What does it do?
This Enhanced Script automatically checks the landing pages that sitelinks are linked to, and it finds sitelinks that lead to 404 error pages. You can also set up the script to find pages that contain certain phrases like 'product not found' etc. This script generates a report with URLs that lead to 404 error page.
Why Use It?
With this Enhanced Script, you can:
Quickly identify sitelinks that point to broken or irrelevant pages, helping you ensure users always land on valid, useful content.
Save time by automating sitelink URL checks instead of manually reviewing them across campaigns, ad groups, and account levels.
Get a clear, actionable report that makes it easy to review issues and update or remove sitelinks directly in Google Ads.
Maintain a better user experience and protect your campaign performance by removing or updating problematic sitelinks early.
Basic Settings
Setting Name: Enter the name you want to give the setting. You can have multiple settings for the same script, and you can choose to pause and enable these settings as you wish.
Spreadsheet URL: The script outputs the results onto a Google Spreadsheet. If you want to paste the results in an existing spreadsheet, put in the address of the spreadsheet. The sharing settings for the spreadsheet should be 'anyone with a link'. If you leave "NEW", the script will create a new spreadsheet each time it runs.
Scope:
All - Checks each campaign level sitelinks, each ad group level sitelinks, and then account level sitelinks.
Account - Checks only account level sitelinks.
Campaign - Checks only campaign level sitelinks.
Ad group - Checks only ad group level sitelinks.
Note: If the sharing settings are not correct, the script will not be able to write the URLs it checks to the spreadsheet.
Campaign Name Includes
You can choose to run this script for specific campaigns. These can be filtered by mentioning the word to filter on. This setting also helps get around the 30-minute time limit for large accounts.
For example, only check campaigns that have 'brand' in their name.
Label: To easily recognize the landing pages that the script identifies as bad landing pages, you can choose to label them in Google Ads. This is an optional setting.
Advanced Settings
Text To Monitor: Apart from finding 404 Error pages, this script can also check specific text on the page. The script can check for text like 'product not found' or 'out of stock'.
Additional Settings: By default, the script only checks URLs that have at least one impression, if you want to check all URLs even those that have zero impressions, select the relevant box. Keep in mind, this may cause the script to timeout if the account is very large.
Why doesn't the script pause the sitelinks leading to 404 landing page?
Unlike the Check Destination URL script, where the settings allow you to pause a bad landing page, the Sitelink URL Script does not have such capability, as non-performing sitelinks can only be edited or deleted - not paused.
The only way to pause non-performing sitelinks is by pausing the campaign which is not a feasible solution. And this is the reason why we update you with the dead sitelinks using the spreadsheet report. You can take inputs from the spreadsheet to delete or edit the sitelinks in the Google Ads interface.
Use Cases
Quickly Take Action on Problematic Sitelinks
Problem: Even after identifying broken sitelinks, it’s difficult to locate and update them quickly in your account.
Solution: Use the Label setting to tag sitelinks with issues directly in Google Ads. This makes it easy to filter, edit, or delete them from the interface.
Keep Track of Issues with Organized Reporting
Problem: You struggle to track which sitelinks have issues and often lose visibility when working across teams or accounts.
Solution: Send the script output to a Google Spreadsheet. You can maintain a centralized log of problematic sitelinks and share it with your team for faster resolution.