Improving Technical SEO with Sitelinks Breadcrumb Schema, Sitelinks Search Box Schema, and Sitelinks Menu Schema
In this article, we review how we can add the Sitelinks Breadcrumb Schema, Sitelinks Search Box Schema, and Sitelinks Menu Schema to a website. These opportunities may be brought to your attention during a Technical SEO audit and in this case, this is relatively easy to accomplish when it comes to WordPress-based websites using the Schema Pro plugin for WordPress.
Note that WordPress has many plugins so there could be other options available that can be used to add Sitelinks schema markup to a website.
Table of Contents
Add Sitelinks Breadcrumbs, Sitelinks Search Box, and Sitelinks Menu with the Schema Pro plugin for WordPress
Not every website qualifies however you still need the schema code and this can be set below using the Schema Pro plugin for WordPress.
The site structure and query are important for Sitelinks to be displayed. Note that the process of generating Sitelinks is automated and also needs to be relevant to the visitor’s search query — the only control you have is over the menu.
From [6] “…for your site’s internal links, make sure you use anchor text and alt text that’s informative, compact, and avoids repetition.”.
The image below has pointers to the appropriate settings configured in the WordPress Schema plugin for SiteLinks, SiteLinks Breadcrumb, and SiteLinks Search Box functionality.
Testing via the Google Search Console: Rich Results Test
We can test that these changes are working via the Google Search Console: Rich Results Test — simply add the URL in the search box and run the test:
Step one: Add the target URL and run the rich results test.

Step two: Review the Google Search Console: Rich Results Test results.

Visually testing Sitelinks Breadcrumbs, Sitelinks Search Box, and Sitelinks Menu
Testing for Sitelinks Breadcrumbs, Search Box, and Menu can be done visually, by querying the website brand name in Google or Bing, however these changes won’t appear immediately and may not appear at all. If the schema is working correctly we may eventually see something that looks similar to what we have in the following sections.
Viewing Sitelinks Breadcrumbs schema markup in search results
Sitelinks Breadcrumbs in search results act as a navigation aid that gives visitors an easy-to-understand overview of where the page is located on your website [9], they improve site navigation and usability, improves the ability for search engines to crawl a website, and can have a marginal impact on click-through rate (CTR) [14].
See the “Why aren’t breadcrumbs displaying in search results for my site?”, video below.
Viewing Sitelinks Search Box schema markup in search results
The Sitelinks Search Box provides a means for searching a given website right on the Google search results page — see below for an example.
Viewing Sitelinks Menu schema markup in search results
The Sitelinks Menu contains default menu choices — a user who clicks on one becomes a visitor and hence this can help improve the click-through rate (CTR) of a website.
Technical SEO Conclusion
In conclusion, we’ve covered two plugins that, taken together, can positively impact the technical SEO for a website, the user experience, as well as the security and page load time.
What other low-hanging fruits do you know of and what did you do to improve your website? Put your suggestions in the comments and we can discuss these in more detail.
Feel free to send me an invitation to connect, if you’d like to network or consider joining my email list.
Addendum: Site Navigation Breadcrumbs are not the same as Sitelinks Breadcrumbs
Not to be confused with site navigation breadcrumbs (see the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin), see below, which can be helpful for site navigation and usability purposes also.
Other Technical SEO Articles
- Technical SEO Cheat Sheet #1: “Which are the best SEO strategies?”
- Technical Search Engine Optimization Cheat Sheet #2: Page Speed & Image Optimization
- SEO Cheat Sheet #3: Long-Tail Keyword Crash Course
- SEO Cheat Sheet #5: Delay, Delay, Delay
See Also
- IPv6, C-Blocks, and How They Affect SEO
- Google: IPv6 & HTTP/2 Works But You Should Also Support IPv4 & HTTP/1.x
- Google IPv6 Adoption
- The Definitive Guide To Getting Google Sitelinks
- Google Sitelinks
- Google Sitelinks Search Box
- Everything You Need to Know About Breadcrumbs & SEO
- What are breadcrumbs and why are they important for SEO?
- The Big List of SEO Tips and Tricks for Using HTTPS on Your Website
- What is HTTP/2 and how does it benefit SEO?
- SEO Cheat Sheet #2: Page Speed & Image Optimization
- Assess Your Website Performance in under Ten Minutes
- How to (Maybe) Get Google Sitelinks and If They’re Worth Your Time
- Why aren’t breadcrumbs displaying in search results for my site?
- A Guide To Schema Markup & Structured Data SEO Opportunities By Site Type
- Why websites should be using HSTS to improve security and SEO
- How to Quickly Get Google SiteLinks for Your Site
- How to Perform a Technical SEO Site Audit in Just One Hour
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