Google has stated that due to the decline in usage of the Sitelinks Search Box, the visual element will thus be removed starting November 21, 2024. This change will be applied worldwide in all search results, countries and every language.
On Google’s official website for Developers, the announcement also includes that this change will not affect any site links visual element to rankings. It will also not be listed on the Search status dashboard. After this change takes effect and Google stops showing its sitebinks search box in Search, the next step is to take out the Search Console rich results report. Markups in the Rich Results Test will also no longer be highlighted.
Unsupported structured data will not cause any trouble in the Search nor will it bring about any issues relating to reports in the Search Console. This means that users do not need to remove sitelinks search box structure data from their websites. However, if they proceed to remove them, they should be wary that since site names contain a variation of WebSite structured data, it will thus continue to be supported.
Sitelinks Search Box: More on this visual element
The Sitelinks search box was introduced back in 2014. It was brought in to enable users to make site-specific searches right from Google’s own search results page. This visual element was viewable right above the sitelinks, especially when users search by a company name.
This tool by Google assisted users in finding super-specific site content much more easily. It also supported autocomplete and even let sites perform schema markup to integrate more efficiently in the search page.
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Image Credits: Photo by Elf-Moondance on Pixabay
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