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November 12, 2008

Disabling Google Sitelinks May Not Hide Them in Google.com

In Google Webmaster Tools, you can disable your Google Sitelinks from showing up in the Google search results. But according to a Google Groups thread, it doesn't work.

Personally, I don't know anyone who doesn't want Sitelinks to show up under their search results. So I have never really heard of anyone wanting to disable ALL their Sitelinks from showing up. But this is the first report I have seen of such a request and it shows that it is possibly not working right in Google Webmaster Tools.

Sitelinks Wont Disable

The webmaster asked, "i've disabled my sitelinks 5 days ago but they are still on, how many days does it take to see my sitelinks change?" In which JohnMu from Google responded, "I've passed this on to the team, thanks for posting." That response makes it sound like a bug to me.

Of course, webado replied, "Hah, some people would sell their first born to see sitelinks for their site .... ;)" Very true.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.



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posted rustybrick in Google Optimization at November 12, 2008 8:51 AM Comments (5)

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Comments

i had a similar problem with the 'geography' settings in webmaster tools. I flagged a load of european subdomains to their countries (eg. to make sure 'fr.domain.com' appeared in search results on google.fr when restricted to 'show only pages from france').

I waited a couple of months thinking "well, maybe it takes a little while...". Sadly, at the end of the 2 months, the only effect was reduced traffic.

This was 6 months or so ago, haven't dared try it since.

 

Posted by daniel barker at November 12, 2008 09:16

It's been 5 days for me, and 2 removal requests on different domains have not worked.

 

Posted by marty at November 14, 2008 15:31

You may recall I wrote about this in May. There is still no guaranteed turn around for removal requests, however I did one on Monday and it is gone now (having been updated according to Webmaster Tools on Wednesday - 2 days later). Could be luck of the draw. I am waiting to see if my recommended replacement link makes it in - it did not get added to the current list, so I have 7 out of 8 since I blocked the other one.

 

Posted by chris boggs at November 14, 2008 15:40

Yes, Chris, but was yours sitelinks focused?

 

Posted by Barry Schwartz at November 14, 2008 16:06

Hey Barry! yep I wrote about Sitelinks for SEW http://searchenginewatch.com/3629713. I think that is the answer to your question. I followed the same removal/request for replacement process as outlined in the above article when I asked for a sitelink to be removed on Monday, and was rewarded with its removal by Wednesday. Luck of the draw I feel...

 

Posted by chris boggs at November 17, 2008 12:07

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