A favicon is known as a particular icon of a website or even a shortcut icon. It contains smaller icons that are linked to a particular web page or website. In this article, I will be discussing what a favicon is.
Keep reading till the end to find out more information about the same!
About Favicon
Favicon is a small pixelated icon that mainly serves as branding for a website. Its primary purpose is to help visitors in locating a page easier when there are loads of tabs open.
Because of their small size, these work best as simple 1-3 characters text or images. Do remember that, they are vastly different from logos but at times, they can be the same as well. Due to their smaller size and resolution, the Favicon may even need to be of a smaller size or even a part of the brand/company’s logo.
Are They Important?
Though not directly responsible for Search Engine Optimization, they still indirectly influence the ranking factor on the search engines. Here is a list of ways how they help out with SEO:
Visibility And Branding
A favicon is essentially the brand representation of the business and its website. Hence, the users will identify the brand based on the favicon they use. Search Engine Optimization is all about branding and marketing – so, as a result of which the more visible a website is, the more users are going to click on a website.
Bookmarks
A favicon essentially gives another advantage over the other websites which do not. The Chrome browser is known to deduct specific search ranking signals for the websites which are bookmarked on the web.
If a website does not have a favicon on its site, then they are effectively going to miss out on the chance of being bookmarked on the browser.
There’s also the fact that after being bookmarked with tons of other sites, standing out effectively amongst all of the other sites because of the favicon puts the website in a better position.
User-Friendly Websites
Having a user-friendly website will improve search engine rankings. If you have a favicon that is visible on the history archives, browser tabs, and bookmarks will help the users in saving time effectively by enabling them to browse after identifying the website without any difficulties. Hence, this automatically increases the likelihood of UI with your particular website.
This also improves the time spent and the interactions made on your website. That auto indicates that your website is going to garner more traffic for a longer period – automatically improving the SEO.
Ways Of Creating A Good Favicon
There are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration when creating a favicon for your website. Even though it might seem like it is a very small part of a website – it ultimately has a very big impact on the overall site.
Simplicity
Even though the favicon is essentially the visual of the brand, you would still want to keep the design very simple and minimalistic as possible. The best favicons that you see are simple. Because of their small size, very simple shapes are used. There’s another important factor to consider before designing a favicon – that is the color of it. Unique blends of colors must be used for standing out amidst the competitors.
Brand Identity
The favicon is the visual icon of the brand, hence it should be such that it communicates with the users – what the business is really about. Although it is a bit hard with how simple and minimalistic the design is, it is still required that the icon gets made creatively.
Color Coordination
The choice of color should also come into consideration as well. Colors that are contrasting in nature are going to be very easy for the eye. The usage of color is vital, it would speak about the message of your brand.
Abbreviation
You might have to choose an abbreviation of your brand/company’s name. This would serve as the perfect visual for your favicon. Some popular examples of this include the favicons of Facebook, Wikipedia, etc.
FAQs
Here is a list of a few frequently asked questions regarding favicons:
A: Even though both icons generally represent the brand – they are still different in use. The favicons are much smaller than logos. A few of the brands out there use a smaller version of their logos as their favicons.
A: A few alternatives to how the favicon is referred to are – a website icon, bookmark icon, shortcut icon, URL icon, or tab icon.
A: The ideal format for a favicon is the “.ico”.
A: A favicon in itself is not a virus. It is a very standard format file that is used to display smaller icons associated with a website. All in all, there are no threats associated with using a favicon.
A: Favicon is a combination of two words namely – “favorite” and “icon”. This was an addition that was introduced in Internet Explorer 5 and was created by Bharat Shyam- who was a Microsoft Developer.
To Wrap It Up!
A favicon is a very important factor that plays a very important role in making a brand stand out among the other similar brands/companies available out there.
That was all for information regarding what a favicon is. Thank you for reading up till here. I hope you found the information useful.
Additional:
- What Is Local SEO? Why Is It Important?
- What Is Lead Generation? How To Generate Leads?
- For Auto-tagging, What Parameter Does Google Ads Include In The Destination URL?
