It’s hard enough to conduct a Web search on a smartphone without the results being at best, irrelevant or at worst, indecipherable. But so often they are both.
Today, Google announced that it is rolling out a fix to improve how people view mobile search results. Specifically, it is updating the algorithms that display URLs in search results to better reflect actual Website names.
According to a blog post by software engineer Bartlomiej Niechwiej and product manager Rob Ennals, “Well-structured URLs offer users a quick hint about the page topic and how the page fits within the Website.” The new format reveals the real-world name of the site instead of the domain name, and the URL structure of sites in a breadcrumbs-style format.
In addition, Google is unveiling support for schema.org structured data for Websites to signal to the algorithms how to substitute Website names for domain names, and the URL structure as breadcrumbs
For more details and code examples, Google has made available its documentation for site names and breadcrumbs.
These changes are rolling out gradually and affect only mobile results. While the site name change affects the US only for the time being, the breadcrumbs format will be available soon worldwide.
➤ Better presentation of URLs in search results [Android Police]
Featured image by Shutterstock
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