Google Ads

Sitelink Asset

Also called Sitelink extension

An extra clickable link below a search ad, with its own text, description and destination page.

Quick facts: Sitelink Asset

Category
Google Ads
Also called
Sitelink extension
Level
Beginner
Affects
Click-through rate, ad height on screen, landing page relevance
Where to see it
Google Ads (Ads and assets → Assets → Sitelink), asset performance report
In this article4
  1. How sitelink assets work
  2. Why sitelinks matter
  3. Common mistakes with sitelinks
  4. How to act on it

A sitelink is an additional link that appears beneath a search ad. Each one has short link text, an optional pair of description lines, and its own destination URL — so a single ad can offer several routes into the site instead of one. You add them in Google Ads at account, campaign or ad group level, and the most specific level in place is the one that serves.

They are eligible rather than guaranteed. Google decides at auction time how many to show, if any, based on the device, the position the ad won and whether including them looks likely to help. A desktop result with a high position may show several stacked with their descriptions; a phone may show a compact row of just a couple. You need more than one configured before any can appear at all.

They make the ad taller, which crowds out the results below it and generally lifts click-through rate. Because expected click-through rate is part of Ad Rank, a well-served ad can hold its position without bidding as hard.

The more useful effect is on click quality. Someone who taps “Pricing” or “Trekking permits” has told you what they came for, and lands on the page that answers it rather than a homepage they must navigate. That shortens the path to an enquiry and makes the traffic easier to judge, since the sitelink report shows which routes people actually take.

The most common is writing them as navigation. “Home”, “About Us” and “Blog” are copied straight off the menu and none of them serve a buyer who is mid-search. Sitelinks should offer next steps, not a site map.

The second is repetition. If the headline already says “Free Consultation”, a sitelink saying the same thing wastes the space. The third is neglect: links pointing at pages that have been renamed, campaigns still promoting a finished offer, or a set written once for the whole account and never adjusted for campaigns that sell something quite different.

How to act on it

Write each sitelink around an intent a searcher plausibly has at that moment — a specific service, a price or package page, a location, a way to make contact. Keep the link text short enough to survive a narrow phone screen, and use the description lines, because they only serve on the larger formats and cost nothing to add.

Point every sitelink at a page that genuinely delivers what the text promised, and check those URLs whenever the site changes. Where buyers prefer to phone rather than fill in a form, which is common in Nepal, one sitelink should lead somewhere the number is obvious. Review the asset report on a schedule and replace the links nobody uses, in the same pass as your other ad extensions when you review search campaigns.

Do and do not

Do

  • Write each sitelink around a real next step
  • Fill in the description lines, they serve on larger formats
  • Check destination URLs whenever the site changes

Do not

  • Copy the website menu into the sitelink list
  • Repeat wording already used in a headline
  • Leave finished promotions running as live sitelinks

Questions people ask about this

How many sitelinks should I add?

Add more than the minimum needed to serve, so Google has genuine choice, but only as many as you can point at distinct, useful pages. Padding the list with weak links means the weak ones sometimes show instead of the strong ones. Quality of destination matters more than quantity of links.

Why are my sitelinks not showing?

Usually because the ad did not win enough position for the extra space, because the device is too narrow, or because Google judged they would not improve that particular result. It can also be that only one sitelink is configured, which is not enough to serve. Check the asset report to confirm what actually appeared rather than assuming.

Do sitelinks cost extra when someone clicks them?

No. A click on a sitelink is charged like any other click on that ad, at the same price. Total spend can still rise, because a larger ad tends to attract more clicks overall. That is a volume change rather than a price change, so judge sitelinks on cost per enquiry rather than on daily spend alone.

Related terms

Found this useful?

Share it, or ask an AI to summarise it

Back to the glossary

Knowing the term is the easy part

Applying it to your own site and budget is the work. Book a call and I will tell you what actually applies to you.