A favicon, short for “favourite icon,” is a small 16×16 pixel icon that serves as branding for your website. It’s also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon. Its main purpose is to help visitors locate your page easier when they have multiple tabs open. Due to their tiny size, favicons work best as simple images or one-to-three characters of text.
Where Can You See the Favicon?
Favicons are found next to anything that identifies your website. This includes bookmarks, tabs, toolbar apps, history results, and search bars. In some instances, such as on Google Chrome, favicons will even make an appearance on your browser’s homepage.
Why are Favicons Important?
Creating a favicon is a small but important step to setting up a business website. It adds legitimacy to your site and helps boost your online branding as well as trust from potential consumers. They are an immediate visual marker for the website which enables easy and quick identification for web users as well as unifies all of the various browser components into a well-branded browsing experience.
Are Favicons Important for SEO?
While favicons are not directly responsible for your Search Engine Optimization, they are indirectly responsible and are an important tool for improving your ranking on search engines. Having a favicon visible on your browser tabs, bookmarks, history archives and so on helps your users save time by allowing them to identify and browse your website without difficulties, therefore increasing the likelihood of user interaction with your website.
In Conclusion
In a world where online branding is more important than ever, favicons play a crucial role in making your website stand out. So next time you’re looking at your website, consider adding a favicon. It could make a big difference!
I hope this learning resource helps you understand what a favicon is and why it’s important! ?