search results now include site names and favicons
Bing appears to be rolling out favicons and site names to its search results. This is similar to what Google did last year with mobile and months ago for desktop. You may notice that Bing’s search results have favicons in the upper left corner of the snippets. The site name is also displayed above the favicon.
This is what it looks like. A screenshot from Bing shows the site name, favicon and URL for this website:
This is how Bing searches look without it:
Compare that with Google search.
Google’s control over site names. Google explained in October that Google Search uses several methods to identify the name of the site for the search results. If you wish, you can also use structured data to tell Google what the name of your website should be. Google provides detailed documentation about this new Structured data Site Name available here.
Do you know if Bing Search works in the same manner?
Google Site Name Issues. Google Search has been having some problems with the site name. The CMO of Salesforce described it as “extremely damaging” to their brand.
Why do we care? The favicon and site name can influence your click through rate. You can help your brand by controlling the site name and the way the favicon is displayed in Bing and Google’s search results. If they display the wrong information like “Sales Force” with a blank space, this can hurt the brand.
The post Bing Search Results Gain Site Name and Favicons first appeared on Search Engine Land.