If your site name is wrong in Google search, it is usually one of three things: (1) you launched a new domain, (2) you followed poor advice about the use of keywords, or (3) you have a non-unique brand name.
This guide explains how to properly set or change your Squarespace site title to impact your website name in Google search results and how to troubleshoot any issues.
How to Change a Squarespace Site Title
To view or change your site title or website name, follow Squarespace’s step-by-step instructions based on your template version or device:
Version 7.1: Edit Site Header, click your site title or logo, then click the pencil icon.
Version 7.0: Open the Design panel and click Logo & Title.
Squarespace App: On the home menu, tap More, tap Design, and tap Logo & Title.
See best practices below. If you need assistance, we offer SEO trainings via Zoom.
What is a Site Name (or Site Title)?
Generally speaking, a site name is your business name or brand name.
Google added site names to search results (mobile in 2022, desktop in 2023) to help users better understand what site a result is coming from at a glance. Your Squarespace Site Title—plus other signals—helps Google determine the site name they display when showing your website in search results.
Example of where a website name should appear in Google SERPs. Image credit: Google
Choosing Your Website Name
In most cases, your Site Title or website name should be your concise, recognizable brand name:
Concise: Typically, you’ll want to use your common business name, such as “My Site” versus “My Site, LLC.” But don’t misunderstand this directive to mean “short,” as there is no character limit. For example, the site name “Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University” is 60 characters and fully displays on desktop, but is truncated on mobile.
Recognizable: It should represent your brand, not a generic phrase like “best travel agent.” If your brand name is a common word or shared by other businesses, see the troubleshooting tips below.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: Many Squarespace web designers recommend populating the Site Title field with your business name “plus keywords,” but this is not accurate. If needed, the correct place to insert a tag line or keyword is alongside the site title (%s) on the SEO appearance panel.
Note that Squarespace’s site title field is what displays as a site’s “logo” if a logo image is not uploaded.
URL vs Site Name on Google
Google tries to identify the best name to describe a site, but sometimes you’ll see a website URL (www.mysitename.com) versus a brand name (My Site Name) used as a site name in search results. Regarding this issue, Google states:
“If your URL is showing rather than a site name, this doesn’t represent an error but instead that our systems aren’t confident enough to show a site name for your site. This can be for a variety of reasons and might change over time.”
This issue is common when a site has a non-unique name. And in our experience, the website URL issue also affects personal sites when the individual had an existing online footprint. The URL issue is fixable, see below for tips and troubleshooting.
Where Google Site Names Come From
Google tries to automatically determine an appropriate site name from various sources, including the content on your homepage. Specifically, Google states they consider this information from your homepage to select a site name that best represents your brand:
WebSite structured data and og:site_name—Squarespace uses your site title to automatically set this information
Title tag
Headings and other on-page text
How to Influence Your Site Name
While Google selects site names algorithmically, Squarespace site owners have a few easy ways to provide input. When setting your Site Title, follow Google’s guidance to help Google understand what name best represents your brand:
Structured data. The Site Title field is used to automatically update the necessary schema markup on Squarespace with your preferred business name. This gives Google direct input on what you’d like the website’s name to be. Squarespace also uses the site title for the open graph tag og:site_name.
Unique brand. Again, ensure your site title is both concise and recognizable. And it should be unique as Google “generally won't use the same site name for two different sites that are global in nature.” See the troubleshooting section below for more info.
Consistency. Use your preferred website name consistently. Note, Google’s documentation might seem to suggest that you need to use the site name in your homepage copy to reinforce your site’s name—but many sites do not mention their site name in homepage copy and their search results display as expected.
In our experience, proper site structure, strategic internal linking, and clear off-page signals are always important.
Be Patient
Most websites will reflect site title changes quickly, but for other sites it can take time for Google to crawl, process, and update site names after making changes or launching a new domain. Give it a few weeks before expecting any changes to appear.
Troubleshooting Tips
If you’ve followed the above recommendations and still don’t see your preferred name, double check Google’s guidance. Things like site move issues, inconsistent names, or access restrictions could be blocking what you’d like to show.
For those of you facing a non-unique name issue, you’ll want to use alternateName markup. This tells Google other versions of your business name or acronyms that are acceptable. Note that even though Google says “avoid creating an additional WebSite structured data block on your homepage if you can help it,” it is fine to add the markup.
To provide alternate choices, add this code—adjusted as needed for your site—and request a recrawl:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "WebSite",
"name": "My Site Title",
"alternateName": ["My Site Title Shop", "MST"],
"url": "https://www.mysite.com/"
}
</script>Note, we see many sites attempt to insert the site name that Google is ignoring as an alternate name, but this will not work. If you need assistance, we can help with structured data during a Zoom session.
For ideal SERP display, we also recommend learning about favicon best practices and Squarespace favicons.
Conclusion
Understanding how site names are generated can help you take control of how your brand is represented in Google search results. Focus on reinforcing your preferred name with a proper structured data and consistent on-page usage, and let Google handle the rest!
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