Guides

What Is a Favicon? The Complete Guide

Everything you need to know about favicons — what they are, why they matter for branding and SEO, and how to add one to your website.

FaviconHub Team

Author

July 28, 20265 min read read

A favicon (short for "favorite icon") is the small icon that browsers display next to your page title — in tabs, bookmarks, history, and search results. It is one of the smallest but most recognizable pieces of your brand.

Why favicons matter

A good favicon improves brand recognition, makes tabs easier to scan, and adds a layer of polish that users subconsciously associate with trust.

SEO benefits

Google shows favicons next to search results on mobile. A crisp, recognizable icon can improve click-through rate.

How to add a favicon

Drop a link tag into your HTML head:

html
<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" sizes="any">
<link rel="icon" href="/icon.svg" type="image/svg+xml">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png">

FAQ

What size should a favicon be?

Provide at least a 32x32 ICO and a 180x180 PNG for Apple touch icons. An SVG scales to any size.

Can I use any website's favicon via an API?

Yes — with FaviconHub you can fetch any site's icon by requesting GET /example.com.

Tags:faviconbasicsbranding

Written by

FaviconHub Team

Building the free favicon API, generator and converters at FaviconHub — and writing about favicons, icons and web branding.