Google sitelinks are the additional links that appear beneath the main result for certain searches — typically brand name queries. Instead of a single blue link, your result appears with three to six additional links to specific sections of your site. Sitelinks dramatically increase the real estate your brand occupies in search results, improve navigation for users looking for specific sections of your site, and signal to users that your site is substantial and well-structured enough for Google to understand its architecture.
How Google Generates Sitelinks
Google generates sitelinks automatically based on its understanding of your site's structure and the most important pages within it. You cannot directly request or configure sitelinks — but you can optimise the signals that influence which pages appear and how they are labelled.
The pages most likely to appear as sitelinks are: pages with high internal link equity (many internal links pointing to them), pages with distinctive, descriptive navigation anchor text, pages that users search for specifically after finding your brand, and pages representing the main functional sections of your site.
Site Structure Signals for Sitelinks
As we covered in our guide to website navigation, a clear, logical navigation structure with descriptive anchor text directly influences which pages appear as sitelinks. Navigation items with specific, keyword-relevant anchor text — "Broken Link Checker", "Page Speed Tool", "Blog" — are more likely to generate sitelinks than generic anchors like "Tools", "Resources", or "Learn".
Your homepage navigation should link to your most important sections using the exact text you want to appear in sitelinks. As we covered in our guide to internal links for rankings, the anchor text of navigation links is a strong signal about what those pages are called and why they matter.
XML Sitemap for Sitelinks
A well-structured XML sitemap that lists your key pages helps Google understand your site hierarchy. As we covered in our guide to building sitemaps, include priority attributes for your most important pages — this provides Google with an explicit signal about which pages are most significant within your site.
Removing Unwanted Sitelinks
If an unwanted page appears as a sitelink — a login page, a terms page, or an outdated section — you cannot directly remove it from sitelinks. Indirectly: reduce internal links to that page, add a noindex tag if the page should not be indexed, or update the page's content and navigation anchor text to better reflect its actual purpose. As we covered in our guide to orphan pages, pages with excessive internal links relative to their importance can accidentally trigger sitelink appearances.
Summary
Optimise for Google sitelinks by building clear navigation with descriptive, keyword-relevant anchor text for your most important site sections, ensuring strong internal link equity flows to key pages, maintaining a well-structured XML sitemap, and having a logically organised site that Google can confidently summarise. Sitelinks appear automatically when Google is sufficiently confident in your site's structure — your job is to make that structure transparent and logical.
Missed the previous article? Read: How to Build a Link Building System That Runs Without You in 2026