Google is removing its 10-year-old site links search box, which appears below some searches, to offer deeper search results on internal website pages.
Google Search has dominated the online search engine industry for over 26 years. While the overall platform remains the undefeated champion, certain features on Google Search have experienced limited lifetimes. One such feature is the Google Sitelinks Search box that will leave the search results pages forever, starting November 21st, 2024.
Google Sitelink Search was an extra search box that appeared on certain search results right below the website link. The extra search box helped users do deeper searches within the specific website to refine results. However, what looked like a useful feature historically experienced relatively low usage from global Google users. As a result, the company has decided to let the feature go to make room for better things that users demand.
Those who cannot figure out what and where the Google Sitelink Search box is can use the image below as a reference.
After the November deadline, Google Search will stop showing this extra search box in all languages and regions across the world. The sad part is that, if unannounced, most Google users would have never even known that this extremely thoughtful feature disappeared in thin air. Google has clarified that the removal of the extra search feature will not impact website rankings or the visual elements of their site links. The Search status dashboard will stop showing the Search Console rich results report and the markup in the Rich Results test.
Website owners and SEO teams do not need to remove the search box structured data for the sitelinks from their website, as the unsupported structured data will not cause issues or errors in search results or Console reports. The company also shared a disclaimer that it will continue supporting site names using a variation of website-structured data, and removal of sitelinks must be approached cautiously.
