The site has no favicon

Why it matters

The favicon is the small logo on the browser tab, in bookmarks and history, and beside your site's name in Google's mobile results. Without one you get a grey globe, which reads as unfinished next to competitors who have theirs. Google looks for a <link rel="icon"> on the home page, square, at least 8×8 pixels and ideally larger than 48×48; browsers also try /favicon.ico when there is no link, so we check that too.

Source: Define a favicon to show in search results. Google lists BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM and TIFF as formats; it doesn't list SVG, so keep a PNG or ICO alongside an SVG icon.

How to fix it

Export your logo as a square PNG of at least 48×48 pixels (180×180 covers phones' home screens too), upload it, and add inside <head> on every page:

<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.png" type="image/png" />

Examples

These are the rule's own test pages, and what it says about each. They are run on every change to the rule book.

<html lang="en">
<title>T</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/icon.css">

/favicon.ico: 404 Not Found, and not an image

NoticeThe site has no favicon: no icon link on the page and nothing at /favicon.ico.

fail-neither

<html lang="en">
<title>T</title>

/favicon.ico: 200 OK

PassedThere is no icon link, but /favicon.ico is there, which browsers find on their own.

pass-favicon-ico

<html lang="en">
<title>T</title>
<link rel="Shortcut Icon" href="/favicon.png">

PassedThe page links to a favicon.

pass-link