Showing site name in search results

In the past, I've written about configuring the title and meta descriptions using Shopify's built-in features.

One thing we haven't talked about is setting your site name for search results. Most likely because it wasn't something we could change without changing our domain.

In search results, Google would show your URL in the first line of a result. With Google's latest update update, you can now set your site name. That means you can show your site name in search results rather than your URL as shown in the example below.

Though I've seen the site name appear on mobile and desktop, visibility can depend on the browser. For example, I saw the update on Safari and Chrome, but not Firefox. So if you're not seeing any search results showing the site name, try a different browser.

How to show the site name in Google Search

There are a few possible ways Google will pull your site name to include in search results.

1. WebSite structured data (Google's preferred method)
2. The og:site_name
3. Pulled from your <title> tag
4. Other headings and text found on the page

Options 3 & 4 are challenging. You have control over titles and headings, but these rely on Google's algorithm to choose the right name.

Option 2, og:site_name can changed in the code, but you'd have to know how to code which isn't ideal.

Option 1, using WebSite structured data is Google's preferred method. It's also easy to change with an alternative name but still requires some code. (I've got you covered)

You'll want to make sure your "name" is added to the WebSite data for Sitelinks Searchbox structured data.

{
    "@context" : "https://schema.org",
    "@type" : "WebSite",
    "name" : "Example",
    "url" : "https://example.com/"
}

For Shopify stores, your site name is the store name you've assigned in the Store Details setting.

The best part about this is that JSON-LD for SEO customers already qualifies for this search enhancement. The field for name isn't new and it's been included in the structured data for our customers for a long time. Only the search enhancement is new.

JSON-LD for SEO customers can also add an alternative name using our custom linked data solution.