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Website glossary· Showing up on Google and in AI answers

What is a favicon?

A favicon is the small icon that stands for your site in browser tabs, bookmarks and phone home screens, and next to your site’s name in Google results.

Why it matters for a small business site

It helps people find your tab among a dozen others and makes your search listing look cared for. Without one, browsers show a generic blank icon.

How to check yours

  1. Open your site and look at the browser tab, in light and dark mode.
  2. Search for your business on Google and look at the icon beside your site’s name.
  3. Add the site to a phone’s home screen and see which icon it uses.

What good looks like

A simple mark, often your logo’s symbol or first letter, that’s recognisable at 16 pixels on light and dark tabs. Supply a few sizes: 32×32 for browsers, 180×180 for Apple devices, and 192×192 and 512×512 for Android. Google needs it square, and a larger source keeps it crisp.

Common mistakes

  • Shrinking the full logo with its wording, so it turns into a smudge.
  • One tiny file that looks blurry on sharp screens.
  • Forgetting to update it after a rebrand.
  • A dark icon that disappears on dark browser tabs.
Put it into practice

Try it on a design of your own

SketchXFlow’s AI logo generator makes website favicons from your logo, in sizes from 16 to 512 pixels, to go with the site you design.

Try:
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