Google now only displays the site names in search results for entire websites, such as the home page.
Google appears to have stopped displaying title tags in search results for the entire website, such as in queries for a website’s name, which typically display the home page.
This feature does not work for subdomains.
Only a website’s generic name is shown in searches.
Why Is Google Using Site Names?
Google uses site names to help users quickly identify a particular website in the search results.
According to Google’s official announcement:
“In order to make it simpler to recognise the website that is linked to each result, Search has introduced site names on mobile search results today”.
The next few months will see the introduction of this new feature in additional languages in addition to English, French, Japanese, and German.
The new Google search feature that shows site names on mobile devices is appealing.
There should be less clutter in the SERPs for brand name searches on the home page. Despite the fact that we can imagine some people bemoaning the title tag’s ineffectiveness in these searches.
Google Utilizes More Than Structured Data
Google recommends using the WebSite structured data type.
Because Google already knew that a website was a website and didn’t need structured data to know that it was indexing a website, it was previously believed that the WebSite structured data site served no purpose.
This has changed because Google now uses the “name” field of the WebSite structured data type in particular to determine the site name of a website.
In addition to structured data, Google also takes into account on-page, off-page, and metadata information when deciding what a webpage’s site name is, as stated in the Google site name guidelines.
Using the following criteria, Google interprets the domain name:
- Website structured data
- Headings (H1, H2, etc.) (H1, H2, etc.)
- Metadata from the Open Graph Protocol, notably the og:site name
In contrast to before, Google started advising website owners to utilise the unimportant WebSite structured data type at the time. It was not required in the past because Google did not use structured data to determine when it was indexing a website. In a recent development, Google began using the “name” property of the WebSite structured data type to determine the actual site name of each website. The WebSite’s homepage must include the structured data required by Google’s Search Central page for the site name.
What is Google going to do if a website has an alternate name?
It is also helpful for Google to comprehend the alternative names of websites thanks to website structured data. If you include the alternate names property, which is optional, Google will retrieve a different version of your website (for instance, an acronym or short name).
In conclusion, On mobile devices, the new enhancement feature is appealing because it makes searches for the brand name on the home page appear clutter-free on the search results page. Title tags with site names will influence Google’s algorithms to interpret your content and rank your page, as the page title tag is crucial for SEO in terms of search engine rankings, visibility, and traffic for your main target keywords positively.
However, because the title tag has no bearing on these searches, some users are not entirely satisfied with the feature. The majority of search results on mobile devices include title tags, so, likely, other types of search engines will soon follow the same case.
