Sitelink Performance Audit
Audits sitelink assets account-wide: missing description lines, link texts with CTR far below the sitelink median, and campaigns serving with too few sitelinks to reliably show the full extension.
by Frederick Vallaeys (concept), chiliad (rewrite)·chiliad.io
Overview
Sitelink Performance Audit aggregates every sitelink asset that served during the window and reports three things: sitelinks missing one or both description lines (described sitelinks occupy more SERP space and engage better), sitelinks whose CTR sits far below the median sitelink CTR (stale or irrelevant link text), and campaigns serving with fewer than the recommended minimum number of sitelinks. Everything is ranked by impression volume so you fix the visible ones first.
Setup
- 1Open your Google Ads account and go to Tools → Bulk Actions → Scripts.
- 2Click the + button to create a new script and paste the code below.
- 3Adjust MIN_IMPRESSIONS and LOW_CTR_FACTOR if your volume is unusual.
- 4Set EMAIL_ADDRESS to receive the report; leave blank for logs only.
- 5Preview once to verify, then schedule monthly.
Configuration Variables
| Variable | Default |
|---|---|
DATE_RANGE | LAST_30_DAYS |
MIN_IMPRESSIONS | 100 |
LOW_CTR_FACTOR | 0.5 |
MIN_SITELINKS | 4 |
EMAIL_ADDRESS |
Expected Output
=== Sitelink Performance Audit (LAST_30_DAYS) === Sitelink assets that served: 18 Median sitelink CTR: 1.84% --- Sitelinks missing description lines (2) --- "Contact Us" impressions: 4211 "About" impressions: 1876 --- Sitelinks with CTR below 50% of median (1) --- "Careers" CTR: 0.31% impressions: 2540 --- Campaigns with fewer than 4 sitelinks (1) --- Competitor — Phrase - only 2 sitelink(s) Email sent to you@example.com
Notes
Metrics are for impressions where the sitelink was shown; Google counts clicks on any part of the ad, so sitelink CTR is best used comparatively (vs the median), not as an absolute. Only campaign-level sitelink assets that actually served appear — account-level assets show up through the campaigns they served in.