Favicon Check: Why the Icon Is Not Visible in Search
The favicon is a small icon of the website in the tab, bookmarks, and mobile search results. A detail that is noticed only when it is absent: in Google mobile search, it is shown next to the snippet. You can check if all formats are in place using favicon check.
What the Tool Checks
- Presence of the icon at the standard address and in the page markup.
- Formats: classic ICO, PNG of various sizes, SVG.
- Icon for mobile devices and application manifest.
- Is the file served with a 200 code and does it not redirect.
- Sizes and how the icon looks when reduced.
Search Requirements
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Square, multiple of 48 pixels | Google recommends a size that is a multiple of 48; too small will not work |
| The same file across the entire site | The robot takes the icon for the entire domain |
| Accessible for crawling | An icon blocked in robots.txt will not appear in results |
| Does not change unnecessarily | Updates are picked up during the next crawl, not instantly |
Minimum Working Set
- ICO in the root of the site — a historical format that old clients look for.
- PNG 192×192 and larger — for search, bookmarks, and shortcuts.
- Icon for mobile devices — so that the shortcut on the home screen is not an empty square.
- Links to icons in the page markup — more reliable than relying on the standard address.
After Changing the Icon
The change is not picked up immediately: browsers hold the old icon in cache, and search updates it during the next crawl. If you need to see the result immediately, open the icon's address directly with an added parameter — this way you will bypass the cache and ensure that the server is serving the new file.
Practical Meaning
In mobile results, the icon takes up noticeable space in the result line: a recognizable symbol increases the chance of a click at the same position. This is the same lever as a good snippet — see meta tag check.
What to Check Alongside
Social media card: if the page does not have an Open Graph image, the link in the messenger looks empty — and this is also about clicks.