• About Us
    • New York
  • Work
  • Capabilities
  • Careers
  • Technology
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • New York
  • Work
  • Capabilities
  • Careers
  • Technology
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
October 29, 2014

Everything You Need to Know About Google’s New Sitelink Search Box

Posted by John Greer

A question pops into your head, you Google it, and within your search results is…another search box. The M.C. Escher drawing of the Google SERPs, “search within a search” is a new feature Google rolled out in September. Above is how this looks for a search for “Tesla.”

When Do Search Boxes Appear?

  • The boxes appear when sitelinks appear, only searches where the site get a very high click-through rate (e.g. their brand name).
  • There’s no way to add a search box, Google determines their presence.
  • However, there is a code to remove them (below). As a brand though, it seems better to keep the box and soak up the extra pixels in your listing.

    <meta name=”google” content=”nositelinkssearchbox”>

The Search Experience

  • By default, searching within the above search box would not take visitors to a Tesla page (for example) – it would take them to another Google search.
    • This is a negative for a brand. It’s a chance for competitor ads to nab a visitor and an extra step in the conversion process.
  • To change this, a different tag (details below) can be added to send visitors directly to your internal search – not another Google search.
  • It’s unknown how much the search box will be used. However, if you redirect users to your internal search, organic landing page traffic to your internal search could measure the increase.
    • It’s too early to know for sure, but our data isn’t showing much of a spike from sitelink search usage.
Details on Redirecting to Your Internal Search
  • You’ll need to add a bit of code to your home page to have your internal search used here.
  • There’s 2 kinds of code options – JSON-LD and microdata. We’ve now seen live examples of both working, so whichever one is OK.
    • If you go with the microdata, you can actually hide the <DIV> if you want. Check out Pinterest’s implementation if you go that route.
  • It takes 1 to 3 weeks for this change to take place – so don’t panic when it takes a while.

This should help you get a handle on sitelink search, but let us know your own experience. We’ll be certainly watching to see how this evolves in the future.

MC Escherserpssitelinks
Previous
Next

Latest White Papers

  • Shifting Plans for 2020 & Beyond
  • Game On: How Brands Can Log Into A Diverse Multi-Billion Dollar Industry
  • What CCPA Means For Brands
  • How Google is Improving Consumer Data Privacy
  • Ways to Prepare for the Cookieless Future
  • See all White Papers

Featured Posts

  • Ad Age Names PMG #1 Best Place to Work in 2021
  • Hindsight 2020 & Looking Ahead to 2021
  • Preparing for Streaming’s Growth & The Future of TV Buying
  • MediaPost Names PMG Independent Agency of the Year
  • PMG Client Portfolio Trends During Amazon Prime Day 2020

Categories

  • Consumer Insights
  • Content
  • Creative Design
  • Data Analytics
  • Development
  • Digital TV & Video
  • Ecommerce
  • Industry News
  • Local
  • Mobile
  • Paid Search
  • PMG Culture
  • Programmatic & Display
  • SEO
  • Social Media
  • Structured Data
Fort Worth

2845 West 7th Street
Fort Worth, TX 76107

Dallas

3102 Oak Lawn Avenue
Suite 650
Dallas, TX 75219

Austin

823 Congress Avenue
Suite 800
Austin, TX 78701

London

33 Broadwick Street
London
W1F 0DQ

New York

120 East 23rd Street
New York, NY 10010

Get in touch

(817) 420 9970
info@pmg.com

Subscribe to the PMG Newsletter
© 2021 PMG Worldwide, LLC, All Rights Reserved
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
 Tweet
 Share
 Tweet
 Share
 Tweet
 Share
 LinkedIn
We and our partners use cookies to personalize content, analyze traffic, and deliver ads. By using our website, you agree to the use of cookies as described in our Cookie Policy.