Google updates mobile Search results with larger favicons and site names

Abner Li | Oct 14 2022 - 8:51 am PT

Following a look at several upcoming features last month, Google is redesigning how individual Search results appear on mobile with site names and larger favicons.

This change applies to the top portion of mobile Search results above the existing page name. Google will now show the site name on every result “so you can easily identify the website that’s associated with each result at a glance.”

The favicon at the left is now also larger at two lines tall to be “easier to see on the page,” with this change being visually eye-catching as you scroll. Fortunately, these site icons have gotten higher-res in recent years, with Google providing best practices here.

Search ads are getting the same treatment with a new “Sponsored” label in bold black text appearing as the first line. Google wants this marker to be “prominent and clear across different types of paid content.”

This new label and its prominent position continues to meet our high standards for being distinguishable from search results and builds on our existing efforts to make information about paid content clear.

Google says site names, as well as large favicons, are currently available for mobile Search results in English, French, Japanese, and German, with testing ramping up in recent weeks. We’re seeing it live on the Android and iOS Search apps, as well as the mobile web, today.

It will be rolling out to additional languages over the coming months with the goal of “providing even more information about the sites that you see so you can feel confident about the websites you visit.”

More details for site administrators on managing preferred site names (using structured data on the homepage) are available here.

The company says it will “soon begin testing a similar experience on desktop,” which led to some uproar two years ago.