Site links mutually exclusive with Google+ Business?
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Hey all!
I've been looking at the search results for our company name (Angelsmith). Looking at our listing, our search result has title, authorship, ties in with Google+, reviews, link to map, plus the big sidebar Google+ Business result with map, logo, directions, hours, etc.
Our site is well-indexed, we're using a sitemap, etc. but I notice we do not have any sitelinks under our result. And come to think of it, I can't remember seeing any search results that have authorship and Google+ listings on it AS WELL AS a nice set of sitelinks underneath.
So I'm wondering: are Google+ Business and sitelinks mutually exclusive? How about authorship and sitelinks? Do we have any control over which get displayed on search results?
Thanks in advance,
--eric
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Hi Eric,
first of all authorship should not be shown for pages like the home page of your site. Remember, authorship should be used just for articles, posts, guides, white papers... editorial content that has a proper author.
Pages like home page, product listing, product pages, institutional pages... not.
If you want to show an image, maybe your logo, you could use the schema.org/organization, as explained by Google here.
Then... if you do a search like "angelsmith.net", then you will see sitelinks (10). It does't show them when the search is "angelsmith".
Why this difference? First of all remember that we cannot decide if a search snippet will show sitelinks or not (we can only tell Google what URL to not show as such), but in your specific case I think it is because of the supposed intention Google gives to that branded query.
It's probable that users' intention is to see the local search information of Angelsmith. That's also reinforced by you presence in Google Plus as a physical business.
p.s.: about sitelinks. Usually Google choose the sitelinks over its knowledge base, meaning with that URLs that usually are clicked on by the users in its SERPs. Apart that, schema like breadcrumbs, but also a clear site's navigation architecture helps Google in this facet of of SERPs rewriting.
p.s.2: your case remind me to correct the use of authorship also on my site
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Your Google+ on the serp is, essentially, the 7 pack and there will be no sitelinks there. Since you are searching on your company name, there will not be 3 or 5 or 7 listed, etc., but you do see the pin and that is a local feature.
As to sitelinks with review or authorship markup, it does happen. The only control you have over sitelinks is you can stop them in GWMT for 30 days if, for example, you have one displaying erroneously, etc. You cannot cause them to appear, etc.
Hope this helps,
Robert
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Eric,
When Google shows the Google Authorship and photo snippet in the search results, it depends on the search query, but there are site links shown. I am not seeing the "indented" larger list of site links in the results, but for most sites who 'deserve' to have site links, I'm seeing three or four site links show up under the search listing.
Look at a search for our company name, "Globe Runner", I'm seeing site links. But for your company name, I am not seeing them.
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