Why your favicon is not showing in Google search
Google shows a site's favicon beside its results only when the icon meets a short list of requirements: it is square, it is declared on the home page, its address stays the same, and Google is allowed to fetch both the icon and the home page. After a fix, Google says the change can take from several days to several weeks to appear.
Each sounding opens its section
- 01 What Google requires 84 words
- 02 The usual faults 97 words
- 03 How to check yours 38 words
- 04 How to fix it 85 words
- 05 If it still does not show 62 words
- 06 Questions people ask 107 words
- 07 Free competitor gap report 98 words
- 08 More guides 35 words
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What Google requires
Google’s documentation sets out the conditions.
- The icon is square, at least 8 by 8 pixels, and preferably larger than 48 by 48.
- The format is one Google supports: ICO, PNG, GIF, JPEG, BMP, PPM or TIFF.
- The home page declares it with a link tag whose
relvalue isicon,shortcut icon,apple-touch-iconorapple-touch-icon-precomposed. - The icon’s address is stable and does not change often.
- Googlebot can fetch the home page, and Googlebot-Image can fetch the icon. Neither is blocked.
The usual faults
Five faults account for most missing favicons.
- The icon is not square. A wide logo used as a favicon fails the first requirement.
- The link tag is missing from the home page, or is on other pages only.
- The
robots.txtfile blocks the folder the icon sits in. Our guide to blocked by robots.txt shows how to check. - The icon’s address changes with every update, because a version number is added to it.
- The only icon is in a format Google does not list, such as SVG, with no fallback beside it.
How to check yours
Open the home page, view its source and search for rel="icon". Follow the address in the tag: it should open a square image. Then open /robots.txt and confirm nothing blocks that path.
How to fix it
Provide a square PNG or ICO larger than 48 pixels, declare it on the home page, and keep its address fixed. Website builders set the favicon in their site settings and write the tag for you. On WordPress it is the Site Icon in the site’s settings.
Then ask Google to recrawl the home page through URL Inspection in Search Console, and wait. The icon in a browser tab changes at once. The one in search results follows on Google’s schedule.
If it still does not show
Google does not promise to show a favicon, and it will not show one it judges inappropriate. If the requirements are met and weeks have passed, check that the home page itself is indexed, since the icon is read from there. Our guide to why a website is not showing up on Google covers that check.
Questions people ask
What size should a favicon be for Google?
Google requires a square icon of at least 8 by 8 pixels and recommends one larger than 48 by 48 pixels, so that it looks good wherever it is shown.
How long does Google take to show a new favicon?
Google says to allow time for it to recrawl the home page, and that crawling can take from several days to several weeks.
Can each page have its own favicon in Google?
No. Google supports one favicon for each site, where a site is a hostname. A subdomain can have its own, and a subfolder cannot.
Free competitor gap report
Small details in a result add up to which one is clicked. Name up to three competitors and we compare how your pages and theirs appear in search, then send you where theirs present better.
- Speed and technical health, side by side
- On-page SEO and site structure
- The content they are found for and you are not
- Who holds the searches that matter in your market
- A prioritised list of what to fix first
Request your free report by email
- Address
- contact@hadalmedusa.com
- Include
- your site; up to three competitors; where you compete