In an effort to improve the PPC layout and increase performance and profitability, Google in June 2010 released the Ad Sitelink Extension feature that could be enabled on campaigns. This allows you to expand the reach of your AdWords ads by showcasing additional links to other areas of your site that are more specific, relevant and deeper in the process. As a result with up to 6 additional URL’s to choose from it is improving the validity of the content in the ad, helping to further provide the best result for a search query.

The results according to Google has been a 30% increase in Click Through Rate of ads having this feature compared to ads not enabling this function.

The best way to describe this new function is to look at the example provided by Google as it relates to a local pizza restaurant. In the first ad you see an existing text ad utilizing the sitelink extension. The next couple of ads shown below are regular text ads for the same pizza chain not using any extensions.

Now with Enhanced Sitelinks this takes it a step forward. By looking at the other text ads currently performing in your account, depending on the appropriateness of the content there will be a combination of the descriptive content in the text ads with the copy utilizing the sitelink feature to result in an enhanced sitelink.

In testing this feature Google determined the benefits to be positive, stating that as a result of this the visibility of these ads will make the site look more useful and relevant, which could further drive the click through rates even higher than with copy utilizing the original sitelink extension.

In my opinion this is something ideal for sites to take advantage of. To put things in perspective, if you occupy the top 3 positions on the 1st page, using this feature will increase your above the fold visibility on the Search Engine Result page, further taking up real estate and increasing the chance that a user searching for your product will click through to your site and in the end make a purchase. Therefore I believe that this is something that can yield more profitable results for a brand both short and long term.