As small as it can be, Favicon has been overlooked by many webmasters and web owners. Because of that, they have failed to see their benefits. Implementing Favicon is one of the easiest thing you can do to your website, but yet have the largest impact, if compared to its tiny size.
Favicons are the little piece of graphics that can represent your logo or brand on browser tabs, search history, bookmark lists, search ads, and even search results. Using Favicons is easy and can have a huge impact since once you've done it, you can completely forget about it, but it still doing its work behind your back, representing you everywhere you are.
Favicons have their own role in branding and usability. Its name was derived from the concept introduced by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Short for 'favorite' and 'icon', Favicons was first seen on bookmarking bar on IE browsers before expanding to more places on the web, like on other browsers' tabs and to mobile.
Beside branding and usability, Favicon can also be used to give a professional impression on your site. Some of the typical images used as a Favicon are the logo/part of the logo, the first letter of the brand, or an image representing a particular site.
Favicons are typically 16x16 pixels, while some are 32x32 pixels or more. These files are usually named favicon.ico and placed in the root directory of a website.
Introduced by Microsoft Internet Explorer, Favicon was referred as a 'shortcut icon' in the rel element, and was placed in the head section of a site. In was in 1999 that Favicon was standardize by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) with the recommendation of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
Initially, Favicons was meant only for bookmarked URLs. However, Favicons have expanded to more places, and used by many instances where they can make websites and web applications more user-friendly.
By using a Favicon, your website could have its own recognizable branding because the little image that acts like your site's ID. The reason for this is because images are far better perceived than text.
Creating Trust and Credibility
Many web visitors tend to judge a book by its cover when they first visit your website. This is where web design and graphic design meet to create a great compelling website and logo to represent your site on the web.
When visitor's browser shows a new Favicon-less tab that is having your website in it, it's easy for you to lose credibility to your competitors that have Favicons, especially when your Favicon-less website tab is next to your competitors'.
Favicons can also do well on bookmarked pages. When a visitor bookmarks your website for future visit, for example, your Favicon can gladly stand out among other bookmarked website on the visitor's list. And if your Favicon is prominent and unique, the visitor can easy identify you with just a glimpse of an eye.
Without Favicon, your website have a higher chance to be removed from the bookmarked list, or have its tab closed because of lacking credibility, decreasing their trust on you.
Favicon have no direct in SEO, so having this little image on your site won't give you the best chance out there to stand out. However, there is an advantage: if you can make your Favicon to increase the usability and credibility, visitors will trust you more, and this will make your website have better ranking on search engines.
And because Favicons can save a lot of visitors' time in finding you, they can be worth more than what most people think.
As small as it can be, Favicon is just a part of your website's design. But this small thing can give a huge impact on your web design's overall, your branding and usability. Some webmasters and web owners are focusing on bigger details to get better outcome. But the small details like having a Favicon is what make a website looks professional, and able to pronounce itself credible and capable.