Google is rolling out a slightly new look to its mobile search results, and pay attention, because one of the small changes is important. You’ll see from the announcement that the green URL line is now black and has been moved up above the headline, and alongside it you’ll see the site’s ‘favicon’.
This means that an eye-catching favicon is more important than ever. Google says: “With this new design, a website’s branding can be front and center, helping you better understand where the information is coming from and what pages have what you’re looking for. The name of the website and its icon appear at the top of the results card to help anchor each result, so you can more easily scan the page of results and decide what to explore next.”
What’s more, the announcement says the change is “coming first to mobile”. That suggests we’re going to see it on desktop search, which is even more important for most of us.
I wrote about how to look at your site’s favicon and update it here. Our search advertising clients without access to a designer are welcome to ask us for any help – there’s never any charge.