Favicon.ico Favourites Icon

Article by Rebecca Case

Introduction

Ever gone through the error logs on your website and seen several requests for a file called favicon.ico? Ever wondered what it was, and why so many people were looking for a file you may never have heard of?

In this article I will explain what favicon.ico is, how to create it, and how it can bring more repeat visitors to your site.

Also, by creating one you will remove those pesky errors that may appear in your logs. Pretty impressive for a five-minute tutorial. :)

What is favicon.ico?

Favicon.ico is the filename for the little graphics that appear besides your domain name in your visitors' Internet browser.

Every time a visitor looks at your page, their browser will also ask the website for the favicon.ico so it can be displayed along side the website address. Additionally, should the visitor wish to add your site to their bookmarks or favourites list, the favicon.ico will also appear besides the bookmark.

So how do I create a favicon.ico?

Your favicon.ico can be easily created by using one of a wide number of free icon creation tools.

Two such icon creation tools are:

• http://www.favicon.co.uk/
• IconForge

Icons do have restrictions on how complex they may be, so you will need to limit them to 16x16 pixels and 16 colours.

When making your icon remember to try and achieve the following with it:

• Make it attractive so it fits with the look and feel of your website
• Make it distinctive so people have a way to associate it with your site
• Make it enticing so people will return once they see it in their favourites

Often simply using your company logo can be effective. You presumably already paid for it to look professional, so use it to its maximum potential.

After you create your icon and save it to your computer's hard drive (using the name favicon.ico), open a copy of your favorite FTP program or file manager that you would normally use to upload your website.

Take your favicon.ico file and save it in the public_html directory of your site if you are on a Linux host like us, or the equivalent "root" of your website.

Because the browser that your visitors are using automatically fetched this file when looking at your page, you do not need to link to it in any way from your pages. By simply having the file there every page on your site will now display your favicon.ico along side the address.

That's it! You have now increase the look and effectiveness of your site, and removed the ongoing reporting of errors in your logs. Easy wasn't it?

See further general website hosting FAQs or our FAQ categories for more information.

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