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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. Google uses a number of different sources to automatically determine the site name, and you can indicate your preference by adding WebSite structured data. 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).

site name in google search results

Feature availability

Site names appear in mobile Google Search results for the following languages: English, French, Japanese, and German.

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 both the content of a site and references to it that appear on the web. The goal of the site name is to best represent and describe the source of each result.

Google Search uses a number of sources from a site's home page to automatically determine site names, including:

While we can't manually change site names for individual sites, we're always working to make them as accurate as possible. You can help improve the quality of the site name that's displayed for your page by adding WebSite structured data.

How to add 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.

Here's an overview of how to build, test, and release structured data. For a step-by-step guide on how to add structured data to a web page, check out the structured data codelab.

  1. Follow the guidelines.
  2. 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.

    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">
    <meta itemprop="url" content="https://example.com/"/>
    <meta itemprop="name" content="Example"/>
  </div>
  </body>
</html>
  3. 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.

    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">
    <meta itemprop="url" content="https://example.com/"/>
    <meta itemprop="name" content="Example Company"/>
    <meta itemprop="alternateName" content="EC"/>
  </div>
  </body>
</html>
  4. 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. If the page looks okay, you can ask Google to recrawl your URL.

Guidelines

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

Technical guidelines

  • Currently, Google Search only supports one site name per site, where a site is defined by the domain. That means that Google Search supports site names at the domain level, and not at the subdomain level or subdirectory level. Note that subdomain names starting with www or m are generally considered as being at the domain level.
    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)
    Not supported: https://example.com/news (this is a subdirectory-level home page)
    Not supported: https://news.example.com (this is a subdomain-level home page)
    For subdomains, Google Search may show an abbreviated version of the URL in the search result (for example, "news.example.com" may appear as the site name for the https://news.example.com subdomain.
  • The WebSite structured data must be on the home page of the site. By home page, we mean the domain-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 (that is, it can't be blocked to Google). If we don't have access to the content on your home page, we may not be able to generate a site name.
  • 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're already implementing WebSite structured data for the Sitelinks search box feature, 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. For example, here's how WebSite structured data would look like for both site name and sitelinks search box: 
    <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/",
      "potentialAction": {
        "@type": "SearchAction",
        "target": {
          "@type": "EntryPoint",
          "urlTemplate": "https://query.example.com/search?q={search_term_string}"
        },
        "query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
      }
    }
  </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Content guidelines

  • Choose a unique name that accurately reflects the identity of your site. Don't choose a name that is used by another site, as this might be 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, on some devices long site names may be truncated. If you have an alternate name that's commonly recognized, you can use the alternateName property to specify that name (for example, an acronym).
  • Use your site name consistently across your home page. Whatever you use as the site name in structured data should be consistent with what's on your home page, <title> elements, and other prominent sources where Google may derive the name of your site.

Structured data type definitions

To tell Google which site name you prefer, include the required properties on the home page of your site.

WebSite

The full definition of WebSite is available at schema.org/WebSite. The following tables detail the required and recommended properties that Google supports.

Required properties
name

Text

The name of the website. Make sure the name meets the content guidelines.
url

URL

The URL of the home page of the site. Set this to the canonical home page of your site. For example, https://example.org.
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 content guidelines.

Troubleshooting common issues

Here are the most common issues we see with site names in search results.

Common issues

Site name is incorrect or has incorrect formatting

For example, "Andorid" instead of "Android".

Verify that the site name provided in your markup on your home page is the preferred name for your site, and follows our guidelines. Confirm that other sources on your home page also use the preferred name for your site.

If you have multiple versions of your site, for example HTTP and HTTPS, make sure that you're using the same site name consistently.

URL is displayed instead of site name

For example, "android.com" or "news.android.com" instead of "Android".

If Search isn't able to identify a site name based on your home page's metadata, the domain will be displayed instead. Double-check that the site name meets the content guidelines and is implemented correctly with structured data.

If the site is a subdomain, the URL may be displayed in search results instead of a site name. Currently, Google Search supports site names from home pages at the domain-level, and not at the subdomain (for example, https://news.example.com) and or subdirectory (for example, https://example.com/news) level.

Result redirects to another page

If your page redirects to a page that's visible to Googlebot, the site name will reflect the redirect target. If your page redirects to a page that's not visible to Googlebot, the site name will reflect that of the source page.

Make sure your redirects are working as intended and that Googlebot can access the redirect target page, and then request a recrawl of that page.

Troubleshooting structured data issues

If you're having trouble implementing or debugging structured data, here are some resources that may help you.