Google Testing Sitelinks Tabs By Category

The SEO Consult blog noticed Google testing a new Sitelinks format. This new format shows the same number of sitelinks to the search listings but adds tabs above the sitelinks to enable users to see relevant sitelinks for the site by category.

For example, here are the sitelinks for SEOBook:

Google added tabs for “top links,” “free SEO tools,” “blog,” “training,” “support,” and “videos.”

I am not able to replicate this behavior to generate these tab category sitelinks but it wouldn’t surprise me if this was indeed a real Google test. I’ve emailed Google for confirmation but because of the July 4th holiday, they might not respond until Monday.

I find the new Sitelinks to be useful from an SEO perspective in understanding how Google categorizes your top pages, as well as how they break down your site into these categories. But I also find it to clutter the search results listings a bit too much.

Postscript: A Google spokesperson confirmed this is a test being run by Google.

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz

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http://twitter.com/incrediblehelp Jaan Kanellis

So basically a full snap shot of your home page in the Google results? Not sure if this would help help CTR or hurt it. I guess it depends on the type of site and content you present.
http://www.cpasitesolutions.com/ Brian O’Connell

Yet another way Google can keep you on their site longer.
http://twitter.com/Macmodi Modesto Siotos

This is a very good point Jaan. However, there are other implications such as shorter user journeys, lower number of pageviews, increased bounce rate to pages linked from the sitelinks etc.

I’ve writen a post about my experiences with the new site links – available at http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/first-thoughts-on-googles-new-tabbed-sitelinks
http://www.nnvent.com/ Ralph Pombo

Yes this should help with stickiness, but I will need to think about other ways that it could hurt. Very interesting! Thank you!