Anchor Sitelinks – WordPress Table Of Contents (Part 1)

Andy Beard — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:08:42 +0000

With Google now providing convenient anchor links as sitelinks within search results for long structured documents I thought it would be prudent to examine current solutions for WordPress and see which of them is most likely to help you obtain anchor links.

Read carefully – there is a competition at the end to get my bonus for Stompernet without buying anything

These anchor links have been around for a few weeks now, first reported on Google Blogscoped, but it was announced on the official Google blog.

Benefit Of Sitelink Anchor Links In Search Results

For users, quicker access to the information they are looking for avoiding the need to scroll through a long article (initially)
For site owners… I have no eye-tracking screenshots to show you, and I have only seen them on the first result so far, but at a guess if the first position gets you 40% of the clicks, this could bump that to 50%, a 25% increase in traffic for a top listing.

Would this result in higher conversions? Possibly, but bare in mind the visitors might never see what you prepared for them above the fold, so you need to include a marketing message at the bottom of a page as well.

Lets take a look first at the examples Google provide

Trans Fats

The first example Google provide is for trans fats

The top results is for a Wikipedia page

Google link through to the anchor for nutritional supplements from a horizontal line of sitelinks

Lets take a look at the structure of the elements on the page.

The Table Of Contents

This is what it looks like

Here is the code





Contents
 [hide]

1 History
2 Chemistry

3 Presence in food
4 Nutritional guidelines
5 Health risks

5.1 Coronary heart disease

5.2 Other effects


6 Public response and regulation

6.1 International
6.2 Australia

6.3 Canada
6.4 Denmark
6.5 Switzerland
6.6 European Union
6.7 United Kingdom

6.8 United States

6.8.1 Local regulation in the United States




7 Food industry response


7.1 Manufacturer response
7.2 Major users' response


8 See also
9 References

10 Further reading
11 External links

The links to the named anchors:-

Used relative named anchors – that may or may not be suitable for a blog post depending on what level of interaction you want to provide for someone viewing from an RSS reader.
Use human understandable names
Wikipedia use underscores as a separator – a hyphen would probably make this easier for Google
The anchors contain no unique reference which could potentially cause problems in an RSS feed or on a blog.
Are arranged in an unordered list

The Named Anchors

Lets dive straight into the code

[edit] Nutritional guidelines

It is nested within an H2 element on the page
The anchor doesn’t use a name construct which was deprecated in xhtml 1.1, but an ID id=”Nutritional_guidelines”
It could be considered suboptimal, because there isn’t an easy way to grab a link to that section of the page
The ID is applied to the span within the H2

Good Cholesterol Level

This is the Google search result pointing to this page as the first result.

Google provide a siltelink to a named anchor or ID from within the snippet

American Heart have a double listing even without the exact search term in the Title Tag and URL
The anchor link is placed immediately below the snippet title in the search results listing, and is almost like an ancillary title.
Either Wikipedia are slacking and don’t have a suitable page, or Google might have decided they are not a reliable source for medical information – their highest position is an article on HDL that references the 2nd article from American Heart – of course with a nofollow

The Table Of Contents

Here is what the TOC looks like on the American Heart Association site

Here is the code

A complete fasting lipoprotein profile will show:


Your total blood (or serum) cholesterol level

Your HDL (good) cholesterol level

Your LDL (bad) cholesterol level

Your triglyceride level

The links to the named anchors:-

Used relative named anchors – that may or may not be suitable for a blog post depending on what level of interaction you want to provide for someone viewing from an RSS reader.
Use human understandable names (though short)
Only a single word so no idea of separators
The anchors contain no unique reference which could potentially cause problems in an RSS feed or on a blog.
Are arranged in an unordered list
Whilst the anchors were short, a saving grace is that the link text matches the title

The Named Anchors

Lets dive straight into the code

Your HDL (Good) Cholesterol Level

Uses both named anchor and ID – named anchors were deprecated in xhtml 1.1 and replaced with the id tag
A link is provided which can be copied to link to that section of the page
Both the ID and Named anchor are applied to the link
Both the ID and named anchors use a keyword that appears within the link, but notably it is not the search query
The anchor link contains the search query that was used within the rich snippet

Anchor Links In Search – Requirements

On the Google Webmaster blog they have gone into further detail on the requirements for the additional listing

We generate these deep links completely algorithmically, based on page structure, so they could be displayed for any site (and of course money isn’t involved in any way, so you can’t pay to get these links). There are a few things you can do to increase the chances that they might appear on your pages. First, ensure that long, multi-topic pages on your site are well-structured and broken into distinct logical sections. Second, ensure that each section has an associated anchor with a descriptive name (i.e., not just “Section 2.1″), and that your page includes a “table of contents” which links to the individual anchors. The new in-snippet links only appear for relevant queries, so you won’t see it on the results all the time — only when we think that a link to a section would be highly useful for a particular query.

WordPress TOC (Table Of Contents Plugins)

First of all I am going to explore common attributes, desired features and required features to achieve rich snippets and anchor sitelinks, and we will look at how many each of the current offerings fulfil.

I am not giving points for supporting the latest WP2.8.4
A plugin gets no additional point for being in active development – if it works it works
My ranking criteria may be totally different to a typical WordPress designer or user – ultimately I want something that works first, has fancy features second.
In compiling the lst of features I had glanced briefly at some of the existing plugins and noticed some failings, but all judging was carried out after requirements were specified. (I am not picking on anyone)
I might well overlook something especially on plugins that don’t seem to meet a number of requirements – this is a work in progress to help me make decisions as much as anything, and possibly some motivation for plugin authors to improve their offering.

Required Features

5 points – Automatic mode – it should be possible to create a TOC just by placing a shortcode, or having a widget with no specific editing
5 points – Ability to place TOC after a few paragraphs of content as an introduction. This might be a factor when creating excerpts, which in theory may or may not have the TOC, but certainly shouldn’t have it mangled.

10 points total

Anchors

2 points – IDs (Not Named Anchors) – To satisfy the validation nazis, we shouldn’t be using deprecated XHTML where possible, and we want something that is universal
2 points – Keyword Rich IDs – Google has specified this as a factor, though it appears it may not be universally necessary as long as the keyword is within the element
2 points – Unique IDs – I could list this under desired, but many blogs have full content appearing on their home pages or categories, and would frequently have something such as a download link or preface – IDs on a single page have to be unique.
2 points – Anchored elements contain keywords/section title – there are ways to do anchors that might create an invisible link or span first, and then a separate element would contain the actual title – this isn’t appropriate as the ID can’t be assigned to the text
2 points – ID is applied to a link that can be copied easily at he place in the text where the content is (no scrolling to TOC)

10 points total

Desired Features

1 point – Widgets
1 point – PHP Code for manual placement
1 point – Shortcodes
1 point – Ability to prevent placement on home page if desired
1 point – Both Ordered and Unordered Lists for TOC
1 point – Support for WYSIWYG editor buttons
1 point – Support for non-WYSIWYG buttons
1 point – good styling of TOC
1 point – appropriate styling of anchors
1 point – can it cope with code within a post that might contain headings

10 points total

GRAND TOTAL 30 POINTS

Reader Competition – Almost End Of Part 1

This article is already quite long, so I am breaking things into 2 parts, with the “review” of the existing plugins in part 2.

However I want to leave you with some example code from one WordPress plugin just to analyse here in the comments and to see who gets closest to my final score though if you find more problems I miss, those would be added to my “final score” (moving goal posts).
Whoever gets the closest will get the same bonus package as I have offered to those people purchasing Stompernet through my link.

WP-ToC

WP-ToC (blank page) but can download on WP.org

Chosen as the first on the list if you search from within WordPress – a ToC is placed just using a shortcode

The Table Of Contents

This is what the “broken” Table of contents looks like

The Table Of Contents (Code)

Note: I manually removed the code for the edit link shown in the screenshot


Benefit Of Sitelink Anchor Links In Search Results
Trans Fats
The Table Of Contents


Contents
The Named Anchors


Nutritional guidelines
Good Cholesterol Level
The Table Of Contents
The Named Anchors


Anchor Links In Search - Requirements
WordPress TOC (Table Of Contents Plugins)

Required Features

Table Of Contents
Anchors


Desired Features


Reader Competition - Almost End Of Part 1

WP-ToC

The Table Of Contents
The Table Of Contents (Code)
The Anchor Links (code)


Competition Rules

The Anchor Links (code)

Reader Competition – Almost End Of Part 1

Competition Rules

No Purchase Required
If you have already purchased Stompernet through my link, I will double the time I spend with you
All Countries Eligible
No need to sign up to an email list to enter, but use a real email address for comments/entries so you can be contacted
Leave a comment with the total score, and just to prove you thought about your answer, list at least 3 of the reasons why you gave that score (no random guesses)
I will delete comments that link to junk websites, don’t include a name in the name field etc Just because you make a pseudo entry doesn’t mean you can get away with spam.
Judges decision is final
First correct/nearest entry wins based upon date/time entered
All entries shoulld be a new comment, not a reply
Minimum of 10 correct entries before I publish part 2 with the results for all plugins
Anyone who charges their clients more than $100/hr or has what I would determine an established business can join in for fun, but will not be eligible for the prize – I won’t help with 3rd party “client” sites
No linking, tweeting, Stumbling etc required to enter – Google doesn’t like that but I do
Provided I have received enough qualifying entries, part 2 should be published within 48 hours

Enjoy… I now have to go and fix someone’s website that Google has maimed in the search results

You don’t need to place an entry to comment – let me know what you think

Tags: anchor links, search engine optimization, SEO Blog, site links, sitlelinks, stompernet, table of contents, toc, wordpress plugins

Internet Business & Marketing Strategy - Andy Beard » table of contents

Anchor Sitelinks – WordPress Table Of Contents (Part 1)

Benefit Of Sitelink Anchor Links In Search Results

Trans Fats

The Table Of Contents

Contents

The Named Anchors

[edit] Nutritional guidelines

Good Cholesterol Level

The Table Of Contents

The Named Anchors

Anchor Links In Search – Requirements

WordPress TOC (Table Of Contents Plugins)

Required Features

Table Of Contents

Anchors

Desired Features

Reader Competition – Almost End Of Part 1

WP-ToC

The Table Of Contents

The Table Of Contents (Code)

The Anchor Links (code)

Reader Competition – Almost End Of Part 1

Competition Rules