Sitelinks
SEOAlso: Site Links · Google Sitelinks
Quick definition
Sitelinks are the extra links Google sometimes shows underneath a search result, usually for a brand or navigational query, pointing to other pages on the same site such as Contact, About or Shop. Google generates them automatically based on site structure and user behaviour. There is no setting to turn them on.
How it varies across Australia
Sitelinks show up most reliably for Australian brands with a strong, unambiguous brand name and a clean site structure. Businesses with vague or generic names, or a confusing navigation, rarely earn them even with strong domain authority. The pattern has more to do with structural clarity than with size of business.
See digital maturity benchmarks across Australian industries →What it actually means
Sitelinks are the reward for having a website that makes sense. When someone searches your brand name and Google is confident enough about your site's structure, it adds a row or two of extra links underneath your main result, things like About, Contact, Shop or Careers.
The confusion most people have is thinking sitelinks are a setting or a paid feature. They're not. There's no submission form, no toggle in Search Console, no way to request them directly. Google's algorithm decides based on your navigation structure, internal linking, click behaviour and how clearly your pages are labelled.
Sitelinks matter because they expand your footprint in the search engine results page (SERP). A single blue link takes up one row. A result with four sitelinks pushes competitors further down the page and gives searchers more reasons to click through to you specifically rather than bounce to a rival.
They're closely tied to technical SEO and site architecture generally. A site with a flat, logical structure and consistent internal linking earns them more often than a site with deep, tangled navigation, regardless of domain authority or content quality.
Sitelinks are Google's vote of confidence in your site structure. You cannot buy the vote, but you can stop disqualifying yourself from it.
How it shows up
Sitelinks show up when you search your own brand name and see extra links appear under the main result, sometimes in a simple row, sometimes as a larger grid with descriptions. They can appear and disappear over time as Google reassesses your site, particularly after a redesign or a change to your navigation structure.
They also show up as a competitive signal. If a rival's brand search shows six sitelinks and yours shows none, that's a structural gap worth investigating, not just an SEO curiosity.
The Australian context
Sitelinks are especially valuable for Australian small and medium businesses competing in categories crowded with global brands. Owning a strong sitelinks display on your own brand search is one of the few SERP advantages a local business can build that an international competitor with more budget cannot simply outbid.
Where people get this wrong
Related terms
Common questions
Can I pay to get sitelinks?
No. Organic sitelinks are generated automatically by Google's algorithm and cannot be purchased. What you can pay for are sitelink extensions in Google Ads, which are a separate paid feature that appears on ads rather than organic results.
Why did my sitelinks disappear?
Usually a site redesign, a navigation change, or a drop in overall site authority triggers Google to reassess and temporarily stop showing sitelinks. They often return once the new structure has been crawled and indexed consistently for a few weeks.
Do sitelinks affect ranking position?
Not directly. Sitelinks don't move your position higher on the page. What they do is increase the visual size and click appeal of your existing result, which typically lifts click through rate for that same position.
How many sitelinks can appear at once?
Google typically shows between two and six, depending on the query and how confident the algorithm is in your site's structure. Larger, well-established navigational queries tend to earn the bigger grid style rather than the smaller inline row.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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