What’s this about?
The numerous shades of blue company is at it again, testing new SiteLinks layouts which look suspiciously like they are Mobile First ones.
You think anything may be in the offing?
I wonder if single-column, left-aligned, link lists have worked for any big companies in the past. Hmmm. Mobile first AND retro in one fell swoop.
Read this extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates 20th October 2017.
#SEO #SEONews #SERP #MobileFirst
New SiteLinks Format Being Tested By Google
Key Issues Summary:
- In the wild recently, Google has been testing new formats for SiteLinks. This was spotted by SE Roundtable fans.
- These line up vertically, instead of in the current two-column format.
- These are indicative of design shifts Google is slowly taking to be wholly mobile-first.
Key Actions To Take:
- Be prepared for slightly different SiteLinks to be visible in SERPs for your brand.
- This could impact clicks from SiteLinks and real estate used by them.
- It’s not possible to completely control the SiteLinks displayed as they are algorithmically generated.
- Like the Google algorithm itself, they can be influenced using IA, internal links and on-page text.
- You can also remove SiteLinks in Google Search Console.
- Click here to contact me to discuss how to influence the SiteLinks displayed for your brand.
Insights & Discussion:
The 52 Shades of Blue company is at it again. Looking at the SiteLinks being tested, these would seem to be a single-column mobile-first layout. In fact if you look at a lot of Google’s design decisions over the last couple of years, they have slowly been moving to mobile-first approaches.
This layout may never see the light of day again – it could have failed its test completely and have been consigned to the Design Dustbin along with Google+, the world’s most expensive intranet.
More Information:
Mobile First is NOT Mobile Friendly
TL;DR
- Oh lookie, yet another test from the Google, this time for SiteLinks.
- I’d be interested to know if this changes traffic patterns to sites, or if they take up a whole mot more real estate.
- You’d almost thing the design was heading back to 2000.
- Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
- Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
- Finally, get your content ranking well on Google by starting to understand Find Crawl Index.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.
