How To Create A Favorites Icon (favicon.ico)
You may have noticed a small image in the URL bar of your browser when visiting certain websites. This image also appears in tabbed browsing and favorites
menus. You may have even noticed file not found errors in your web logs for a file named favicon.ico. This file is called a favorites icon, and it is meant to be a visual way of quickly identifying a site in a list. It is really easy to create and is a quick way to improve your site’s branding.
In the image to the right, you’ll see a drop down menu from a browser with sites that have Favorite Icons. Google has a small “G” while Red Bull has a small bull. If the browser you are using right now to read this uses favicons, you should see an acorn image.
Lets get started. First, you need an image. It should be square and can be any size to start (it will shrink down to 16 x 16 later). It should be very simple since this image is going to be very small. The more complex the image is, the less likely visitors will be able to distinguish what it is.
Now take your image and go over to Favicon Generator. Simply follow the steps there, upload the resulting favicon.ico file to your root directory and you’re done! Note: They recommend you put a line of html code in the head section of every page to tell browsers there is favicon file but I’ve found it isn’t necessary, some browsers will eventually find it on their own. If you can make the change easily, it will definitely help speed up the display of your icon (Simply add <link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”/favicon.ico” > in the head section of your site.
Don't wait. Register your domain name today!Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment