What is a Favicon?
A favicon is a small icon used as an important branding for your website. You can find this 16×16 pixel icon in browser tabs, beside the page title, which allows users to easily identify your website when managing multiple tabs. Users can also see this graphic in bookmarks, toolbar apps, search history, and search results.
Internet Explorer introduced favicons in 1999 as “shortcut icons” in webpage bookmarks. Today, major browsers and search engine websites utilise this icon as a way for their users to identify websites apart. Thus, if you are a website looking to increase brand awareness, this is a feature that you have to nail to perfect your digital presence.
How does it affect my SEO?
In SEO, creating a unique and memorable favicon does not directly impact your rankings in search engines. But the increased brand awareness can affect how users interact with your website and your content. It is well known that search engines such as Google have been increasingly giving priority to user experience as one of their criteria for ranking web pages in search results. Two of the known metrics are click-through rate and dwell times.
With increased brand awareness, people will visit your website, increasing your click-through rate, which is good for SEO. Couple this with relevant content, and you’re on your way to #1 in SERPs.
Further Reading:
Is Favicon Important for SEO, How to Show it on Google Search? – Stan Ventures
What Is a Favicon, Why Is It Important, and How Do I Add One? – SEOptimer
Nick Berns is a web developer & SEO specialist.
