How to Add a Favicon to Your Website

Written by admin on April 20, 2010 - 1 Comment
Categories: Website Design

Have you ever visited a URL and wondered what that little symbol was on the left hand side of the browser bar? It’s a favicon and you can generate one to help brand your website and your business.

What is a Favicon Exactly?

Favicon stands for ‘favorites icon’ and they’re little icons or graphics associated with a website and generally positioned to the left of the URL in your browser bar. Generally favicons come in a few basic sizes including:

* 16×16,
* 32×32,
* 48×48,
* 64×64,
* And 128×128

So How Do You Get These Little Icons to Attach Themselves to Your URL?

Well the easiest way to get one is to first use a Favicon generator. These handy little tools will help you convert an image, or your logo, into a favicon. You can also create your own favicon from scratch by drawing it with an icon drawing program.

The new icon will be saved as favicon.ico.

From that point you will save the icon on your computer.

Next, upload the saved image to the root directory of your web space. If you have a webmaster, send them the image so they can upload it into your root directory.

The last step is to add a line of HTML to the header of your web pages. You’ll want to position it between your and tags.

It’ll look something like this. This identifies your favicon to web browsers so they can display it whenever someone visits a page on your website.

The last step is to visit your URL in your browser and make sure the favicon is there. If not, double check your html for errors.

So Where Can You Find Favicon Generators and Icon Drawing Tools?

There are many free generators available online. Simply search using the terms “favicon generator” and you’ll find a number of them. And if you want to draw or create one yourself from scratch simply search for “favicon drawing tools” or “icon drawing”. If you have Photoshop, you can use Photoshop to create a favicon too.

Adding a favicon to your website is a wonderful way to brand your business. And it’s simple and easy to do. Have fun with it, research other favicons on your favorite websites and your competitors and get creative.