Wrong Site Name or Favicon in Google? How to Fix It

Short answer: Google generates site names automatically, so you cannot type a name into a form and have it applied. You can, however, steer the result with WebSite structured data on the home page and by keeping your title, og:site_name and outside references consistent. A favicon is declared with a link tag on the home page and must be a square file at a stable URL that Googlebot-Image can fetch. Updates can take days to weeks to appear.

This guide is written for brand owners and webmasters who see a domain name instead of a brand, an outdated name, or a blank globe icon in search results. It explains what Google reads, what the markup looks like, what the favicon rules really say, how recrawling works, and what to try when nothing changes. Limits and time ranges in Google documentation can change, so check the current official page before you act.

Where Google reads the site name from

The site name is the label shown above the URL in a search result. It is not the page title, which describes a single page. According to the Google documentation on site names (Opens in a new tab), the name is picked by an automated system, and Google cannot manually change a name once the system has chosen it. What you control is the evidence the system looks at.

The sources behind the label

The documentation lists the home page WebSite structured data, the og:site_name property, the title element, heading elements and other text on the home page. It also says the system uses references to your site elsewhere on the web. If you want to state a preference, WebSite structured data is described as the most important signal. That does not mean it works alone. A WebSite block that says one thing while the title, headings and social profiles say another gives the system a conflict to resolve, and it may resolve it in a way you dislike.

What a conflict looks like in practice

Imagine an outdoor gear shop called Harbor and Pine Outfitters. Its markup says "Harbor and Pine", its title tag says "HarborPine.com | Camping Gear Online", its Facebook page says "Harbor & Pine Outfitters" and an old marketplace listing says "H&P Outdoors". Four spellings compete. The system sees no dominant candidate, so it may fall back to the domain. That is an example scenario, not a recorded case. The fix is to choose one canonical spelling, repeat it everywhere you control, and list real alternates in alternateName.

Naming guidelines

• The name should be unique, accurately describe the site and not mislead. It must comply with Search content policies.
• Use a concise, commonly recognized name, because long names can be truncated on some devices.
• Generic names are unlikely to be selected unless the brand is very well known.
• Use the name consistently on the home page and in other sources the system considers.
• Provide an alternate name in case the preferred one is not available, for example when a name is shared with other sites or the site is better known by an acronym.

Scope limits you cannot work around

Reading the symptom

Before changing anything, name what you actually see. A bare domain such as "harborpine.com" usually means the system lacked a confident candidate. An old brand name points to stale text on the home page or in outside references. A name cut off with an ellipsis points to length. A different name on a subdirectory section points to the unsupported subdirectory case. Each symptom has a different first move, and mixing them up wastes weeks of waiting time. For a broader look at how your brand appears across the whole results page, the method in how to audit your brand SERP pairs well with this check.

WebSite markup and alternate names

For most brands the cleanest fix is structured data placed on the home page. The documentation accepts JSON-LD, RDFa and microdata. JSON-LD is common because it sits in one block and does not depend on the visible layout.

The three properties that matter

If your home page already has WebSite markup, the documentation advises adding the name properties to that same node instead of creating a second WebSite block. Two WebSite blocks with different names on one page would hand the system a conflict you created yourself.

Where the markup must live

• Root home page only: The data has to be on the home page at the domain or subdomain root. The documentation gives an example of a localized path ending in index.html that does not count as a home page.
• Not needed on inner pages: Only the home page requires it.
• Duplicates need the same data: When HTTP and HTTPS versions, or www and non-www versions, both serve a home page, the same structured data should appear on all of them, not only on the canonical one.
• Subdomain fallback: If a subdomain home page carries no data, the domain-level name may be used.

Redirecting home pages

Some sites send the root address to a language folder or a country selector. If the home page redirects to a page Googlebot can reach, the site name reflects the redirect target. Test the redirect chain from every variant of the address, then make sure the destination page carries the same WebSite data as the entry point. When the two disagree, you have recreated the conflict problem inside your own markup.

Using alternateName well

When the system is not confident in the preferred name, the documentation says it strongly considers alternateName. It suggests the following escalation. First, add an alternate name that reflects how the site is really known. Second, add the lowercase domain or subdomain as the final alternate. Third, as a last resort, make the lowercase domain the name itself. The third step trades brand polish for predictability, so use it only when a stable label matters more than styling.

A decision rule for choosing the name value

1. Start from the spelling customers type and your social profiles already use. That becomes name.
2. Make sure the same spelling appears in the home page title and main heading.
3. Add real variants, such as a shortened form or an acronym, to alternateName in order of importance.
4. If nothing changes after several weeks, append the lowercase domain as the last alternate.
5. Only if the result is still unstable, set the lowercase domain as name.

Example scenario: a regional news site is known as "The Coastal Ledger" but its markup says "Coastal Ledger News Network Online Edition". The long name is a poor candidate because the documentation favors concise and commonly recognized names. A better setup uses "The Coastal Ledger" as the name and the longer form as an alternate.

Validating the markup

The documentation recommends checking the markup with a schema testing tool such as the Schema Markup Validator. It also notes that the Rich Results Test does not support site names, so an empty result there is not evidence of a mistake. Then use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to confirm Google can reach the home page and that nothing blocks it, whether robots.txt, noindex or a login requirement. Teams that manage many structured data types will find the wider context in the JSON-LD structured data guide.

Why Organization markup is a separate job

The Organization markup documentation (Opens in a new tab) says this markup helps Google understand administrative details about your organization and distinguish it from others. It has no required properties, and it recommends name, alternateName, url, logo and sameAs among others. The logo needs to be at least 112x112 pixels, crawlable and indexable. The page also states that Google does not guarantee that features using structured data will appear in search results. For the site name label, the markup the site name documentation describes is WebSite, so treat Organization as a supporting signal, not a substitute. If you are thinking about the brand as an entity more broadly, the entity SEO guide gives useful framing.

Favicon requirements

The favicon is the small icon next to the site name. The favicon documentation (Opens in a new tab) is short, which makes the few rules in it easy to miss one by one.

How to declare it

1. Prepare a favicon file that follows the guidelines.
2. Add a link element to the head of the home page, with rel set to icon and href pointing to the file.
3. Supported rel values are icon, shortcut icon, apple-touch-icon and apple-touch-icon-precomposed.
4. The href can be relative or absolute, and the file does not have to live on your own domain, so a CDN works.
5. After the change, request indexing of the home page with the URL Inspection tool.

The rules in one table

Hostnames, not folders

The documentation says https://example.com and https://news.example.com can each have a favicon, but https://example.com/news cannot have its own because a subdirectory uses the favicon of its hostname. A publisher that wants a distinct icon for its news section therefore needs either a subdomain or acceptance of the shared icon.

Two bots, two jobs

Googlebot has to crawl the home page and any redirects leading to the page that declares the icon. Googlebot-Image has to crawl the icon file itself. Teams often allow the first and block the second without noticing, for example through a bot-protection rule that treats image requests differently from page requests. Open the icon URL in a browser, then check server logs for Googlebot-Image requests and their status codes. A clean robots.txt alone does not prove access.

The stable URL trap

Modern build tools often fingerprint assets, producing names that change whenever the file changes. That is helpful for browser caching and harmful here, because the documentation asks for a stable favicon URL. Give the favicon a fixed path and replace the file in place only when the brand icon truly changes. If you must change the address, keep the old one redirecting for a while.

Old icon still showing

Suppose you replaced the icon last week and search still shows the old one. Work through three possibilities. Google may not have reprocessed the change yet, which the documentation allows for days or weeks. Your home page may declare two different icons and the old one wins. Or your own browser cache may be showing the old icon, which affects only what you see, not what searchers see. Test in a private window on another device before concluding anything.

Design that survives small sizes

The documentation gives minimum size and recommendation but no design rules. In practice, a detailed logo with a thin wordmark turns to mush at tiny sizes. A single letter or a simple symbol with strong contrast tends to hold up, and keeping the artwork away from the edges helps when the icon is displayed inside a circle. These are common design practice, not statements from the documentation, and Google notes that a favicon may still not appear even when every guideline is met.

Requesting recrawl and waiting

Correct markup is only half of the job. Google also has to fetch the page again and process what it finds, which takes time you do not control.

How long it takes

The site names documentation says it may take a few days to a few weeks after publication for Google to find and crawl a page, and its troubleshooting section says recrawling can take several days to several weeks depending on how often the content is refreshed. The favicon documentation gives the same range. A site that changed its markup two days ago and sees nothing has no evidence of a fault. There is no official calendar beyond these ranges.

Asking for a recrawl

1. Open the property that contains your home page in Search Console.
2. Enter the home page URL in the URL Inspection tool.
3. Confirm Google can access the page and nothing blocks it.
4. Run the live test and verify the markup and the icon link appear in the rendered output.
5. Submit a request for indexing.

A request may move the page up the queue, but it does not guarantee when the new name or icon appears, and the documentation does not state any request limits or turnaround. Menu wording can change over time, so rely on the current interface labels.

Inner pages follow later

The documentation notes that inner pages need their own recrawl before they show the preferred name. If the home page result looks right but an old article result still shows the previous name, that is expected for a while. Rather than submitting every article, make sure internal links and your sitemap are healthy so Google can revisit them naturally.

What to do while waiting

• Record the date, the old value and the new value of every change in a simple log.
• Repeat the same search weekly with the same country and language settings, in a private window.
• Avoid stacking new markup changes on top of the ones you are waiting on.
• Align names on social profiles, directories and press mentions during the same period.

If the business also appears in local results, align the name used in the business profile as well. The article on Google Business Profile optimization and local citations covers that side of consistency.

If it still does not change

Several weeks in, a structured approach beats guesswork. The checklists below combine the documentation's troubleshooting order with the most common real-world causes.

Site name checklist

1. Is the home page at the root and publicly reachable, with no robots.txt block, noindex or login wall?
2. Do name and url in the WebSite data match the preferred name and the canonical home page address?
3. Does the Schema Markup Validator report the markup without errors?
4. Do HTTP, HTTPS, www and non-www versions all return the same name?
5. If the home page redirects, does the destination carry the same data?
6. Do the title, og:site_name and main heading use the same spelling?
7. Do social profiles, directories and press mentions use the same spelling?
8. Have you added alternateName values, ending with the lowercase domain?
9. Are you expecting a name for a subdirectory? That is not supported.
10. Have you requested a recrawl and waited several weeks?

Favicon checklist

1. Does the head of the home page contain one link element with rel icon pointing to one file?
2. Is the file square and larger than 48x48 pixels?
3. Is the format on the supported list?
4. Does the icon URL return a 200 response with a short redirect chain?
5. Does anything in robots.txt, bot protection or CDN rules block Googlebot-Image?
6. Is the URL stable between deployments?
7. Is the icon relevant to the brand and free of inappropriate content?
8. Are you expecting a separate icon for a folder? That is not supported.
9. Has indexing of the home page been requested?

Decision rule: where is the fault?

The documentation recommends the Google Search Central Help Community for persistent site name problems, and the favicon page offers a feedback form. Neither promises a fix, but a post that includes your home page URL, the markup you used and what you see in results gets more useful answers than a vague complaint.

Making the fix durable

Site name and favicon settings often break silently during theme changes, plugin updates and migrations. After each major release, spend two minutes confirming that the home page source still contains the WebSite data and the icon link. When you move to a new domain, set up redirects from the old home page and ship the markup and icon link on the new home page from day one. When you launch a subdomain with its own brand, give its home page its own data instead of leaning on the domain-level name.

Outside references and consistency

The system also looks at how your site is referenced elsewhere. If guest articles, press releases and directory listings spell your brand in several ways, that signal stays noisy. Using one spelling in every external mention is good practice for readers and for search systems, although Google does not promise that it will decide the site name for you. References are one signal among those the documentation lists, and they work best alongside clean markup.

Keeping a change log

When several people touch a site, a short change log prevents repeated work. Note the date, the field changed, the previous value, the new value, whether a recrawl was requested and when you will check next. During each check, record the search phrase, device and country settings. If someone asks two weeks later why the name is still wrong, you can show whether nothing changed or whether the check was simply made from a different setup. The log also helps when a theme update removes the markup and you need to find when it disappeared.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I change my site name in Google manually?

No. Google's documentation says site names are generated automatically and cannot be changed by hand. You can influence the result with WebSite structured data on the home page and by keeping your title, og:site_name and outside references consistent. If the system is not confident in the name you give, it may use other sources or show the domain name.

Can a subdirectory have its own site name?

No. Site names apply to the domain or subdomain level only, and subdirectory-level names are not supported. Each site gets one name. If a section truly needs a separate identity, a separate subdomain is the structure the documentation supports, but that should not be decided for this reason alone.

Why does my favicon not show in search results?

Common causes are a missing or wrong link element on the home page, a file that is not square, an unstable URL, blocked Googlebot or Googlebot-Image access, or a change Google has not processed yet. The documentation also says a favicon may not appear even when all guidelines are met. Requesting indexing of the home page starts the process.

How long until a change shows in search?

The documentation gives a range of several days to several weeks and no exact calendar. Inner pages may need their own recrawl before they show the preferred name. Use the waiting period to monitor the effect of your current change rather than adding new markup on top of it.

What does alternateName do and when should I add it?

It provides alternatives the system strongly considers when it is not confident in your preferred name. Add real variants such as a shorter form or acronym, in order of preference. The documentation also suggests adding the lowercase domain as a final alternate if the preferred name still does not appear.

Does Organization markup fix the site name?

No. For the site name, the documentation points to WebSite structured data. Organization markup describes your organization and can support elements such as the logo, but Google does not guarantee that features using it will appear. Keeping both consistent is still good practice.

Related guides: How to Control Your Appearance in Google Results, Claim and Fix Your Google Knowledge Panel, Control Search Snippets with nosnippet and max-snippet.

Conclusion

Wrong site names and missing favicons share one root cause: Google chooses both automatically, from several signals, and any conflict among those signals lowers its confidence. Fix the problem in a fixed order. Make sure the home page is crawlable. Add WebSite data with a correct name, url and, where needed, alternateName. Use the same spelling in the title, og:site_name, headings and outside profiles. Declare a square, stable-URL favicon that Googlebot-Image can fetch. Request a recrawl through Search Console and give the documented days-to-weeks window time to pass. None of these steps guarantees a particular outcome. The goal is to remove contradictions so the system has an easy decision to make.

If you want your brand name to appear consistently on trusted third-party sites too, you can look at the guest post service at Akua Adforce; scope and conditions are described on the product page.