Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Is it possible to change a sitelink title by off page SEO?
-
Hi all,
I checked a website of my company: sitelinks in SERP are with the correct url, but one of the sitelinks’ title is completely irrelevant.
Is it possible that it was changed from "outside"? Or maybe it's a bug?
Thank you,
Imre
-
Hi Imre, by all means if you'd like to send me more detais via pm so I can see what you are talking about exactly, then feel free to do so.
Although I feel that my earlier advice will still be true. The anchor (sitelink title) is automatically generated by an algorithm and not manually edited (as yet). I have seen some pretty random sitelink titles for other sites. I have even seen sitelinks where the title has been taken from some random piece of code on the site. Unfortunately, without knowing the exact details of the algorithm, there is very little you can do to influence the anchors other than what Google outlines in their guidelines (which is very little).
Like I said previously, if the title is that problematic and you want it gone, then your only option is to demote the whole sitelink.
-
Hi stukerr,
No, it's not indexed in DMOZ. Maybe it could cause the issue, but not for now.
I have to tell you that using the keyword as the anchor of the sitelink can be useful for somebody else. That's why I think that somehow our sitelink was manipulated: not the url but the anchor itself.
-
Hey,
Just a quick thought, is the page in question indexed in DMOZ? I haven't seen it on any of my pages in a while but it could be that Google is using the title from there rather than your title - if so the noodp meta tag could get rid of it. Probably not the issue but you never know.
All the best,
Stuart
-
Hi Adam,
Thank you for your answer. My problem is that sitelink url is OK (that's why I do not want to demote it). But sitelink's anchor is a word that we do not want to use, because it is against our policy. I can send you exact details in a private message if you would like to know more.
As far as I know anchors and alt texts do not use this word.
It seems a very special issue.
Imre
-
Hi Imre,
Unfortunately there's not much you can do about the sitelink titles at the moment. They are fully automated by Google's algo and have no human input, that I'm aware of, as yet. All you can do is make sure your site architecture and linking structure is as good as possible. Google states that 'for your site's internal links, make sure you use anchor text and
alt
text that's informative, compact, and avoids repetition.'If of course you are completely unhappy with your sitelink then you can demote them.
Find out more about sitelinks here:
Hope this helps,
Adam.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does user engagement or content of pages requiring login help SEO?
Hi! Our company is trying to come up with a few pages with some manuals to teach our users how to use our products. However, these pages require username and password. My understanding is that user engagement will help a website's keyword rankings and Google will not be able to crawl or have access to pages requiring login as it doesn't have username and password. Based on that idea, does that mean all the content and user engagement on those pages requiring login won't help our overall SEO? Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | EverettChen0 -
How to add titles to Pardot landing pages
I have 5 URLs that are "missing titles" however, all 5 are landing pages that were created in Pardot. how would I go about adding the missing title? Would I need to add it on our website platform or in Pardot?
Technical SEO | | cbriggs0 -
Does a no-indexed parent page impact its child pages?
If I have a page* in WordPress that is set as private and is no-indexed with Yoast, will that negatively affect the visibility of other pages that are set as children of that first page? *The context is that I want to organize some of the pages on a business's WordPress site into silos/directories. For example, if the business was a home remodeling company, it'd be convenient to keep all the pages about bathrooms, kitchens, additions, basements, etc. bundled together under a "services" parent page (/services/kitchens/, /services/bathrooms/, etc.). The thing is that the child pages will all be directly accessible from the menus, so there doesn't need to be anything on the parent /services/ page itself. Another such parent page/directory/category might be used to keep different photo gallery pages together (/galleries/kitchen-photos/, /galleries/bathroom-photos/, etc.). So again, would it be safe for pages like /services/kitchens/ and /galleries/addition-photos/ if the /services/ and /galleries/ pages (but not /galleries/* or anything like that) are no-indexed? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | BrianAlpert781 -
Home Page Ranking Instead of Service Pages
Hi everyone! I've noticed that many of our clients have pages addressing specific queries related to specific services on their websites, but that the Home Page is increasingly showing as the "ranking" page. For example, a plastic surgeon we work with has a page specifically talking about his breast augmentation procedure for Miami, FL but instead of THAT page showing in the search results, Google is using his home page. Noticing this across the board. Any insights? Should we still be optimizing these specific service pages? Should I be spending time trying to make sure Google ranks the page specifically addressing that query because it SHOULD perform better? Thanks for the help. Confused SEO :/, Ricky Shockley
Technical SEO | | RickyShockley0 -
Can OG titles be used as a substitute for Meta titles
We use og (open graph) titles in lieu of meta titles. Is there any downside to using just one. Should we be using both og and meta titles on our page. Appreciate any insight. Himanshu
Technical SEO | | patilhimanshu0 -
When creating parent and child pages should key words be repeated in url and page title?
We are in the direct mail advertising business: PrintLabelAndMail.com Example: Parent:
Technical SEO | | JimDirectMailCoach
Postcard Direct Mail Children:
Postcard Mailings
Postcard Design
Postcard Samples
Postcard Pricing
Postcard Advantages should "postcard" be repeated in the URL and Page Title? and in this example should each of the 5 children link back directly to the parent or would it be better to "daisy chain" them using each as parent for the next?0 -
What is the best way to find missing alt tags on my site (site wide - not page by page)?
I am looking to find all the missing alt tags on my site at once. I have a FF extension that use to do it page by page, but my site is huge and that will take forever. Thanks!!
Technical SEO | | franchisesolutions1 -
Can you 301 redirect a page to an already existing/old page ?
If you delete a page (say a sub department/category page on an ecommerce store) should you 301 redirect its url to the nearest equivalent page still on the site or just delete and forget about it ? Generally should you try and 301 redirect any old pages your deleting if you can find suitable page with similar content to redirect to. Wont G consider it weird if you say a page has moved permenantly to such and such an address if that page/address existed before ? I presume its fine since say in the scenario of consolidating departments on your store you want to redirect the department page your going to delete to the existing pages/department you are consolidating old departments products into ?
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0