Preparing Your Law Firm for Google’s New “Jump Links Update” in 2022

You heard the prediction here first: Google will likely be rolling out a new “Jump-to Sitelinks” feature in 2022. Of course, lawyers will want to take advantage of it for more real estate in Google’s search engine results pages, and result in more cases.

On January 27, 2022, we saw the test live in search results. Here’s what a website looks like in Google with the new Jump-to links feature VS the old Jump-to links feature:

screenshot jump-to sitelinks

A few lucky people saw this test in November 2021 and tweeted about it.

At this point, we’re not sure if or when Google will roll the new feature out but I would bet that we see it in Q1 or Q1 of 2022.

The Google “Jump Links Update” of 2022

When Google rolls this update out it is sure to impact impressions, CTR and traffic. Some sites, which provide quick answers, will see a reduction in traffic. Some sites, such as legal information sites, will generally see a positive impact on traffic. Legal pages which have Rich Snippets in Google’s SERPs almost always enjoy a significant improvement on Click Through Rates.

What’s a Jump Link?

I’ve been adding menus (aka “Jump Menus”) to large pieces of content for at least 15yrs now. I simply call these “Jump Links”. Some people call them anchor links. We’ve all seen these 100 times when a large page has a menu at the top of it, or a table of contents. Clicking on the menu link, or jump link, takes the user to that part of the page in their browser.

These links can be displayed in Google’s search results. When they’re displayed in search as a snippet, they’re called a “Jump-to Sitelink”.

Once this update hits they’ll need a new name, as they’ll be much more than just a jump-to sitelink.

How To Win This Feature:

The solution here is simple. You just need to add a menu or table of contents to pages which hyperlinks to sections lower in the page.

When this fully rolls out there will be other variables involved. We do not yet know what those variables will be, but, for example, when Google displays FAQ snippets in search, they limit each page to two Q&As, and only 3 sites on page 1 of Google are allowed to display them.

If you’re not sure how to do this, contact us today for assistance with your content marketing strategy for your law firm.