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.

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