Table of Contents in Buyer Guides: Jump Links, What Google Does With Them, and Where They Cost You the Click
A table of contents is a small thing that sits in the most valuable place on a buyer guide, and that's the whole argument about it. Put ten jump links above the verdict and the reader who came for the answer scrolls past a menu to find it, or clicks "FAQ" and never sees the pick.
Leave it out and Google has nothing to build jump links from, and a 3,000-word page has no map. The answer is a TOC that's short and sits in the right place.
This post covers how Google turns a table of contents into the jump links under a search result and what that's worth, what a TOC does and doesn't do for rankings, why a full TOC above the verdict costs clicks on a guide specifically, the four-line version that works and where it goes, anchor-ID hygiene so links don't break, and when to leave the TOC out altogether.
The verdict box post covers what the first screen should hold; this is about what shouldn't push it down.
The short answer
Give every H2 a short, stable id. Put a four-line TOC under the verdict box: the picks, how to choose, the comparison table, the FAQ. Don't put anything above the verdict but the title, the byline and the disclosure. Let Google build jump links from the anchors; don't expect the TOC to move rankings. On a short review or a comparison with four sections, skip it.
What Google does with it
| What | How it works | What it's worth |
|---|---|---|
| Jump links under the result | Google reads anchor links to headings with ids and shows two to four as "Jump to" links beneath the snippet | A taller result and a higher click rate on long pages; not a ranking lift |
| Section-level matching | A query that matches one section can land on that section (Google sometimes scrolls the reader to it) | Long-tail queries land on the answer, not the top of the page |
| Understanding structure | Clear headings with anchors make the page's parts explicit | Marginal; good headings do this without a TOC |
| Ranking | No direct effect | Nothing; a TOC is for readers and for the result's appearance |
Jump links appear when Google decides they help, usually on long pages with clear anchors and headings that describe their sections. You can't request them, and the schema post covers why no markup produces them; the anchors and the headings do.
Why a full TOC above the verdict costs clicks
The first screen of a buyer guide has one job: say which product and show the button. The link placement post has the numbers; the first-screen button is the largest single source of orders on the page. A ten-line table of contents above it does three things, all bad. It pushes the verdict and the button below the fold on a phone.
It offers the reader a menu before they've seen the answer, and a reader given a menu picks something ("FAQ", "How we chose") and leaves the first screen without clicking a button. And it makes the page look like a reference document rather than a recommendation, which changes what the reader expects to do on it.
The pages that put the TOC first are usually informational posts, where the reader wants to find their question and a menu is the right first thing. A buyer guide isn't that page.
The four-line version
Under the verdict box, after the reader has the answer and the button, a TOC of four entries:
- The picks ("All ten lights, ranked"), linking to the first product section.
- How to choose ("What matters in a commuter light"), linking to the buying-criteria section.
- The comparison ("Side-by-side table").
- FAQ.
Four lines take one or two lines of screen on a phone, give the reader who wants more a map, and give Google four clean anchors to build jump links from, which is as many as it ever shows. Each product section can have its own id for the jump-link and the direct-link cases without appearing in the TOC; the TOC lists the parts of the page, not every heading.
Anchor hygiene
- Short, lowercase, hyphenated ids:
#how-to-choose, not#what-matters-in-a-commuter-bike-light-and-what-doesnt. A plugin that uses the full heading text makes ids that break when you edit a word of the heading. - Stable. Once an id is live, it's a URL; other pages, Google's jump links and your own internal links may point at it. Renaming a heading shouldn't rename its id.
- One id per heading, on the heading element itself, not on a hidden span above it that scrolls wrong under a sticky header. If the header is sticky, add scroll-margin-top to headings in the CSS so the anchor lands below it.
- Link to sections from other pages when the section is the answer: a review that says "see the beam-shape section of the commuter guide" links to
/guide/#how-to-choose, which is a better link than the page top. - Check after a refresh. A regenerated guide should keep its ids; if the tool or plugin regenerates them from new headings, the old anchors break silently.
When to leave it out
- A single-product review under 1,500 words: the page is one argument; a map of it is clutter.
- A comparison post with four or five sections: the headings are visible in one scroll.
- Any page where the TOC would be the first thing on a phone. If the layout can't put it under the verdict, no TOC beats a TOC on top.
- Informational posts are the exception the other way: a long explainer wants its TOC near the top, because finding the question is the job.
Doing it with AffSERP
Guides written by AffSERP's X Best Review tool put the verdict box and its button first and give every section heading a short, stable id, so the anchors Google needs are there without a plugin and nothing sits above the answer.
Whether to render a short TOC under the verdict is a theme decision in WordPress; the ids are in place for it either way, and the Refresh option keeps them when it regenerates the sections, so links into the guide don't break on an update. The informational posts the Informational Article tool writes carry the same ids, where a TOC near the top is the right call.
FAQ
Does a table of contents help SEO?
Indirectly and modestly. A table of contents gives Google a set of anchor links it can show under your result as 'jump to' links, which make the result taller and can lift click-through on long pages. It doesn't rank the page higher on its own. What it does for readers (a map of a long page, a way to skip to the section they need) shows up as time on page and fewer bounces, which matter over time. On a buyer guide the trade-off is where it sits: above the verdict it's a detour; below it, it's a map.
What are jump links in Google search results?
The small links Google sometimes shows under a result ('Jump to: Our top pick · How we chose · FAQ') that take the searcher straight to a section. Google builds them from anchor links on your page: a table of contents whose entries link to headings with id attributes. You can't request them; Google shows them when the page is long, the anchors are clear and the headings describe the sections. Pages with a TOC and well-named headings get them often; pages without anchors never do.
Should a buyer guide have a table of contents?
A short one, placed after the verdict box, not before it. The first screen of a guide exists to give the answer and the button; a ten-line TOC above it pushes both below the fold and sends readers off to sections before they've seen the pick. Four lines (the picks, how to choose, the comparison, the FAQ) under the verdict gives the reader who wants more a map without taking anything from the one who wanted the answer.
How do I add anchor links to headings in WordPress?
Give each heading an id (the block editor has an 'HTML anchor' field under Advanced for each heading block) and link to it with #that-id. Keep the ids short, lowercase and stable, because changing one later breaks every link to it, including Google's jump links and any other page that linked to the section. Most TOC plugins do this automatically; check the ids they generate aren't the full heading text with every word, and turn off the plugin's 'smooth scroll' if it fights with the sticky header.
AffSERP guides put the verdict box and button in the first screen and give each heading a short, stable id, and Refresh keeps the ids so links into the guide don't break.
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