What are Site Names?
In October 2022 Google introduced the use of Site Names on mobile search via a blog post on Search Central.
The blog post states that Site Names are designed to make it easier for users to identify the website that is associated with a search result, and also shared how to set your website’s Site Name using structured data.
How to change your Site Name
To set the Site Name for a website it is use the WebSite schema (schema.org/WebSite).
The required properties for the schema type are name and url.
An optional property is available: alternateName.
Example
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context" : "https://schema.org",
"@type" : "WebSite",
"name" : "Search Candy",
"url" : "https://searchcandy.uk/"
}
</script>Alternative sources of Site Names that Google may take into account when deciding what Site Name to set include:
- Title tags
<title></title> - H1 heading elements
- Open Graph Site Name
og:site_name