Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Ehtesham Shaikh on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 11/28/2014).

Sitelinks.

Hi all,
Can somebody please explain me what it is being called and how it is being generated? Is it automatically generated by Google itself or through schema or something?
Thanks?
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Ehtesham Shaikh: Hi all,
    Can somebody please explain me what it is being called and how it is being generated? Is it automatically generated by Google itself or through schema or something?
    Thanks
  • promoz seo: These are called sitelinks and they are completely controlled by Google. Though a good site structure helps in getting sitelinks on SERP. No. 1 position and 2 years of age is must for any site to have sitelinks on Google.
  • Ehtesham Shaikh: Thanks for your prompt reply, I didn't see those in the rest of the results from position 1-3 Also those competitors are from last 7 years. What could be the reason for it?
  • promoz seo: As I said no one can control sitelinks except Google.
  • E.Dieter Martin: Site age is not a requirement. Top position is. I've seen site links for relatively new sites, if they were ranked number 1. Search for the site's name to see for yourself. But as +promoz seo​ says a good, properly marked up navigation structure helps. The <nav> tag is your friend
  • promoz seo: If you search with your brand name then you should (most of the time, unless you have been hit) see the sitelinks. But as in the picture, I guess it has not been searched with the brand name, though the sitelinks are spotted. And in this case age matters a lot. Yes <nav> tag is a good option, otherwise use breadcrumbs.
  • Greg Mee: I've been using WP, so <nav> is new to me.

    As far as I can tell it changes nothing visually or structurally, and its only point is to make it easier for bots to pick out which part of your page is for navigation?

    And perhaps make it a bit easier if someone else is reading your source code?
  • Dhruv Patel: They are site links. You can create such from webmaster tool. You can do all such stuff under structured data tab. There many types of such rich snippets. Like ratings, reviews, site link, schedules links and many more. You can just explore all such in webmaster 
  • E.Dieter Martin: You nailed it, +Greg Mee​. Also, a good modern WP theme uses nav tags 
  • Ehtesham Shaikh: I am not saying about brand name site links, it is from the keyword searched in search engine. ;
    So should I conclude that this can be automatically generated by Google as similar to brand name site links. OR is it through webmaster?
  • Nebojsa Djukic: Webmasters have some control over sitelinks through Google Webmaster Tools. Take a look here ;https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/47334

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 11/28/2014).