Uncategorized
28 February 2024
Google’s desktop search results will now display site icons and site names, making it easier for users to recognise websites listed in search results and ads.
Google announced this week that it is bringing its updated mobile search results design to desktop. The new layout will help users quickly identify websites in search results and adverts.
The updated design will include favicons and site names in Google’s desktop search results, similar to the design introduced to mobile search in October.
This change is part of Google’s ongoing efforts to improve the user experience by making search results and ads more visually prominent.
Adding site names to search results on the desktop allows users to identify the website associated with each web page link. Google also appears to have made adjustments to make the size and shape of the favicons that appear in search results more visible. These changes will also apply to Search ads, providing greater clarity and transparency for advertisers.
Google is switching to explicit labelling for ads to enable users to distinguish ads from organic search results. The label for Search ads now appears in its own line in the top left corner of the ad. Mobile ads are labelled with the word “Sponsored” in bold black text to make them more prominent and distinct from other types of content.
Google automatically generates site names in search results based on a site’s content and references that appear online. While it is impossible to manually change site names for individual sites, you can improve the accuracy of the name displayed for your site by adding WebSite structured data.
It is important to note that site names are different from per-page title links, which are unique to each URL. Google uses the site name to provide the most accurate representation of the source of each result.
The updated desktop search results design with Google’s favourite icons and site names aims to make search results and adverts more visually prominent.
A visually appealing and accurate site name can increase the chances of getting clicks from potential visitors.
For marketers and SEO professionals, this emphasises the importance of using structured data to help Google show your preferred site name in search results.
