Sitelinks: 5 Foolproof Tips!

• What are sitelinks?
• Tip #1: Take up space!
• Tip #2: Use sitelink variations
• Tip #3: Get your message across quickly
• Tip #4: Is the landing page as relevant as it can be?
• Tip #5: Watch out for changes!
• Bonus Tip: Run A/B Tests!

What are sitelinks?

Sitelinks are among the most important ad assets (the former extensions) in Google Ads. With sitelinks, we can send people to different pages of your site from the same ad.

Example: imagine someone searching for your product or service. When they see your ad among Google's results, one of the sitelinks could point to a specific category, while another could lead straight to the store's opening hours, among other options.

Tip #1: Take up space!

This tip may sound like a joke, but it is very serious.

Answer this: how can we increase the odds of your ads getting noticed?

If you thought of taking up more space in the search results, you nailed it! So try to use as many characters as allowed in each part of the sitelink.

If you are not sure how many that is, we have you covered:

• Sitelink text: 25 characters
• Descriptions: 35 characters per line (two are allowed)

Descriptions are optional, but fill in both: they are what make the sitelink bigger when Google decides to feature it.

Tip #2: Use sitelink variations

Did you know that, in some cases, your ads can show up to 8 sitelinks at the same time?

That is why your account should have at least that many available, with sitelinks applied at the right level: account, campaign, or ad group.

Unfortunately, you cannot decide how many will be shown; that decision belongs to Google itself and depends on the device, the position, and other factors.

In general, sitelinks get more prominence in the top positions. On mobile, they appear side by side in a carousel the user swipes (that is where all eight fit). On desktop, between two and six links are shown, in a single row or in two.

Creating different kinds of sitelinks not only takes up more space among the search results but also improves the user experience, lowering your cost per click (as we explain in our article on the Google Ads auction).

Tip #3: Get your message across quickly

You have only a few seconds to capture your audience's attention, so work hard when deciding what to write.

What are your customer's pain points? How do you stand out from the competition? Is there a special sale running on your site?

These assets will show frequently alongside your ads, so it is worth spending some extra time here.

This is the perfect moment to put into practice all those tips we give about creating mental triggers.

Tip #4: Is the landing page as relevant as it can be?

It may seem trivial, but we have seen many advertisers slip up here. It would be a shame to learn that someone clicked your ad, spent your precious budget, but did not stay to see what you had to offer.

So do not let your audience be disappointed after clicking one of your ads.

Make sure the titles and descriptions correlate strongly with the content found on each sitelink's landing page.

Tip #5: Watch out for changes!

If your site changes constantly, stay alert. It would be very frustrating for users to reach your site because of an offer that does not exist, for example.

So when creating a sitelink tied to a sale, try to find out how long it will run.

That way, you can schedule its run dates without worrying about reviewing it later, since it will pause automatically when the sale ends.

Another point of attention is URLs that stop working, as they will get your sitelinks disapproved.

Bonus Tip: Run A/B Tests!

Knowing your target audience is essential to business success, so be careful with what you think you know.

It is extremely important to choose the best arguments and keywords to win your users over.

So it pays to run A/B tests frequently to pick the winning option. At Marktech, we do this constantly and automatically, with the help of a tool in our platform.

With it, we find the winning versions with statistical confidence, always improving our conversion rate. If you want to see digital marketing solutions like this one, get in touch now!