SEO question

[MDKSocks]

Hello friends from the community!

I have been diving into SEO lately, having my sitemap uploaded etc etc. All very straight forward. Now I have a few problems, look at the picture below:

The layout when I google myself looks pretty good! But it just picks 6 randoms pages on my website! How can I make it that I can choose which pages he shows?

Also under the pages Dames, Heren, Sneaker en Merken he grabs the text from my sale bar on top of the pages that shows on the whole website. Looks kinda weird seeing the same text that isn't even right 4 come back 4 times.

So how can I make it that he shows the 6 pages I want there and the right description under those page names? 

Thanks in advance!

[Niki_K]

Hi @MDKSocks,

the displayed links are called sitelinks and are generated by Google, they are automated.

The don’t appear for every search query always the same. It depends on the user, the search query and Google decides. More about sitelinks: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/appearance/sitelinks?hl=en&visit_id=6376506746534...

The second question: The content is also generated by Google (the same reason as mentioned above).

Basically, there is no way how you can change it to display only some pages with a specific content 😕

What you can do, you can use the best practices for your titles, meta descriptions and alt texts, this might help but there is no guarantee.

[PageFly-Victor]

Hi @MDKSocks, 

@Niki_K is right, these site links are automated by Google so there is no way to control it. That being said, there are a few alternatives to enrich how your website appears on Search Engine Page - one of which is Rich Snippet. 

Basically, Rich Snippets are the extra information shown to users, like this (this is called an Organization Rich Snippets): 

You can learn more about what it is and how it works here: https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/snippets. There are a few Shopify apps that can help you add these rich snippets easier, for example: Json-LD For SEO app. 

Let me know if my answer is of any help, with a thumb up or like 😄  

[MDKSocks]

The rich snippets are the little texts below the links right?

I found out that I don't have a description with my collections, so I guess I need to do that first. But I don't really need stuff like the about us section showing up in those 6 links, because that links has no items on it to sell...

So you saying there is nothing I can do?? Same s*** as with Google Shopping where I make perfect titles, pictures and descriptions and they just use someone else's their titles etc that are actually crap?

I know Google is the big boy in the bussines, but I don't like how they are handling stuff lately to be honest, I need some control...

[Niki_K · Accepted solution]

 Hi @MDKSocks,

rich snippets - basically yes, under the links. They are enhanced search results and have visual appeal. They are described by structured data implemented by webmasters on their websites. This means that you can set them up. See this link how to do it: https://developers.google.com/custom-search/docs/snippets

Rich snippets are e.g.:

• Rating
• Price
• Review
• ….

See the screenshot of rich snippets (I found random one on duckduckgo)

And with the sitelinks - you can’t do nothing with them. I know it’s frustrating. It’s the same as with the titles and meta descriptions. You don’t have control over it. I don’t like it either. Recently, there have been some discussions about it on Twitter and I’ve also written a blog post about the titles and meta descriptions being randomly changed by Google. Here’s the link if you’re interested: https://www.nikikozak.me/marketing/2021/07/25/titles-metadescriptions/

If you have any further SEO questions, feel free to write to me!

Hope this helps!

[MDKSocks]

Yeah I have been fighting Google Shopping for a month now, them showing titles and descriptions that are not mine... Same stuff as this.. Google think there algorithm is almighty and flawless while it does a lot of wrong stuff (also a lot of good stuff)

I will try to not be bothered with it anymore, thanks

[Alex310]

The truth is, you don't really have control over this. However, I'd recommend looking into implementing additional schema markup on your website. Especially things like Search bar will help as they will allow consumers search your website right from Google. You'd be surprised, but this has turned out into additional sales for one of our clients. Look at https://validator.schema.org/ to see what schema we implemented to get there.