The update is being rolled out, and while it corrects some offensive site names, it does not address all of the identified problems.
In order to address some of the unsuitable or unexpected site name choices shown in its search results, Google released an update. This comes after Google, as we reported earlier this week, established an online form asking for user feedback about site names that were erroneous, offensive, or wrong.
On desktop and mobile searches, Google added site names a few months ago.
the problem. Google occasionally has the right to replace a site’s specified name with one that it deems more appropriate. For instance, the CMO of Salesforce referred to Google’s display of a space between “sales” and “force” while searching for [salesforce] as being “very harmful to our brand.”
The remedy. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, released an update in the Google support forums stating that a fix has been put out that fixed some of the problems. We recently implemented a change that, according to some of the examples reported here and through our form (and probably some others that weren’t reported), appears to be helping. Sullivan continued, “This change may take some time to populate so that internal pages likewise show changed sitenames.”
According to the screenshot below, it solved the problem for Salesforce:
Not all are corrected. However, not all users’ problems were fixed. On Twitter, Glenn Gabriel provided some instances of website names that the update did not resolve. Here are three examples of site name issues that Google’s yesterday’s updates did not resolve. The DNN Software that says “Weight Loss Forum” is the worst. One is producing legal problems, and the others are simply incorrect,” he stated.
Controlling site names. Google back in October explained that Google Search uses a number of ways to identify the site name for the search result. But if you want, you can use structured data on your home page to communicate to Google what the site name should be for your site. Google has specific documentation on this new Site name structured data available over here.
Upgrading the favicon. Google also recommended revisiting the documentation for favicons for the latest best practices. Google is now also suggesting you provide an icon that’s at least 48 pixels and follows the existing favicon guidelines.