Provide a site name to Google Search

When Google lists a page in search results, it shows the name of the site the page comes from. This is called the site name. Note that the site name is different from the per-page title links (title links are specific to each web page, whereas the site name is for the entire site).

An illustration of a text result in Google Search, with a highlighted box around the site name part

Burnt Toast

How to make toast in a pan

Feature availability

Site names are available in all languages where Google Search is available, on both mobile and desktop. Site names can appear for domain-level and subdomain-level sites (learn more in the technical guidelines).

How site names in Google Search are created

Google's generation of site names on the Google Search results page is completely automated and takes into account content from a site's home page and references to it that appear on the web. The goal of the site name in Google Search is to best represent and describe the source of each result.

To indicate your site name preference, add WebSite structured data to your home page. Our site name system will also consider content in og:site_name, <title>, heading elements, and other text on a home page. However, WebSite structured data is most important, if you want to specify a preference.

While we can't manually change automatically selected site names, you can indicate alternatives for our automated system to consider if your primary preference isn't selected.

Choosing your site name

  • Choose a unique name that accurately reflects the identity of your site and isn't misleading for users. The name you choose must follow Search content policies.
  • Use a concise, commonly-recognized name for your site (for example, "Google" instead of "Google, Inc"). While there's no limit to how long a site name can be, long site names may be truncated on some devices.
  • Avoid using a generic name. A generic name like "Best Dentists In Iowa" is unlikely to be selected by our system as a site name, unless that's an extremely well-recognized brand name.
  • Use your site name consistently across your home page. Make sure whatever you use as the site name in structured data is consistent with how you refer to your site in other sources on your home page that our system considers.
  • Provide an alternative name. While our site name system tries to use your preferred site name, sometimes the name isn't available for use. For example, our system generally won't use the same site name for two different sites that are global in nature. In other cases, our system might determine that a site is more commonly recognized by an acronym than by a full name. Providing an alternative name using the alternateName property allows Google to consider other options if your preferred choice isn't selected.

How to add a site name with structured data

Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content. If you're new to structured data, you can learn more about how structured data works.

This section goes over the technical guidelines, required properties, and how to add and test site name structured data.

Follow the guidelines

To help Google better understand your site name, make sure you follow the Search Essentials, General structured data guidelines, guidelines for choosing your site name, and the following technical guidelines:

Technical guidelines

  • Only one name per site: Currently, Google Search only supports one site name per site, where a site is defined by the domain or subdomain. Google Search does not support site names at the subdirectory level. Note that subdomain names starting with www or m are generally considered as being equivalent.
    Supported: https://example.com (this is a domain-level home page)
    Supported: https://www.example.com (this is also considered to be a domain-level home page)
    Supported: https://m.example.com (this is also considered to be a domain-level home page)
    Supported: https://news.example.com (this is a subdomain-level home page)
    Not supported: https://example.com/news (this is a subdirectory-level home page)
  • Structured data must be on the home page of a site: The WebSite structured data must be on the home page of the site. By home page, we mean the domain or subdomain level root URI. For example, https://example.com is the home page of the domain, while https://example.com/de/index.html isn't the home page.
  • The home page must be crawlable by Google: If we don't have access to the content on your home page because it is blocked, we may not be able to generate a site name.
  • For sites with duplicate home pages: If you have duplicate home pages for the same content (for example, HTTP and HTTPS versions of your home page, or www and non-www), make sure that you're using the same structured data on all page duplicates, not just on the canonical page.
  • If you already have WebSite structured data on your site, make sure that you nest the site name properties in the same node. In other words, avoid creating an additional WebSite structured data block on your home page if you can help it.

Add required site name properties

Add the required properties to the home page of your website, in either JSON-LD, RDFa, or microdata format. You don't need to include this markup on every page of your site; you only need to add this markup to the home page of your site.

Required properties
name

Text

The name of the website. Make sure the name meets the guidelines for choosing your site name.
url

URL

The URL of the home page of the site. Set this to the canonical home page of your site's domain or subdomain. For example, https://example.com/ or https://news.example.com/.

Here's an example of WebSite structured data that includes the required fields:

JSON-LD

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Example: A Site about Examples</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context" : "https://schema.org",
      "@type" : "WebSite",
      "name" : "Example",
      "url" : "https://example.com/"
    }
  </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Microdata

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Example: A Site about Examples</title>
  </head>
  <body>
  <div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/WebSite">
    <link itemprop="url" href="https://example.com" />
    <meta itemprop="name" content="Example"/>
  </div>
  </body>
</html>

Add an alternative site name

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.

Recommended properties
alternateName

Text

The alternate name of the website (for example, if there's a commonly recognized acronym or shorter name for your site), if applicable. Make sure the name meets the guidelines for choosing your site name.

You can list more than one alternative name. Specify them in order of your preference, with the most important one listed first. For example: 

<script type="application/ld+json">
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "WebSite",
    "name": "Burnt Toast",
    "alternateName": ["BT", "B-T", "Burnt Toast Shop"],
    "url": "https://www.example.com/"
  }
</script>

Here's an example of WebSite structured data that includes all required and recommended fields:

JSON-LD

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Example: A Site about Examples</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context" : "https://schema.org",
      "@type" : "WebSite",
      "name" : "Example Company",
      "alternateName" : "EC",
      "url" : "https://example.com/"
    }
  </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Microdata

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Example: A Site about Examples</title>
  </head>
  <body>
  <div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/WebSite">
  <link itemprop="url" href="https://example.com" />
    <meta itemprop="name" content="Example Company"/>
    <meta itemprop="alternateName" content="EC"/>
  </div>
  </body>
</html>

Test structured data

  1. Validate your markup with a schema testing tool (for example, Schema Markup Validator) to make sure there are no syntax errors. Site names aren't supported in the Rich Results Test.
  2. Use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page. Be sure that your home page is accessible to Google and not blocked by a robots.txt file, noindex, or login requirements.
  3. If the page looks okay, you can ask Google to recrawl your URL.

What to do if your preferred site name isn't selected

Our system generally tries to use a preferred site name from WebSite structured data, when indicated. However, if our system is less confident in a name you provided, it may sometimes generate site names using other sources or show a domain or subdomain name.

If your preferred site name is not selected by our automated system, try these steps:

  1. Verify the following:
    • The site name that's in the WebSite structured data on your home page is the preferred name for your site.
    • Your WebSite structured data doesn't have structured data errors. Use a schema testing tool (for example, Schema Markup Validator) to make sure that there are no syntax errors (the Rich Results Test doesn't support site names).
    • Your structured data follows our guidelines.
    • Confirm that other sources on your home page also use the preferred name for your site.
    • Confirm that you're not trying to set up a site name for a subdirectory. Site names aren't supported for subdirectories (for example, https://example.com/news is a subdirectory-level home page and cannot have its own site name). See our technical guidance for more information.
  2. Make sure your redirects are working as intended and that Googlebot can access the redirect target. Then request a recrawl of that page. If your page redirects to a page that's visible to Googlebot, the site name will reflect the redirect target.
  3. If you have multiple versions of your site (for example, HTTP and HTTPS), make sure that you're using the same site name consistently.
  4. If you've updated your site name structured data, allow time for Google to recrawl and process the new information. Remember that crawling can take anywhere from several days to several weeks, depending on how often our systems determine content needs to be refreshed. You can request a recrawl of a page by using the URL Inspection tool.

If you've followed the guidance and your preferred site name still isn't selected, consider one of these options:

  1. First, try providing an alternative name using the alternateName property. If our site name system isn't confident enough to use your preferred name, it strongly considers this option.
  2. Provide your domain or subdomain name as a backup option. To provide your domain or subdomain as a backup option, add your domain or subdomain name as your alternative name. Your domain or subdomain needs to be in all lowercase (for example, example.com not Example.com) for our system to detect this as a site name preference. Our system will strongly consider using it if your preferred name isn't selected. In this example, Burnt Toast is the most preferred option, followed by BT, and ending with the domain example.com as the final name preference: 
    <script type="application/ld+json">
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "WebSite",
    "name": "Burnt Toast",
    "alternateName": ["BT", "B-T", "Burnt Toast Shop", "example.com"],
    "url": "https://www.example.com/"
  }
</script>
  3. If that's still not working, then try providing your domain or subdomain name (in all lowercase) as your preferred name, as a last-resort workaround option. If you provide your domain or subdomain name as your preferred name, our system will generally select that (but we recommend only doing this as a last resort). In this example, the only preference is the domain example.com: 
    <script type="application/ld+json">
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "WebSite",
    "name": "example.com",
    "url": "https://www.example.com/"
  }
</script>

If you tried the troubleshooting steps and still find issues, post in the Google Search Central Help Community. This will help us look for potential improvements to make in our system.