Google Sitelinks Disappear? Should You Worry?

Jan 16, 2009 - 8:09 am 4 by

The first week of January, when we wrote about the Major Google Search Results Changes, January 2009, I noticed the Google Sitelinks for this site, disappeared. Today, I noticed they are back. Today, also, many webmasters are noticing they have lost their sitelinks.

A WebmasterWorld thread has two webmasters noting that their Sitelinks disappeared both in the Google search results and in Google Webmaster Tools. They both are concerned and asked if they should be.

One noted his/her traffic is up 30% month over month and rankings seem to be steady. But still, he/she is concerned.

Personally, I was a bit taken back - but I did nothing. I decided to see what would happen with my traffic. I just checked my traffic now, and it is up from a week ago, but it is fairly level from a month ago. See, I forgot to even look to see if those Sitelinks had an impact and now they are back. But the smart thing would be to check in and see the impact on traffic and then maybe even rankings. I would be concerned until you see a negative impact over on that site. There can be many reasons why Google would temporarily drop the sitelinks for your site. Many of those reasons might be an issue on Google's side.

I agree with Tedster's comment in the thread:

Seeing Google traffic up by 30% is a very good thing. I would not have major concern about the loss of sitelinks if search traffic goes up (especially well-targeted search traffc), but certainly do keep a watch on the situation. It sounds rather odd, especially that potential sitelinks don't show in WMT. If you haven't made structural changes to your site, this might well be a Google bug.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 18, 2025

Jul 18, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses

Jul 18, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

New Google Business Profile Check Edit Status

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google AI Overviews For Movie Queries

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some Advertisers

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: What Happens When Google Does Not Catch a Site Hack?