks directly within the ads setup. After filling in your description, you will see the box to add your sitelinks.

When your sitelinks are live on your ads, don’t forget to keep monitoring them. It’s important to keep an eye on how your sitelinks are performing so that you can make tweaks and tests to get the best results possible.

Why Aren’t My Google Ads Showing Sitelinks?

If you have set up your sitelink extensions but they aren’t showing there are maybe one of two reasons:

• Incorrect setup: Check all the necessary fields are populated in the setup of your sitelinks.

• Relevancy: Your sitelinks need to be relevant to the searcher’s query or Google won’t display them. Make sure your sitelinks are useful and synonymous with a branded query.

To troubleshoot your sitelinks, visit Google’s sitelink extensions guide.

Cost of Google Ads Sitelinks

With the promise of increased CTRs and more real estate on the SERPs, you might think that adding the sitelinks extension to your Google ads would also increase your CPC or overall cost.

However, Google works on the same cost model for both its ads and ad extensions. 

Search Campaigns

Sitelink extensions are free to add to your search campaigns. You only pay when someone clicks on a sitelink related to your ad, just as you would if someone clicked on the ad itself. Effectively, the cost of a sitelink is nothing. 

However, because sitelinks increase the likelihood of a click (CTR), you might spend more overall than you would without a sitelink because you’re also receiving more clicks. 

Video Campaigns

Similarly, adding a sitelink to your video campaign does not increase your cost — you are still charged once when your ad is shown 1000 times (CPM). You aren’t charged differently for having sitelinks on your ad versus not using them.

However, displaying sitelinks on your ad may actually decrease your cost-per-action (CPA) as people are more likely to click on your ad.

Once you have sitelink extensions set up you will also want to start using other ad extensions as well. Move on to the next checkpoint to implement other available Google Ads extensions.