Favicons are an important part of the consistent branding that builds trust and supports increased sales.

But, are you a victim of the tiniest branding failure – no Favicon?

The Favicon provides valuable and consistent branding and is never forgotten on a professionally built website.  Let’s look at why you should consider fixing the tiniest branding failure.

Favicon Facts

• Appears on your browser next to the address bar (where you see http://webpageadvisor.com) and on a browser tab. It also appears in your Bookmarks and History lists of sites. Some search engines and other sites also use Favicons when referring to websites.

First row: Twitter, blank, Facebook, Pandora, Google Analytics, Google Docs, Modern Drummer, Evernote, WebPageAdvisor, JBS Partners, blank, blank

• Favorites icon was shortened into Favicon.

• In 1999, IE5 was the first MS browser to support Favicons.

• The size of a Favicon is 16 X 16 pixels

• W3C Recommended syntax – <link rel=”icon” type=”image/<format name>” href=”http://Example (dot) com/favicon.<format extension>“>

Who Cares?

The purpose of the Favicon is to identify the site and provide branding in your browser.

Most browsers have multiple tabs open. The Favicon provides a billboard on your tab.

Similar to the power of an effective logo, a good Favicon allows people to instantly recognize your site visually without having to read text.

If you don’t have one, you miss out on these benefits and a default image is inserted on your behalf by default. It usually looks like a blank piece of paper. Or your CMS or hosting provider may insert their own favicon instead. Drupal and DreamHost do this.

The mobile browsing community does not care about Favicons at all because they aren’t shown.

Favicon Design

There are a couple of choices when deciding how to fill up that 16 X 16 space.  In all cases use just the primary corporate colors

1 – Use your logo

2 – Use the leading one, two or three first letters of each word in your company name

WebPageAdvisor Logo

3 – Use a graphic element that is embedded in your company name

Building Favicons

• Upload an image and get a favicon in return – http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/

• Draw your own favicon – http://www.favicon.cc/

Branding Failure Correction

Use a Favicon and cross the tiniest branding failure off of your list of things to fix.

If you can’t or don’t know how to create your Favicon I will create a Favicon for you.

Just be one of the first ten to write a blog post or article explaining why you want a Favicon along with a link to this post and we will get you sorted out for free.