Google finally fixed an ongoing site naming issue that had persisted since September 2023. This problem had prevented the proper display of a website’s name when an inner page was ranked in the search results.
Site Names In The Search Results
A site name, as the term suggests, refers to the title of a website displayed on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This feature enables users to recognize the name of the site listed in the search results.
For instance, if your website is named “Acme Anvil Company” and that’s how the company is recognized, Google aims to showcase “Acme Anvil Company” in the search results. However, if the company is more commonly known as “AAC” and prefers to display this abbreviation in the SERPs, Google accommodates that preference.
Google provides site owners with the option to utilize the “WebSite” structured data on the homepage to specify the accurate site name they wish Google to display.
Problem Propagating Site Names
On September 7, 2023, Google issued a warning within their site name documentation, acknowledging issues with propagating site names to inner pages of a website when those pages were displayed in the SERPs. The warning read:
“Known issue: site name isn’t appearing for internal pages
In some cases, a site name shown for a home page may not have propagated to appear for other pages on that site. For example, example.com might be showing a site name that’s different from example.com/internal-page.html.
We’re actively working to address this. We will update this help page when this issue is resolved. In the meantime, if your home page is showing the site name you prefer, understand that it should also appear for your internal pages eventually.”
Google Fixes Site Name Problem
The documentation addressing the site name problem was recently removed, as noted in a Google documentation changelog:
“Resolving the issue with site names and internal pages
What: Removed the warning about the issue that was preventing new site names from propagating to internal pages.
Why: The issue has been resolved. Keep in mind that it takes time for Google to recrawl and process the new information, including recrawling your internal pages.”
While there’s no explicit explanation provided regarding the cause of the site name propagation problem, it’s intriguing that it was eventually resolved after such a duration. This prompts speculation on whether the delay stemmed from the issue being considered low priority or if there were backend changes within Google’s systems that facilitated the resolution.
Original news from SearchEngineJournal