ANYWHERE WEB REPAIR

Your site shows up as "Home" in Google. Here's how to fix it.

This is the problem I run into most when I look at small business websites. Someone searches for the business, and the blue link in Google says "Home", "Home | My Site", or just the name of the website builder. The site itself looks fine, but the listing never says what the business is or where it is, so it's easy to scroll right past.

The fix is almost always one field in your website's settings. Below is where that field lives on the five platforms I see most. You don't need to touch any code.

Why it happens

Every page has a title that Google uses as the headline of its listing. It's also the text on the browser tab. When a site is first built, the builder fills that title with a placeholder, usually the page name ("Home") and a stand-in site name ("My Site" on Wix, for example). Most owners never go back to change it, because nothing on the page itself looks wrong.

What a good title looks like

Keep it short and plain. Say what you do, where you are, and your business name. Something like "Bakery in Virginia Beach | Sweet Corner Bakery" works well. Try to stay around 50 to 60 characters so Google doesn't cut it off. While you're in the same screen, it's worth filling in the description too. That's the line or two of text under the title in Google, and if you leave it empty, Google pulls whatever text it finds on the page.

Wix

  1. Open your site in the Wix editor and click Pages & Menu.
  2. Click the More Actions icon next to your homepage, then SEO basics.
  3. Type your new title in the Title tag field. The description field is on the same tab.
  4. Click Publish. Nothing changes on the live site until you do.

Wix also has an SEO Setup Checklist in the dashboard that walks you through the same change, if you'd rather follow prompts.

Squarespace

Squarespace handles the homepage differently from other pages. The homepage doesn't get its own SEO title, so it uses your site-wide settings instead.

  1. In the left menu, click Marketing, then SEO.
  2. Open Search Appearance and choose the home page settings.
  3. Set the title and description for your homepage there, and check the SEO Title Format so it isn't adding a placeholder.
  4. Save.

For any other page, open the Pages panel, hover over the page, click the gear icon, and use the SEO tab.

GoDaddy Websites + Marketing

  1. From your GoDaddy products page, open Websites + Marketing and select Manage next to your site.
  2. Click Edit Website, then Settings, then SEO Settings.
  3. Update the title and description for your home page, then publish the site.

GoDaddy also offers a guided SEO setup under Marketing, then SEO, on the site dashboard. It suggests keywords for you, so read what it proposes before you publish it.

Square Online

  1. From your Square Online Overview page, go to Website, then SEO & Social Media.
  2. Under Search Engine Optimization, select Update SEO.
  3. Edit the title and description and click Save. These site-wide settings are what your homepage uses.

For other pages, open the page in the site editor, click the gear icon, choose View page settings, and edit the SEO section.

Shopify

  1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store, then Preferences.
  2. In the Social sharing image and SEO section, enter your homepage title and meta description.
  3. Click Save.

After you change it

Google won't show the new title right away. It updates the next time it visits your site, which can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. If you have Google Search Console set up, you can use the URL Inspection tool to ask Google to look at your homepage again. Also keep in mind that Google sometimes rewrites a title it doesn't think fits the page, so a clear, honest title has the best chance of being used as written.

If you'd rather not deal with it

I can make this change for you, along with up to four other small fixes on your homepage and contact page, for a flat $99. You add me as an editor through your platform's own settings, so I never need your password, and you get a list of everything I changed.

See the Quick Fix

Jeremy, Anywhere Web Repair, Fredericksburg, Virginia