Site names
Back in October, a change occurred on mobile search results in Google. The search giant stopped showing title tags for home page listings, and instead started displaying the generic name for the website.
For example, when we searched ‘Whitefish Marketing’, the following appeared in the mobile results, while searches on a desktop continue to display the title tag applied to the page.
The feature is not applied to subdomains, however, for which the title tag still displays.
Why the change?
Google has always been about offering users the best experience when making a search. Using site names makes it easier for them to identify a specific website in search results. The official announcement reads:
“…Search is introducing site names on mobile search results to make it easier to identify the website that’s associated with each result…”
The feature has been rolled out in English, French, Japanese and German languages, and is expected to show up in other languages in the coming months.
What does this mean for website owners?
What this means for web owners is that they should use the WebSite structured data type on home pages to specifically identify site names. Google is using the ‘name’ property of the WebSite structured data type to understand what the name of the website is. An example of the property in use follows, and must be in the code of the home page.
<title>Example: A Site about Accounting</title>
<script type=”application/ld+json”>
{
“@context” : “http://schema.org”,
“@type” : “WebSite”,
“name” : “ABC Accounting”,
“url” : “https://abcaccounting.com/”
}
</script>
On the Google Search Central page for site names, it’s recommended that the following placement for WebSite structured data is used:
“The WebSite structured data must be on the homepage of the site.
By homepage, we mean the domain-level root URI.
For example, https://example.com is the homepage of the domain, while https://example.com/de/index.html isn’t the homepage.”
Alternate site names
If your site is better known by an acronym, for example, or a shortened version of the whole name, the WebSite structured data allows you to tell Google about it. Google explains,
“If you want to provide an alternate version of your site name (for example, an acronym or shorter name), you can do this by adding the alternateName property.
This is optional.”
Structured data isn’t the only source
Google’s documentation on site names explains that there are other factors that help it to determine a website’s name. These include the Google title tag, headings (H1 and H2 tags), and Open Graph Protocol meta data, specifically the og:site_name property.
The effect of all this for users and web owners
As we’ve explained, the new site names feature makes identifying specific websites easier for users, and cleans up the overall appearance of mobile search results.
For web owners, however, there may be some frustration, since they lose the ability to influence the title tag with relevant keywords. It’s already known that Google replaces title tags that it deems too long or too short, so complaints may arise regarding this new change.
Help with structured data
If you’d like assistance with implementing the WebSite structured data type, or with boosting your website’s position in the search engine results pages (SERPs), get in touch with Whitefish Marketing today. We offer specialist SEO services in Kent, with a focus on accounting firms, and can assist with all your digital marketing needs.
