I hope someone will be able to help me making sure that my brand name is shown in Google (and other search engines) rather than URL. As you can see on the screenshot attached, when searching through Google, besthair.co.nz is displayed rather than Best Hair brand. oddly, in Google shopping and images, Best Hair brand is displayed (and not url). I obviously need the brand to be displayed when searching. The Best Hair online shop has been in operation for over 2 years now hence Google and other search engines should recognise it by now. Thanks a lot for help in advance.
This is a Google site name issue, not really a Shopify problem. Google decides whether to show your brand name or domain based on signals it picks up from your homepage, and it falls back to the URL when it isnât confident. The fix is adding Website structured data (schema.org) to your homepage that tells Google explicitly what your site name is.
Open theme.liquid file and just before the closing </head> tag, paste this:
After deploying, go to Google Search Console, submit your homepage via URL Inspection > Request Indexing. Then wait. Google has stated this can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks to update, sometimes longer for established sites because it has to override existing signals itâs already learned.
The fact that Google Shopping and Images already show âBest Hairâ is actually a good sign, those systems have the right brand association, the main search index just hasnât caught up yet.
Hope that helps! If it did, a Like and Marking it as Solution goes a long way and helps others find the fix faster too.
Adding another, slightly different one would not hurt, but ideally â combine them.
Also â Google may still ignore your signals.
Say, because your site title is a common phrase. Same as you canât copyright common phrases.
When I search for âbraiding hair extensions in nzâ i have something like this where your first-page competitors have âuncommonâ phrase as their business title.
Thank you tim_1. Do you mind explaining what you mean by / how to combine type records you mentioned? ie. step by step how to do it? Because the brand name is a common phrase, do you think Google might never recognise it as a credible page and display the brand name in searching? Oddly, the brand name is shown when searching trhgou Images and Shopping in GoogleâŚ
The point was that you already had a âWebsiteâ record on your pages so adding another one would (most likely) not do much (but would not hurt also).
The theme already has very similar code here
The biggest difference is the "alternateName": ["Best Hair NZ", "besthair.co.nz"], line which you can rather add to a section code above, right after line 492.
Google is known for making their own decisions, based on (sometimes intentionally hidden) rules.
Whatever signals you include on your page are only suggestions/hints.
So no, I canât guarantee that âcommon phraseâ is the reason, however itâs highly likely:
Thank you tim_1. Do you think that the fact that the brand name is a âcommon phraseâ impacts how it appears in Google search (url instead of the brand name) or it can also have a more profound impact on, for example how highly we are ranked in Google search?
Well, that was a direct quote from Google and links to further reading.
Even if it only impacts the appearance, this is a part of the bigger SEO play about building your brand awareness, getting your brand name to rank, to be a unique keyword so even though there may be no direct impact, there still be an indirect one.
this is usually a site name / structured data issue. Google pulls the site name from a few places and sometimes defaults to the domain if it canât find a clear signal. first thing iâd check is your themeâs structured data, specifically the WebSite schema. there should be a ânameâ field that matches your brand name exactly.
also check your homepage title tag. if itâs something like âHome | besthair.co.nzâ Google might be pulling the domain from that. change it to âBest Hair | [tagline]â and make sure your Shopify admin settings under Online Store > Preferences has your brand name as the homepage title, not the URL. it can take a few weeks for Google to update after you fix it, but it usually sorts itself out.
Your solution has worked, thanks again. Now it is showing Best Hair NZ. I would like to remove the âNZâ bit. Do you think if I remove the alternate name "Best Hair NZâ from your code then it will help? I just hope it wonât go back to www.besthair.co.nz as it is also an alternate name.
Thank you bchen27. The issue is fixed now. Google search shows Best Hair NZ now. I have just asked above how to remove the NZ bit, which is probably about removing one of the alternate names that was earlier suggested. Thanks
Glad to hear it worked for you and yes youâre correct if you remove the NZ from the code then it will be updated, will take some time to show the changes on Google search.
