SEO glossary
Favicon
A favicon is the small square icon that represents a site in browser tabs, bookmarks and, on mobile, next to your result in Google.
Google has its own conditions, which are stricter than a browser's. The file has to be reachable at a stable URL, referenced with a rel="icon" link from the homepage, a square multiple of 48 pixels, and crawlable — a favicon blocked in robots.txt simply will not appear.
Practically, ship more than one file. A 32×32 for tab display, a 180×180 Apple touch icon, a 192×192 and 512×512 for Android and progressive web apps, plus an SVG if you want it to stay sharp at any size. A single 16×16 ICO looks like 2009 on a modern screen.
Design for the size it actually renders at. A full logotype legible at 200 pixels is a grey smudge at 16, which is why most brands use just the mark.
Common question
- Why is Google not showing my favicon?
- Usually because it is not square, not a multiple of 48 pixels, not linked from the homepage, or blocked from crawling. Google also caches it for a long time after a change.
Definitions are the easy part
The free plan opens every tool with 500 credits and no card, so you can see these numbers on your own site rather than in an example.
Start free