Why do site links appear under one keyword and not another? Any ideas?
-
Hi everyone,
I have a client whose website is doing the strangest thing. When I search the branded keyword (the company name), Google doesn't show any site links under the result. However, when I search for the company name plus Inc., I do get site links.
Now, the website is ranking first in both searches, so that's not the issue. And, as near as I can tell, the site only contains one or two uses of the company name plus the word "inc." Most of the text on the page and all of the meta data only uses the company name, and most of the links that connect to the site use only the company name as well. Even the Who Is for the site doesn't use the term "inc."
And ideas what might be going on? I know Google says that the process is still automated but for the life of me I can't figure out what kind of automated process would result in these results.
Thanks!
Megan (Rebecca's minion)
-
Hi Megan,
Dr. Pete has an interesting post on this link. Be sure to read the comments as well.
-
Perhaps it's because the "Inc." isn't used as often in anchor text and searches people make for your brand? Is it in your title tag? The majority (if not all) sitelinks I've seen are brand related so adding "Inc." could remove the brand association.
A search for [amazon shoes] for me gets big sitelinks, whereas a search for [amazon books] only gets small sitelinks (both without personalisation). I'd think Amazon was more associated with books than shoes (and the stats back this up), so sitelinks are probably hit and miss at times...
EDIT: Oh dear, I just realised I've read your post the wrong way around. Only refer to the second paragraph then. ...Inc. is obviously business associated so maybe that's why the sitelinks show, and the brand name isn't considered strong enough without it. Are there any other brands that have similar/the same names without the Inc.?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can I safely asume that links between subsites on a subdirectories based multisite will be treated as internal links within a single site by Google?
I am building a multisite network based in subdirectories (of the mainsite.com/site1 kind) where the main site is like a company site, and subsites are focused on brands or projects of that company. There will be links back and forth from the main site and the subsites, as if subsites were just categories or pages within the main site (they are hosted in subfolders of the main domain, after all). Now, Google's John Mueller has said: <<as far="" as="" their="" url="" structure="" is concerned,="" subdirectories="" are="" no="" different="" from="" pages="" and="" subpages="" on="" your="" main="" site.="" google="" will="" do="" its="" best="" to="" identify="" where="" sites="" separate="" using="" but="" the="" is="" same="" for="" a="" single="" site,="" you="" should="" assume="" that="" seo="" purposes,="" network="" be="" treated="" one="">></as> This sounds fine to me, except for the part "Google will do its best to identify where sites are separate", because then, if Google establishes that my multisite structure is actually a collection of different sites, links between subsites and mainsite would be considered backlinks between my own sites, which could be therefore considered a link wheel, that is, a kind of linking structure Google doesn't like. How can I make sure that Google understand my multisite as a unique site? P.S. - The reason I chose this multisite structure, instead of hosting brands in categories of the main site, is that if I use the subdirectories based multisite feature I will be able to map a TLD domain to any of my brands (subsites) whenever I'd choose to give that brand a more distinct profile, as if it really was a different website.
Web Design | | PabloCulebras0 -
How much is the site architecture impacting my site?
Hi there, I'm interested to learn how much the site archecture of griffith.ie (higher education) maybe impacting our rankings. In recent months there was some changes to the the faculty landing pages but not to the site archecture. The rankings in the last 6 months have dipped a little. There are two main path ways to get to the course. 1. Course finder - https://www.griffith.ie**/find-a-course** => 2. Faculties - https://www.griffith.ie**/faculties** Most of the SEO authority is coming through the Faculties pages as this is where all the courses are found in term of the url structure. For example; https://www.griffith.ie**/faculties/**business/courses/ba-hons-accounting-finance The UX on the site tells a different story and directs people to the course finder. /find-a-course Ideally, I feel the site would benefit much more if all the traffic was directed through the course finder however this would require (I think) a big redevelopment of the search tool and I feel we are diluting our efforts as when somebody arrives to the site through the homepage they go through the course finder and if they come through specific searches they get taken to the specific course page under the faculty section. the site has has this archecture for the best part of 4 years and I'm considering recommend a change if it would greatly improve SEO and UX. Any feedback on this would be great. Many Thanks Rob
Web Design | | robhough9091 -
Do search engines see copy/keywords when it appears only at the bottom of a page?
My client is looking to improve their SEO, and to date I've written meta data and made some initial recommendations. Thing is, on some of their pages, the body copy appears at the bottom of the page, past links and big, splashy images. My question is, will search engines even see that copy to crawl it for keywords? Thanks!
Web Design | | MarcieHill0 -
Is it still necessary to have a "home" page button/link in the top nav?
Or is it not necessary to have a "home" tab/link because everybody by this time knows you can get to the home page by clicking on the logo?
Web Design | | FindLaw0 -
Too many Internal Links: A good thing or bad thing?
According to Moz i have over 500 links on some pages, GWT says about 400 with most (90%) having about 210 links. When I eyeball the site it should have no more than 30 to 40, but my web agency tells me its because the way the CMS works (DotNetNuke) that all pages are linked via the top navigation. Does this mean that my internal linking strategy is flawed before i even start to consider which pages I want to have more links to? Our site www.over50choices.co.uk was rebranded & moved to the new CMS in June 2013. Should i be concerned or is this OK? Ash
Web Design | | AshShep10 -
Will changing our URL's to MVC friendly URL's have a positive or negative affect on our rankings and link juice?
We've recently changed our site over to a new hosting system, we've got similar pages and are now looking at changing the URL's to ensure we do not loose our link juice from our previous site. My question is regarding the URL's, is it worth us changing our URL's to MVC friendly URL have a good or bad affect on our rankings and or link juice? Thanks
Web Design | | SimonDixon0 -
Will upgrading my dedicated server improve my site speed
hi, at the moment i am concerned about my site speed for www.in2town.co.uk My hosting company is tmd hosting and my package is Intel Atom 330 1MB L2 Cache 1.6GH $159/mo $189/month500GBStorage4GBRAM10TBBandwidthi am looking at increasing this to**$219/mo** $289/month500GBStorage6GBRAM10TBBandwidthcan anyone let me know if this will make a difference to my site speed please
Web Design | | ClaireH-1848860 -
How can the Web site designer and the SEO strategist work together peacefully?
The organization I work for has decided to re-design or re-develop the existing company Web site. My part in this project is to come up with new features to add to the site, as well as making the site SEO-friendly (copywriting, link-building, keyword research, etc.). I don’t know a thing about Web site design, coding, format, etc., and I guess I will have to work with a designer on this project. How would I go about finding a Web site designer? Should they have some SEO knowledge? How much designer, coding and site structure knowledge should I have? And how do we not infringe on one another as we work together? (Sorry so many questions.)
Web Design | | Obie0