You all know that the favicon is that little image that represents a website in web browsers, and if you take a look at your browser's address bar right now, you will see several such favicons.
In 2023 when now Google shows the favicons near the site title in both mobile and standalone results, having a good favicon became even more important to attract user's attention.
From a technical point of view, adding a favicon to your site is as easy as adding such a line of HTML code -
<link rel="icon" href="favicon.png" type="image/png"/>
where favicon.png is the favicon icon you created and added on your site.
There are many free services on the web allowing to create favicons and they can be also
created with various programs like Photoshop and similar.
The favicon could be in different image formats like PNG, ICO, SVG, GIF, and JPEG, but the ICO format is now considered outdated and the SVG, GIF, and JPEG are not best in terms of compatibility.
The Scalable Vector Images (SVG) format could become the new norm, as it solves the problem of creating multiple favicons in different sizes to fit each popular device. While only a few browsers currently support SVG favicons, others may soon follow suit.
And here are some general guidelines from Google that you should follow:
- Use a square icon.
- Favicon should represent only your brand and should not contain inappropriate symbols
- Favicon file should be accessible to Google crawlers
- Favicon image should be at least 48 pixels in size and comply with favicon guidelines.
The technical parameters of favicons largely depend on the devices or browsers that read them. For this reason, there are hundreds of online services that can help you take into account all the nuances and create favicons that have the right format and size.
Favicons attract users' attention and increase brand awareness. If users visit a website with a catchy favicon a few times, they will easily distinguish it from others in the future ...
