MSN Live Search Gets Sitelinks
MSN is now the third major search engine (after Google and Yahoo) to be equipped with the Google initiated Sitelinks feature.
What are Sitelinks?
Sitelinks are additional links that appear for some sites and requests immediately below the search request’s top search result. Search engines attach these extra links to give the Internet user a better idea of what a site is about before entering.
These links allow the Internet user to go directly to the most useful section within a website, without needing to go first to the home page, saving users time and clicks. Sitelinks also allow Internet users to more easily navigate a website’s most important pages.
Which websites get Sitelinks?
Sitelinks are only provided for the leading website of any given search request. Search engines provide Sitelinks for a site that the search engine considers to be the most useful website for a given search request. Brand websites are thus the most likely to be provided with Sitelinks.
However, brand searches do not tend to increase traffic to a brand’s website because when an Internet user does a brand search, it’s more than likely that the user was looking for the brand’s official website anyway. It is much more profitable for brands to have Sitelinks attached to their websites during generic searches (but this rarely occurs).
How are Sitelink headers determined?
Sitelinks are automatically generated by an algorithm, not manually. This algorithm is partly dependent on a website’s structure (internal links): frequently using page <title> tags, link text, or an image’s <alt> text.
It’s difficult to pinpoint why search engines choose either the page title tags or link text to name its Sitelinks. It’s possible that search engines base their results on content analysis done according to the keywords for which the site is the top search result. Another possibility is that the search engines base their results on click rates: a larger click rate from the search results page could correspond to a greater likelihood of becoming a Sitelink.
Unlike its rivals, MSN Live Search provides several indexes from which Sitelinks are selected. It seems that the search engine reprocesses information provided by the Internet user’s navigator in order to provide the most relevant links.
Is it possible to modify Sitelinks?
On Google, it is possible to see your site’s available Sitelinks and to block a link if it seems irrelevant (Ex: Error 404 page or a page that you don’t want to be so visible).
This function is not yet available on MSN Live Search, but it is in the works.
How can I get Sitelinks for my site?
As Sitelink generation is entirely automated and based on user behavior, there is no miracle method for getting Sitelinks for your website or controlling them in case they already appear.
However, you can do a few things to better your chances of getting relevant Sitelinks for your website:
• Be the number one search result for search requests related to your brand and maintain the necessary traffic threshold.
• Use explicit link headers that correspond to your best positioned keywords.
• Be consistent with page title tags, headers and internal link text in order to influence Sitelink headers.
• Make sure strategic links are within one click of the home page in order to increase their click rate and to “convert” them into Sitelinks.
Adapted by Jessica Hartstein
Tags: google, MSN Live Search, sitelinks
