In a significant shift, Google has announced that it will be removing the “sitelinks” searchbox feature from its search engine results pages (SERPs). This decision, which comes after more than a decade of featuring sitelinks, aims to simplify the search experience.
“It’s been over ten years since we initially announced the sitelinks search box in Google Search, and over time, we’ve noticed that usage has dropped. With that, and to help simplify the search results, we’ll be removing this visual element starting on November 21, 2024.”
For those unfamiliar, sitelinks are additional links that appear beneath the main search result for certain websites. They offer shortcuts to specific sections of the site, helping users navigate more efficiently. These sitelinks are generated by Google’s algorithms based on the relevance of a site’s structure and content.
Google’s decision to phase out this feature signals its ongoing effort to streamline the user experience by reducing visual clutter in SERPs. However, removing sitelinks also means fewer offsite links on the search results pages, which could result in more clicks being funneled toward ads. By limiting organic navigation options, this change may potentially drive more users to interact with paid content rather than navigating directly to subpages via sitelinks.
This adjustment will go into effect on November 21, 2024.
If you’d like to read more about Google’s official announcement, you can check the details on their
developer blog here.
