<\/p>
Google\u2019s John Mueller shared a case where a leftover HTTP homepage was causing unexpected site-name and favicon problems in search results.<\/p>
The issue, which Mueller described on Bluesky, is easy to miss because Chrome can automatically upgrade HTTP requests to HTTPS, making the HTTP version easy to overlook.<\/p>
Mueller described the case as \u201ca weird one.\u201d The site used HTTPS, but a server-default HTTP homepage was still accessible at the HTTP version of the domain.<\/p>
Mueller wrote:<\/p>
\u201cA hidden homepage causing site-name & favicon problems in Search. This was a weird one. The site used HTTPS, however there was a server-default HTTP homepage remaining.\u201d<\/p> <\/blockquote>
The tricky part is that Chrome can upgrade HTTP navigations to HTTPS, which makes the HTTP version easy to miss in normal browsing. Googlebot doesn\u2019t follow Chrome\u2019s upgrade behavior.<\/p>
Mueller explained:<\/p>
\u201cChrome automatically upgrades HTTP to HTTPS so you don\u2019t see the HTTP page. However, Googlebot sees and uses it to influence the sitename & favicon selection.\u201d<\/p> <\/blockquote>
Google\u2019s site name system pulls the name and favicon from the homepage to determine what to display in search results. The system reads structured data from the website, title tags, heading elements, og:site_name, and other signals on the homepage. If Googlebot is reading a server-default HTTP page instead of the actual HTTPS homepage, it\u2019s working with the wrong signals.<\/p>
How To Check For This<\/h2>
Mueller suggested two ways to see what Googlebot sees.<\/p>
First, he joked that you could use AI. Then he corrected himself.<\/p>
Mueller wrote:<\/p>
\u201cNo wait, curl on the command line. Or a tool like the structured data test in Search Console.\u201d<\/p> <\/blockquote>
Running
curl <\/code> from the command line would show the raw HTTP response without Chrome\u2019s auto-upgrade. If the response returns a server-default page instead of your actual homepage, that\u2019s the problem.<\/p>If you want to see what Google retrieved and rendered, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console and run a Live Test. Google\u2019s site name documentation also notes that site names aren\u2019t supported in the Rich Results Test.<\/p>
Why This Matters<\/h2>
The display of site names and favicons in search results is something we\u2019ve been documenting since\u00a0Google first replaced title tags with site names in 2022. Since then, the system has gone through multiple growing pains. Google expanded site name support to subdomains in 2023, then spent nearly a year fixing a bug where site names on internal pages didn\u2019t match the homepage.<\/p>
This case introduces a new complication. The problem wasn\u2019t in the structured data or the HTTPS homepage itself. It was a ghost page in the HTTP version, which you\u2019d have no reason to check because your browser never showed it.<\/p>
Google\u2019s site name documentation explicitly mentions duplicate homepages, including HTTP and HTTPS versions, and recommends using the same structured data for both. Mueller\u2019s case shows what can go wrong when an HTTP version contains content different from the HTTPS homepage you intended to serve.<\/p>
The takeaway for troubleshooting site-name or favicon problems in search results is to check the HTTP version of your homepage directly. Don\u2019t rely on what Chrome shows you.<\/p>
Looking Ahead<\/h2>
Google\u2019s site name documentation specifies that WebSite structured data must be on \u201cthe homepage of the site,\u201d defined as the domain-level root URI. For sites running HTTPS, that means the HTTPS homepage is the intended source.<\/p>
If your site name or favicon looks wrong in search results and your HTTPS homepage has the correct structured data, check whether an HTTP version of the homepage still exists. Use curl or the URL Inspection tool\u2019s Live Test to view it directly. If a server-default page is sitting there, removing it or redirecting HTTP to HTTPS at the server level should resolve the issue.<\/p> <\/div>
News,Technical SEO#Hidden #HTTP #Page #Site #Problems #Google1770823879<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Google\u2019s John Mueller shared a case where a leftover HTTP homepage was causing unexpected site-name and favicon problems in search results. The issue, which Mueller described on Bluesky, is easy to miss because Chrome can automatically upgrade HTTP requests to HTTPS, making the HTTP version easy to overlook. What Happened Mueller described the case as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[75,351,10856,212,10857,420],"class_list":["post-3301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility","tag-google","tag-hidden","tag-http","tag-page","tag-problems","tag-site"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}