Favicon in Google Search Results: Requirements and Fixes

Key takeaways

Link the favicon from your home page head.
Use a square icon, at least 8x8 px, ideally larger than 48x48 px.
Do not block the favicon file or home page in robots.txt.

A favicon is the small icon that appears next to your site name in Google Search results. Google can show it if your home page links to a valid icon file and Google can crawl both. It is not guaranteed, even when you follow every rule. But most missing or wrong favicons come from a short list of causes you can fix.

This guide lists Google’s current favicon requirements, shows the HTML you need, and ends with an 8-point checklist. The rules below follow Google’s documentation as published today. For the rest of the search result, the title and description, see the guide to SEO titles and meta descriptions.

Where the favicon appears

In Google results, the favicon sits beside the site name, above the page title. Together they tell people which site a result comes from. The guide to site names in Google Search explains how the name is chosen. The favicon and the site name are both set once for the whole site.

A clear favicon helps people spot your brand in a list of results. That is the same job a short brand name does in your titles. The guide to brand names in title tags covers that side.

How to add a favicon Google can use

Google’s guide to defining a favicon has two steps:

Create a favicon that follows Google’s guidelines.
Add a <link> tag to the head of your home page that points to it.

Google supports these rel values: icon, shortcut icon (an older form it still supports), apple-touch-icon, and apple-touch-icon-precomposed. The href can be a relative path or a full URL. The file does not have to be on your own domain. It can be on a CDN.

Google’s favicon requirements

These are the rules from Google’s documentation today.

One favicon per site

Google supports one favicon per hostname. example.com and news.example.com can each have their own. example.com/news cannot, because it is a subdirectory. The favicon for the domain applies to all its subdirectories.

Square, at least 8×8 pixels

The favicon must be square, with a 1:1 aspect ratio. The minimum size is 8×8 pixels. Google recommends a favicon larger than 48×48 pixels so it looks good on different surfaces.

Supported formats

Google lists these formats: BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM, and TIFF. Use one of them for the file you link for search.

Crawlable file and home page

Googlebot-Image must be able to crawl the favicon file. Googlebot must be able to crawl the home page. Neither can be blocked.

Stable URL

The favicon URL should not change often. A new file name on every deploy makes it harder for Google to keep up.

Represents your brand

The icon should visually represent your site’s brand so people can identify it. Google also says it will not show favicons it deems inappropriate and will replace them with a default icon.

Check that nothing blocks the file

A common cause of a missing favicon is a robots.txt rule. Some sites block a whole assets folder, and the favicon lives inside it. Google’s robots.txt introduction explains how these rules work. Make sure no rule blocks the favicon path or the home page.

Also check the home page itself. For site names, Google asks that the home page not be blocked by robots.txt, noindex, or a login. Apply the same check here, since the favicon is read from the home page. The guide to nosnippet and snippet controls explains the difference between page indexing rules and snippet rules.

Ask Google to recrawl

After you add or change the favicon, Google needs to recrawl your home page. Google says this can take from several days to several weeks. You can request indexing of the home page with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console. The same tool shows whether Google can fetch the page.

Do not keep changing the file while you wait. A stable URL is one of Google’s rules.

If you have a subdomain, such as a help center at help.example.com, check it too. It counts as its own site for favicons. It needs its own link tag on its own home page. If you want the same icon there, point both link tags to the same file.

If you followed every rule and the icon is still wrong after several weeks, Google offers a favicon feedback form. It says feedback helps improve its systems overall. It does not promise action on a single site, so treat it as a last step, not a fix.

Keep your brand signals consistent

Your favicon, site name, and logo should all point to the same brand. If your home page has Organization markup with a logo, use the same visual identity in the favicon. The guide to Organization schema markup covers the logo and other brand details in that markup.

Worked example: a favicon that never appeared

Fictional example. An imaginary bakery site added a favicon three months ago. Google still showed a default globe icon. The team checked each rule:

The <link> tag was on blog posts but not on the home page. They added it to the home page template.
The file sat in /assets/, and robots.txt blocked /assets/. They allowed the favicon path.
The file was 40×32 pixels. They replaced it with a 96×96 pixel square PNG.

They requested indexing of the home page in the URL Inspection tool and left the file alone while Google recrawled.

Where DEX fits

DEX connects search research, content planning, article writing, and publishing on the connected site. The favicon is a site setting. Check it with your developer when you launch or rebrand a site.

HTML snippet

Place this in the <head> of your home page. Change the path to your own file.

<link rel="icon" href="/favicon-96x96.png" type="image/png">

You can keep other icon links for browsers and devices. Make sure at least one points to a file that meets the rules below.

8-point favicon checklist

The home page has a <link rel="icon"> tag, or another supported rel value, in its head.
The icon is square, with a 1:1 aspect ratio.
It is at least 8×8 pixels, and ideally larger than 48×48 pixels.
It uses a supported format: BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM, or TIFF.
robots.txt does not block the favicon file or the home page.
The favicon URL is stable and does not change on every release.
The icon clearly represents your brand.
You requested indexing of the home page and allowed time for the recrawl.

FAQ

What size should a favicon be for Google?

Square, at least 8x8 pixels; Google recommends larger than 48x48 pixels.

Why is my favicon not showing in Google?

Common causes are a missing link tag on the home page, a blocked file, or a wrong shape.

How long does a favicon change take?

Google says recrawling can take from several days to several weeks.

Sources

Define a favicon to show in search results · Google
URL Inspection tool · Google
Introduction to robots.txt · Google

Dex SEO

Dex SEO is an AI SEO agent for small businesses. Every article here is planned from search data, drafted by Dex, fact-checked against the sources it cites, and reviewed by the team before it is published.

How this article was made: planned and drafted by Dex from search data, fact-checked by Dex (5 claims checked), then approved by the Dex SEO team.