When you search Google for your website, are you seeing a site name and logo icon listed above the URL of the page? What do you do if the site name is wrong or if you need to change it? Site names were first visible on Mobile but recently have also been displaying on desktop after it was announced on March 8, 2023.
In this article, I will outline some steps you can take to update this site name.
First, check if you have website schema on your website.
What is schema? Think of schema as a cliff notes version of your website. It is a basic list of data points Google and other search engines can use to present your website appropriately in search results. Without it, Google has to read and understand your website content and make assumptions. Schema helps to prevent errors with this guesswork and explicitly gives Google what it needs as quickly as possible. Clear communication between you and the search engines. Every website should have website schema installed on their website now, especially now the site name is added above your website URL, title, and description in search results.
Ok let’s check to see if the schema code is already on your site, visit the Google Schema Tester Tool and enter your homepage URL and click test. Do you see something like the screenshot below with type = website? If not, you need to add some to the homepage of your site.
Below are two website schema examples you could add to your footer. One is for WordPress and HubSpot CMS. Since a footer file is a global file and added to all of your pages, I wrote my code snippets to check if the page is the homepage, if it is, add the snippet, if not, do not add the snippet. This follows the guidelines presented by Google in their search console documentation.
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Installation instructions: Add one of these snippets to the <HEAD> of just the homepage of your website.
Sample code for a WordPress site
<?php if (is_front_page()) { ?>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context" : "https://schema.org",
"@type" : "WebSite",
"name" : "Bootstrap Creative",
"alternateName" : "BootstrapCreative",
"url" : "https://bootstrapcreative.com/",
"potentialAction": {
"@type": "SearchAction",
"target": {
"@type": "EntryPoint",
"urlTemplate": "https://bootstrapcreative.com/?s={search_term_string}"
},
"query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
}
}
</script>
<?php } ?>
Sample code for a HubSpot site
{% request.path|length < 1 %}
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context" : "https://schema.org",
"@type" : "WebSite",
"name" : "Bootstrap Creative",
"alternateName" : "BootstrapCreative",
"url" : "https://bootstrapcreative.com/",
"potentialAction": {
"@type": "SearchAction",
"target": {
"@type": "EntryPoint",
"urlTemplate": "https://bootstrapcreative.com/?s={search_term_string}"
},
"query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
}
}
</script>
{% endif %}
Retest to verify the schema is found without error
Ok let’s check to see if the schema code is working now. Visit the Google Schema Tester Tool and enter your homepage URL and click test. Is the type – website schema appearing now? If so, great. Now you can move on to the next step.
Visit Google Search Console, submit your homepage URL in the inspect box and click “request indexing”. Here is a guide on how to do this.
How do you change the logo image in Google Search Results?
In addition to the site name, you may also want to change your logo image displayed in search results. In order to do that, you need to add a link to a favicon link in the header of your website, like the example below. Here is a guide with more information.
<link rel="icon" href="/path/to/favicon.ico">
Conclusion
Adding site names and logo icons in search results is an exciting new feature in search results. Especially when it comes to branding and building trust authority. Imagine if your ideal buyers perform search on a particular topic and you and a competitor appear in the same search results. In the past, they have visited your site before and gained a lot of value and help. When they perform another search and have to decide what link to click on, which one do you think they would more likely choose? Yours exactly, because you have set a precedent of being a trustworthy source.
Need a developer to fix this for you?
If you have any questions or need help implementing this change please let me know and I will do what I can to help.
