Google sitelinks boost a website’s visibility and credibility, and they help users get right to what they’re looking for. Here’s what real estate marketers need to know about them.

Do you ever wonder if visitors to your website are going right to what they’re looking for? For example, if a potential buyer does a google search for properties in your area, will he or she be taken directly to listings, or need to navigate through your website first?

This is where Google sitelinks come in. These links are shortcuts, or a table of contents, designed to help users navigate to the right part of your website quickly, rather than needing to load the homepage first. Here’s why real estate marketers need to know about Google sitelinks, and how they can help market your properties.

How do they work?

If you frequent Google (and who doesn’t?), it’s likely that you’ve seen sitelinks in action. Typically, if a site is the #1 search result from a query, sitelinks will appear below the listing. To create the links, Google’s algorithm analyzes your website’s structure and content. It finds the most popular and useful content, and lists it as shortcuts below the search result.

These shortcuts “deep link” to pages within your site, like your blog, pages for specific properties, other content offers, etc. If you use Google AdWords, you’ll recognize sitelinks as very similar to the links that appear in ads—but in this case, Google chooses what links get featured.

What’s so great about Google sitelinks?

There are all kinds of benefits if you can manage to get sitelinks to appear when your website pops up in a search. In fact, having sitelinks is an excellent indicator of a website with a healthy SEO. It means that your site is properly constructed to allow Google’s algorithm to mine and sort its content thoroughly, and feature key components.

Sitelinks help to increase the chances of your most effective pages getting more visibility. Since the algorithm that sets up the table of contents for your website factors in popularity, the content on your site that has historically performed best will continue to get a boost. In the same vein, having those most effective pages be your web calling card instantly lets your audience know what you have to offer. Sitelinks helps put an emphasis on your premium content and properties.

As you might guess, Google sitelinks can significantly improve your click-through rate. Again, since your most popular pages end up front and center, there’s a greater chance that searchers will click them right away. You also get a free enhancement of your credibility, just from the fact that with sitelinks, your site takes up more space among search results, drawing the eye.

How can I get sitelinks?

Since there aren’t any official guidelines from Google on how to get sitelinks, we need to extrapolate some best practices. Here are five tips to get you started:

Sign up for Google Analytics, and be sure to add their tracking code to your website.
Is your Site Title unique and descriptive? Make sure it accurately reflects your business and properties, and that no one else is using it.
Create a unique and descriptive Meta Description for each piece of content.
Organize your main navigation menu—keep it simple. Keep your most important pages featured as the menu items, with related pages in dropdowns.
Create cross links to and from your website’s most important pages.

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