One is a file.
The other is
just links.
Search a well known company and you often get a tidy block of links under the result: About, Careers, Contact, Support. Search a well known person and you can get a box on the right with a photo, a job title and a few facts.
People screenshot the first one and call it a knowledge panel. It is not, and the difference is not cosmetic. One means Google has organised your website's pages. The other means Google has decided who you are.
What you are looking at
| Sitelinks | Knowledge panel | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | Under the main result | Right side on desktop, top on mobile |
| Made of | Links to one website | Facts drawn from many sources |
| Comes from | Your own site structure | Sources you do not control |
| Has a reference number | No | Yes |
| Can be claimed | No | Yes, by the person it describes |
| Survives your site going down | No | Yes |
| Read by AI assistants as identity | No | Yes |
What sitelinks actually are
Sitelinks are navigation. Google has crawled your website, worked out which pages matter most, and offered a shortcut to them under your main result. That is a compliment about your site structure and nothing more.
They are generated automatically, they change without warning, and there is no version of them that exists independently of your website. Take the site down and they are gone the same week.
Zerodha is the example we keep on hand, because almost everybody who sees it assumes it is a panel. It is one of India's largest brokerages and what Google shows is a block of links into its own site.
What a knowledge panel actually is
A panel is Google showing you something it holds about a person or organisation, drawn from sources that are not the subject's own website. There is a file behind it with a reference number, and the box is only where that file becomes visible.
That independence is the whole point. Sitelinks say your website is well organised. A panel says several sources Google trusts agree about who you are, and it is prepared to state that as fact next to its own name.
It is also why a panel survives things a website does not. Change hosts, redesign, let the domain lapse for a month, and the file stays where it is.
The five second test
Look at where the thing sits and what it is made of. Sitelinks sit under the main result and are made of links to one website. A panel sits to the right on desktop, or at the top on a phone, and is made of facts: a photograph, a description, dates, related people.
The other giveaway is the three dots. A panel carries a small menu beside the description with a claim option in it. Sitelinks never do, because there is nothing to claim.
Why this matters before you pay anyone
Because the two are sold interchangeably. An agency showing you a screenshot of sitelinks as proof of a panel build is either confused or counting on you being confused, and both end the same way.
The check takes seconds. Ask which of the two the screenshot shows, and ask for the reference number. A real panel has one. Sitelinks do not, because there is no file.
Questions
Can you have both?
Yes, and plenty of well known organisations do. They answer different questions, so one never replaces the other.
Are sitelinks worth trying to get?
They are worth not blocking. They come from clear site structure and sensible internal links, which you want anyway. There is no way to request them and no way to buy them.
If I have sitelinks, am I closer to a panel?
No. They are unrelated. Sitelinks come from your own website; a panel comes from what other people have published about you. You can have excellent sitelinks and nothing else.
Someone sent me a screenshot and I still cannot tell.
Look for the three dots next to the description line, and ask for the reference number. If neither exists, it is not a panel.
If you want this handled
Three thousand dollars flat, half at the start and half only when there is something live to show you. Six to twelve months is the honest window, and about a third of the people who ask are told not to proceed.