Google replaces title tags with site names in homepage results.

Google now only displays the site name in mobile search results for the entire website, such as the home page.

Google appears to have stopped displaying title tags in mobile search results for the entire website, such as queries for a website's name, which typically display the main page.

This feature is not available for subdomains.

Only the generic name of a website is displayed in smartphone searches.

On a mobile device, the search engine results page (SERP) for Search Engine Land displays the website's general name, Search Engine Land.

The title of the home page is

<title>web design company in chennai</title>

The title tags appear to be displayed for non-branded keyword searches. Searches with a brand name and related keywords appear to display the title tags as well.

Why Do Google Searches Use Site Names?

Google uses site names to assist users in quickly identifying a specific website in search results.

This new feature will be available in additional languages, in addition to English, French, Japanese, and German, over the next few months.

A New Feature Isn't Always Effective

When searching for a compound word domain name like "web design company in chennai" or "webdesigncompanyinchennai" the same search results that included the new site names as the title link are returned.

A search using the domain name KPWebtech, on the other hand, returns the title-tagged old version of the search results.

However, searching for KPWebtech (with a space between the two words) yields the site name.

A New Site Name Structured Data Feature

Google recommends using the WebSite structured data type.

Prior to today, it was assumed that the WebSite structured data site served no purpose because Google knew what a website was and didn't need structured data to know that it was indexing a website.

Google now uses the "name" field of the WebSite structured data type to determine what a website's site name is, so this has changed.

Google published an example of the WebSite structured data with the “name” property in use:

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

The above structured data must be shown on the home page.

What if a website has a different name?

The WebSite structured data is useful because it allows you to tell Google what the website's alternate name is.

Google explains how to do it:

The structured data for adding an optional name looks like this:

JSON Structured Data for Optional Name

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context" : "http://schema.org",
"@type" : "WebSite",
"name" : "Example Company",
"alternateName" : "EC",
"url" : "https://example.com/"
}
</script>

Google Uses More Than Structured Data

According to the Google site name documentation, Google uses on-page, off-page, and meta data information, in addition to structured data, to determine what a webpage site name is.

This is what Google uses to understand the site name:

1. WebSite structured data
2. Title tag
3. Headings (H1, H2, etc.)
4. Open Graph Protocol meta data, specifically the og:site_name

It's worth noting that the og:site name property is an optional but highly recommended Open Graph property.

In HTML code, the Open Graph notation looks like this:

<meta property="og:site_name" content="Example Name of Site" />

Google Site Names

On mobile devices, the new site names feature in Google search appears appealing.

For home page brand name searches, it makes sense to have less clutter in the SERPs. Despite the fact that some people are complaining about the lack of title tag influence in these types of searches.