Google desktop search results are enhanced with favicon and website name

Google is not stopping at its most important raison d'être, search results. With the latest update, changes that already applied to mobile devices have now been extended to desktop search results and ads. In this blog post, we'll take a look at the new features in search results. And how this could affect your organic and paid results.

Search results continue to be one of the driving forces behind the world's most popular solution to this problem. Since Google's launch, there have been several updates that have adjusted a wide range of search results. Now, with the latest update for desktop search results, a visual update for search results has been added.

Favicon visible in search results

The favicon is an important part of the branding or recognition and usability of your website and domain name. The favicon now also plays a bigger role in average search results and ads. The favicon is now prominently displayed in both ads and Google's organic search results. If you perform a search now, you will see that the results on the desktop are now more comprehensive. Perform a random search, for example from your own website, and immediately see how this affects your domain.

The rules for your favicon state that it should be at least 48 pixels by 48 pixels. If your favicon does not meet this requirement, it will not show up in search results. Multiples of 48 by 48 are supported. So 96×96, 144×144 can also be used if your favicon displays better at larger sizes.

For example, in the following example, the search is for "word search". Thinking is the first result, which then looks like this in the new format:

The name of the website is highlighted in more detail

The name of the website or the full domain name is now also displayed directly behind the favicon. This is to make it clearer what the main domain name of a search result is. And can thus be seen and remembered at a glance. The page name is generated by Google itself, or the full domain name is used for it. As it is the case in the example of Denksport.

Thanks to the space now given to both the favicon and the site name, this is more noticeable on the screen than in the past.

Purpose, better usability and recognition.

The purpose behind this is to give the end user a better user experience and perhaps entice them to click on a search result sooner. With these changes, it has indeed become more visually appealing for websites to have their favicon and site name properly arranged. Of course, without a favicon and with a domain name like free-wordsearchers-1234.co.uk, they appear in a worse light than Think Sports in this context.

So set your favicon right now to make the most of it, and test it in Google search results. Optimizing your search results and keywords will give you the chance to get many times more traffic for your website from Google. And with natural search results, you don't pay per click for it. Would you like more help from us? Then check out our many articles on this topic in our extensive knowledge base, the blog posts we write with tips and tricks. And if you want to outsource search engine optimization to us, you can also take a look at our partner MijnWebdesignPartner.nl.