Sitelinks Search Box can now be disabled, says Google

It appears that Google have had a change of heart about their Sitelinks search box initiative, now bestowing webmasters with the ability to disable the feature entirely – just a month after they rolled it out.

It was only September that Google launched the new Sitelinks search box facility for webmasters to help them shape the way in which search engine users engage with the pages on their site, and there decision to introduce the new meta tag ‘nositelinkssearchbox’ to exclusively disable this feature is a clear sign that they lack confidence in its functionality and effectiveness.

For all who are unfamiliar with the new Sitelinks Search Box, it is a secondary search bar found directly beneath the meta-description of a search result on Google. It was created in order to help users access a website’s internal content in a simpler and quicker manner. For example, if you desired to find a specific video on YouTube, you could go directly to Google.co.uk, type in YouTube.com and then conduct a search for what you are looking for inside the Sitelinks Search Bar. Essentially, it is a feature which allows you to perform the internal search procedure of a website directly on Google.

A statement from Google on the release date of the new search box back on September 5^th appeared to convey their optimism towards the initiative, asserting: “Today you’ll see a new and improved Sitelinks Search Box. When shown, it will make it easier for users to reach specific content on your site, directly through your own site-search pages.”

However, the new provision has failed to garner the following and support that Google expected, with some members of the retail industry complaining that it is simply another way for the search engine giants to raise their monetary revenue from advertisers.

Revolve Clothing pointed out that when a consumer types in its name on the Google search engine, and then proceed to utilise the Sitelinks Search Box to locate one of their itinerary, that they are presented with other ads from rival retailers, as well as the results for their own branded item that they were searching for.

Revolve argued that if the Sitelinks Search Box was not present, that consumers would be more likely to have accessed Revolve Clothing’s site directly and performed and internal search – without having their attention diverted to ads from competitors.

Other critics of the search box have echoed Revolve’s sentiments, highlighting that the actual results that Google shows consumers are less appealing to prospective buyers than the ones that they would be presented from a retailers internal search results.

Using the new meta-tag

The new meta-tag, ‘nositeslinkssearchbox’ should be inserted as a tag on your website and will convey to Google that you to not desire them to display a Sitelinks Search Box under the meta-data of your website on their search results. The tag is:

Provided that you insert this tag in properly, the additional search box will be disabled, though you should keep in mind that this can take up to a month depending on the condition of your website and various other aspects.