Be careful with Google Sitelinks (How I screwed myself)
While I’m generally a big fan of Google Sitelinks, I recently screwed myself by carelessly relying on them.
A few months back I planned travel for Affiliate Summit West. I began my process with a search for “Affiliate Summit West”. The search results today are below (which look pretty similar to what I recall seeing originally).
I was already registered for the show, knew which day I was speaking (Monday) and since the show was in the same location last year all I needed were the dates.
I clicked on the ‘About the Show’ sitelink and booked travel based on the dates on that page. A few weeks later, my wife booked a trip to Hawaii based on my calendar availability.
While all of the sitelinks were for the 2010 version of the conference, the ‘About the Show’ sitelink took me to the 2009 details. I carelessly booked my travel plans based on the wrong dates… which now collide with our trip to Hawaii…
Clearly, the error is mine and mine alone. If I had gone directly to the Affiliate Summit website and used their navigation, I would have not been in a position to make the error.
So, be careful deep navigating with sitelinks. Trust site owners more than Google (sounds obvious right?).
