Sitelinks Schema: Optimizing WebSite Schema and Site Architecture for Branded SERP Sitelinks
Sitelinks are the extra links that appear below your main Google result for branded searches - shortcuts to your most important pages, like 'Pricing', 'Blog', and 'Contact'. Google generates them automatically based on your site's structure. While you can't add them manually, you can optimize for them through clear navigation, Organization schema, and WebSite schema. Sitelinks signal that Google trusts your brand entity.
Sitelinks appear in approximately 65% of branded searches for established domains. They increase branded SERP real estate, improve click-through rates by 20-35% for branded queries, and - critically for AEO - signal that Google has strong entity confidence in your brand. That entity confidence directly improves citation rates for branded context queries across all AI systems.
See also: Organization Schema and Knowledge Panel Strategy.
Sitelinks SERP Anatomy
6 Sitelinks Selection Factors
Clear navigation structure
Your main menu must have direct, clearly-labeled links to your top 4-6 most important pages. Google derives sitelink candidates primarily from your top-level navigation - pages that don't appear in navigation rarely become sitelinks. Ensure every nav item has a distinct, descriptive label (not generic labels like 'More' or 'Resources').
WebSite Schema Patterns
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "WebSite",
"@id": "https://acmecorp.com/#website",
"name": "Acme Corp",
"url": "https://acmecorp.com",
"description": "AI-powered SEO and AEO analytics",
"potentialAction": {
"@type": "SearchAction",
"target": {
"@type": "EntryPoint",
"urlTemplate": "https://acmecorp.com/search?q={search_term_string}"
},
"query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
}
}