Seems as if there has been a lot of whispers lately circling around Google and interface testing. Yes, some of these have come to fruition (see: Google’s Black Top Navigation Bar) while others remain steady rumors (see: Google Scroll ). On August 16th, Google confirmed what we had all been speculating to be “the new man in town.” Greetings, Mr. Expanded Sitelink.

What are Sitelinks?

So let’s take a step back and learn more about the yesteryears of this so-called “new man in town.” Sitelinks were actually first introduced in 2005 and have continued to remain a staple of branded queries over the past 6 years.

In the Dell example below, we can see 7 links appear below the search result (at this time, 8 was the max).

On August 16th, sitelinks hit a growth spurt of sorts and became known within the search community as Expanded Sitelinks. These sitelinks have some pronounced physical features:

• Description Text
• Landing Page URLs
• Maximum Number of Sitelinks is 12
• An Improved Sitelink Algorithm

So how might this impact the rest of the search community, you ask? There’s lots of speculation around this “new man,” but for now, this town (read: Razorfish Search) has predicted the following impact:

Increased Brand-Related Landing Page Traffic

Brand-related keyword traffic may increase for sitelink URLs as they may appear to be more relevant to the searcher as competing search results are pushed down.

User Experience

Expanded sitelinks (with high-relevancy due to an improved algorithm) are predicted to influence several KPIs. Time-on-site, bounce rate, conversions and total pages visited are expected to be impacted. As sitelinks become more relevant to the searcher, it may take a searcher less time to retrieve information and convert.

Paid CTR%

Paid CTR% is predicted to decrease only slightly, and although CTR% may go down, total branded traffic may increase as the site gains greater brand visibility.

As CTR% is predicted to decrease, now might be the time to throw your cards down and go all-in as a Top Sponsor for branded queries. The right rail is predicted to gain less clicks as people begin to focus their eyes more towards the center of the page.

We also compiled a list of things you may need to take into consideration before you saddle up to meet expanded sitelinks at high noon:

• Set up a Webmaster Tools Account
• Analytics profiles should have the ability to report on KPIs (before and on/after August 16th)
• Pages linked through sitelinks reporting should be evaluated for traffic impact via organic brand phrases

Meet Expanded Sitelinks at High Noon

When you finally meet at high noon, be sure to monitor the SERPs for expanded sitelinks prompted by branded search queries on a monthly basis. Keep this all in mind as you take your next step to:

• Look for title and meta description opportunities (keep in mind character limit and CTA)
• Remove sitelinks posing no value to searchers and/or that present a 404 error via Google Webmaster Tools
• Make insights on this “new man in town” and always make sure they’re shared between the paid and organic communities
• Most importantly, don’t forget to do a background check by pulling analytics and paid search on this guy both before and on/after 8-16-2011

Judgment day is near. Stayed tuned for Part 2: The Results.

The Razorfish search team often gains access to beta opportunities ahead of other advertisers, offering the chance to test new opportunities and learn what is effective to improve and scale campaign performance.

Last year Google released a new beta ad format called Sitelinks, which can be a great way to learn more about the intent of your brand searchers and improve their search experience.

Example of a Google Sitelinks Ad:

If your ads meet a certain quality threshold, you may be eligible to run site links. With Sitelinks, advertisers can submit up to 10 links and Google will select the four most relevant links to serve for any given query.

Clearly the new ad format is designed to improve CTR and relevancy. We polled our national team to find out who has tested it and how it’s working. 78% said they have tested Sitelinks and it had a positive impact on performance.

Have you tested Google Sitelinks? Tell us what you think!