University Search Engine Sitelinks and (Rich) Snippets

A long time ago, I started running with the idea that an organisation’s homepage on the web was the dominant search engine’s search results page for the most common search term associated with that organisation. So for example, the OU’s effective home page is not http://www.open.ac.uk, but the Google search results page for open university. (You can test the extent to which this claim is supported by checking out your website logs, and comparing how many direct visitors you get to the “official” homepage for your website compared to the amount of traffic referred to your site from google for common search terms used to find your site. You do know what those search terms are, right?!;-)

At one time, the results page might include several links to different institutional web pages, each listed as a separate individual search result item. Then five years or so ago, Google started introducing sitelinks into the search results page, a display technique that would include a list of several links to specific pages within the same domain within the context of a single result item, headed by the top level domain.

Or maybe how about the library?

[For an overview, see Anatomy Of A Google Snippet and maybe also Meta Description Mutiny! Take Control of Your Text Snippets; if you want to take some responsibility for what appears, see the Google Webmaster Tools posts on sitelinks, Changing a site title and description and Removing snippets and Instant Preview]

Video: Matt Cutts introduces the original snippets

A recent (August 2011) update sees the Goog placing even more focus on the display of sitelinks (The evolution of sitelinks: expanded and improved).

Here are few things about this update that I think are worth noting, particularly in light of recommendations emerging from the JISC “Linking You” project, which offers best practice guidance on the design of top-level URI schemes for university websites:

Sitelinks will now be full-size links with a URL and one line of snippet text—similar to regular results—making it even easier to find the section of the site you want. We’re also increasing the maximum number of sitelinks per query from eight to 12. …

In addition, we’re making a significant improvement to our algorithms by combining sitelink ranking with regular result ranking to yield a higher-quality list of links. This reduces link duplication and creates a better organized search results page. Now, all results from the top-ranked site will be nested within the first result as sitelinks, and all results from other sites will appear below them. The number of sitelinks will also vary based on your query—for example, [museum of art nyc] shows more sitelinks than [the met] because we’re more certain you want results from http://www.metmuseum.org.

So what do we learn from this?

• Sitelinks will now be full-size links with a URL and one line of snippet text—similar: so check your results listing and see if the “one line of snippet text” for each displayed result makes sense. (For some ideas about how to influence snippet text, see e.g. the Google Webmaster Tools links above.)
• We’re … increasing the maximum number of sitelinks per query from eight to 12: what links would you like to appear in the sitelinks list, compared to what links actually do appear? Would consensus in how UK HEIs architect top-level URLs (as, for example, recommended by Linking You, provide uniformity of display of results in the Google SERPs space? Would consensus open Google up to discussion relating to the most effective way of displaying search results for UK HEI sitelink results?
• we’re making a significant improvement to our algorithms by combining sitelink ranking with regular result ranking to yield a higher-quality list of links: which is to say – SEO, and URI path design, may play a role in determining what links get displayed as sitelinks.
• This reduces link duplication and creates a better organized search results page. That is, better orgainised, as defined by Google. If you want to influence the way links to your site are displayed as sitelinks, you need to figure how – you don’t control how Google provides this top level navigation to your site as sitelinks, but you may be able to influence the display through good website design….
• The number of sitelinks will also vary based on your query

If you have pages that mainly contain lists of items, these may also be handled differently in the context of snippets: New snippets for list pages

See also:
– Rich snippets microdata – if Google handled edu microdata, what would it describe…?
– Google Webmaster tools: Rich Snippets testing tool – “enter a web page URL to see how it may appear in search results”

PS I wonder how sitelink displays interact with rich snippets…?

PPS There’s a great write up of the Linking You project that I’ve just come across here: Lend Me Your Ears Dear University Web Managers!. Go and read it…. now… Hmmm.. thinks… what would a similar exercise for local council websites look like?