Sitelinks and Site Navigation: What Schema Can and Can’t Do

No structured data type controls which sitelinks Google shows. Google’s sitelinks documentation says “At the moment, sitelinks are automated”: its systems analyze a site’s link structure to find shortcuts, and they show sitelinks only “when we think they’ll be useful to the user” (Google’s sitelinks documentation). What a site owner can influence is the material those systems read: navigation, internal links, page titles and headings. Schema still has a role nearby, in breadcrumbs and site names, but neither of those selects sitelinks.

What sitelinks are

Google defines them as “links from the same domain that are clustered together under a text result”. Their purpose fits navigational searches, such as a brand name, where the user is looking for a site and a shortcut to a section saves a click. Google states it will not show them if “the structure of your site doesn’t allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks” or if they are not relevant to the query.

What was removed: the sitelinks search box

Until late 2024, some results showed a search box inside the sitelinks area, and sites could suggest how it worked with WebSite structured data that declared a SearchAction. Google announced on October 21, 2024 that it would remove this element “starting on November 21, 2024”, citing reduced usage, and stated that the change “doesn’t affect rankings or the other sitelinks visual element” (Google’s 2024 announcement).

Two points from that announcement guide cleanup:

• Leftover search box markup is harmless: unsupported structured data “won’t cause issues in Search, and won’t trigger errors in Search Console reports”.
• If you remove it, keep the WebSite structured data that supports site names, which uses a variation of the same type and remains supported.

Ordinary sitelinks were not affected. They continue to work as before, and as before they are automated.

What Google recommends for better sitelinks

Google’s documentation lists best practices that improve the quality of sitelinks:

1. Page titles and headings that are “informative, relevant, and compact”.
2. “A logical site structure that is easy for users to navigate”, with links to important pages from other relevant pages.
3. Internal link anchor text that is “concise and relevant to the page they’re pointing to”.
4. Avoiding repetition in content.
5. To remove an unwanted sitelink, removing the page or using noindex.

Google’s current documentation offers no setting for choosing or demoting sitelinks; page removal or noindex is the only documented way to remove one.

A site navigation improvement checklist

Use this checklist to make sure the pages you want as shortcuts are the ones the structure points to.

Main navigation

• [ ] The primary sections a visitor needs (for example Pricing, Products, Support, Contact) are linked from the main navigation on every page.
• [ ] Navigation links are standard <a href> elements present in the rendered HTML, not only items revealed by script after interaction.
• [ ] Navigation labels match the target pages’ titles closely (“Pricing” links to a page titled “Pricing”, not “Plans & Offers 2026”).

Page titles and headings

• [ ] Each section landing page has a short, distinct title and H1.
• [ ] No two important pages share the same title.

Internal links

• [ ] Important pages receive links from relevant pages throughout the site, not only from the menu.
• [ ] Anchor text describes the destination concisely.
• [ ] Low-value pages (tag archives, login, cart) are not promoted in navigation over pages users need.

Unwanted sitelinks

• [ ] If a page appearing as a sitelink should not be in search at all, it carries noindex or is removed.
• [ ] If it should stay in search but is a poor shortcut, improve the structure around better candidates instead; there is no direct control.

Where schema does help nearby

Breadcrumbs. BreadcrumbList markup helps Google categorize a page’s position in the site in search results. Google’s breadcrumb documentation says the feature is available on desktop, and Google stopped showing breadcrumbs on mobile results in January 2025 (Google’s breadcrumb documentation). Breadcrumbs appear within a single result’s URL line; they are not sitelinks and do not select them.

Site names. WebSite structured data on the home page indicates the site name preference Google uses for results (Google on site names). It names the site; it does not add links under it.

Organization markup. It helps Google understand administrative details about an organization. It does not create sitelinks or knowledge panels on demand.

Steering sitelinks through navigation and titles

Suppose a software company’s brand search shows sitelinks for “Careers”, “Blog tag: release notes” and “Login”, while “Pricing” and “Documentation” are missing.

• Navigation audit: Pricing and Documentation are reached through a JavaScript mega-menu that renders links only on hover. The footer, which Google can crawl, links prominently to Careers and the blog.
• Titles: the pricing page title is “Plans” and its H1 is “Find the right fit”, while navigation calls it “Pricing”.
• Changes: render the main menu links as <a href> elements in the HTML; retitle the page “Pricing” with a matching H1; link to Pricing and Documentation from the home page body and relevant product pages; add noindex to the login page, which has no search value.
• Expected result: a structure where the pages users need are the most clearly linked and labeled ones.
• Follow-up: check the rendered HTML in URL Inspection; observe brand results over the following weeks after recrawl.
• Google’s call: Google may still choose different sitelinks; the changes improve the inputs, not the selection.

Structure over markup

Sitelinks come from site structure, not from markup. Clean navigation, consistent titles and descriptive internal links are the inputs; noindex or removal is the only documented way to drop a page. Keep WebSite markup for site names, keep breadcrumb markup for breadcrumbs, and do not expect any schema type to choose the shortcuts Google shows under a result.