Check whether your site exposes a valid favicon at /favicon.ico and via <link rel="icon"> — and that browsers, search engines, and bookmark tools can actually fetch it.
A missing favicon shows up as a generic placeholder in browser tabs, search results, and bookmark bars — it hurts brand recognition and looks unprofessional. Google has explicitly stated favicons are used in mobile Search results.
We fetch /favicon.ico at the site root and verify it returns 2xx with a non-empty body and a sensible image content-type. We then parse the homepage HTML for <link rel="icon">, <link rel="shortcut icon">, and <link rel="apple-touch-icon"> tags, resolving each declared URL and HEAD-checking the first four (avoiding noise on overly verbose pages). A 100 score requires both a working /favicon.ico AND at least one valid HTML-declared icon, since both code paths matter for different platforms.
Google needs a favicon that is reachable at a stable URL, at least 48x48 pixels, a square multiple of 48, and declared with rel="icon" on the homepage. It also must not be blocked in robots.txt — the most common silent cause.
Supply at least a 48x48 icon for search results and a 180x180 apple-touch-icon for iOS home screens. A multi-resolution favicon.ico plus a 512x512 PNG in your web manifest covers every mainstream surface.
Older browsers and Google's favicon fetcher hit /favicon.ico directly. Modern browsers prefer the <link> tag because it can declare multiple sizes. Shipping both is the most reliable setup.
Provide a 32×32 PNG via <link rel="icon">, a 180×180 PNG via <link rel="apple-touch-icon">, and a multi-resolution favicon.ico (16, 32, 48). Larger SVGs are also welcome via <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml">.
Indirectly. Google shows favicons in mobile Search results — a missing or broken one means a generic globe icon next to your listing, hurting CTR.
Safari is stricter about MIME types. If your server sends favicon.ico as text/html instead of image/x-icon, Safari may ignore it.
Google re-crawls favicons roughly every few days. Cache-busting with a versioned filename (favicon.v2.ico) forces an immediate refresh.
Google needs a favicon that is reachable at a stable URL, at least 48x48 pixels, a square multiple of 48, and declared with rel="icon" on the homepage. It also must not be blocked in robots.txt — the most common silent cause.
Supply at least a 48x48 icon for search results and a 180x180 apple-touch-icon for iOS home screens. A multi-resolution favicon.ico plus a 512x512 PNG in your web manifest covers every mainstream surface.