Webmaster Tools shows sitelinks but they're not in the SERPs

[hugo_guzman]

When I log into Google Webmaster Tools and check to see if my site has sitelinks, it shows eight sitelinks that are supposedly live. However, these links never actually show up when I perform a search in Google.

I've tried branded terms and non-branded terms that match the actual sitelinks pages showing up in Webmaster Tools, but nothing seems to work.

Has anyone ever experienced this? Is it somehow a glitch?

[tedster]

No, it's not a glitch - in fact it's very common. The list you see in Webmaster Tools is what the generation part of the algo has chosen to display -- IF the rest of the algo determines to display sitelinks at all for some search or other.

The most common query to display sitelinks is the domain name - with or without the tld extension. But even searching on those most closely associated terms, there's still no certainty that the sitelinks will be displayed.

[edited by: tedster at 12:21 am (utc) on Feb. 1, 2008]

[hugo_guzman]

Thanks for the feedback, Tedster!

[fishfinger]

Yeah, I got very excited the first time I saw this in w/master tools... then it wasn't there in Google.

[lukewd]

same here, got the links in WMT, but no links in serps for any keyword combinations :( major let down.

[Robert Charlton]

A domain has got to be dominant for a particular query to get Sitelinks. I haven't come up with a simple description of how dominant, though. Each time I think I've figured it out, I come up with an exception.

[Reilly]

today my sitelinks in gwt dissappeared again - damn never saw them ... - i hope they will come back...

[lukewd]

mine too, just checked them abobut 8 hours ago, all fine, but now gone! very odd.

maybe they have decided to only display them in WMT if they are likely to appear in the serps...

[dmaniatis]

maybe they have decided to only display them in WMT if they are likely to appear in the serps...

Not true in my case. They have disappeared from GWT for all my sites even ones that DO have sitelinks for a given search in Google.

[Reilly]

strange - i tried all searches and all keywords out of my logfiles and NOTHING - i can't see them - ARGHHH

[Bewenched]

the ones that show up to me are either so old, non relavent or scraper links. All the good ones .. the ones I get google alerts about never show up in WMT and havn't for 2 years now.

Wish there was a way to disassociate our site from some of the links that do appear.

[ecmedia]

I actually saw them a week ago in the serps and took a snapshot but don't see them now. Probably a glitch. I am not sure that they somehow bring more traffic.

[rafiq]

Had sitelinks disappear then reappear too, anyone figure out how to get it to display in the serps yet?

[Asia_Expat]

Sorry rafiq, I'm to busy working on my time machine. The radiation burns really hurt.

[cyber49]

I'm having the OPPOSITE problem, for over a week. sitelinks show for top search phrases, wow I'm lucky. Want to tweak them and remove the irrelevant one, but Webmaster Tools claims Google hasn't assigned any!

I'm srring this on 3 domains, wit hthe longet for a week now. At one point i looged out pf Personal search and the sitelinks disappeared, and I thought I had it figured out.

The next day though, sitelinks were back, even logged out, and they've stayed there, just not in WMT - bummer.

[tedster]

This phenomenon -- Sitelinks in the SERPs but not in WebmasterTools -- just started to be reported this past week s many sites started seeing Sitelinks in the SERPs for the first time. I'm assuming tht it's just a time lag that will get sorted out.

We've got a thread dedicated to that discussion, so I'm going to lock this one and take the future posting over to the newer thread:

Google Adds Sitelinks for a New Batch of Websites [webmasterworld.com]