• Google requires a square favicon, at least 8 by 8 pixels and ideally larger than 48 by 48.
• The favicon file and the homepage must both be crawlable.
• Tell Google your preferred site name with WebSite structured data on the homepage.
• Site names work at domain and subdomain level, not for subfolders.
• Changes can take days or weeks to appear.

Each Google result shows a small icon and a site name above the title link. On a crowded results page they are the quickest way for someone to recognise you. A blank globe icon or a strange site name quietly costs clicks.

Favicons

Markup

 <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" sizes="any" />
<link rel="icon" href="/icon.svg" type="image/svg+xml" />
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png" /> 

Place the link element in the head of your homepage. Google supports rel values of icon, apple-touch-icon and apple-touch-icon-precomposed.

Google's requirements

• Square: a 1 to 1 aspect ratio.
• Size: at least 8 by 8 pixels. Google strongly recommends larger than 48 by 48 so it looks sharp everywhere.
• Format: any valid favicon format, including ICO, PNG and SVG.
• Stable URL: do not change the file's address often.
• Crawlable: both the homepage and the icon file must be accessible to Googlebot and Googlebot-Image.
• Appropriate: Google will swap in a default icon if it considers the image unsuitable.
• One per hostname: example.com and shop.example.com can differ, but example.com/shop cannot have its own.

Design tips

• Keep it simple. A full logo with text is unreadable at 16 pixels.
• Check it on light and dark backgrounds. An SVG favicon can adapt to dark mode with a media query.
• Provide a 180 by 180 PNG as the apple-touch-icon for iOS home screens.
• Add a web app manifest with 192 and 512 pixel icons for Android.

Site names

Google chooses the site name automatically from several sources: WebSite structured data, the title element, headings, og:site_name and other content on the homepage. You can state a preference.

 <script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "name": "Example",
  "alternateName": ["Example Ltd", "example.com"],
  "url": "https://www.example.com/"
}
</script> 

• Put this on the homepage only.
• name is your preferred site name. Keep it short and avoid generic words.
• alternateName gives fallbacks, in order of preference, if Google decides not to use the first.
• Make the homepage title, og:site_name and visible branding agree with it.

Limits

• Site names are supported for domains and subdomains. Subdirectories inherit the name of the host.
• Google will not always use your choice, particularly if the name is generic, shared with a better-known brand or inconsistent with the rest of the page.
• If the homepage is noindexed, redirected or blocked, Google may be unable to determine a site name.

Common mistakes

• Favicon blocked by robots.txt, often because it sits in an assets folder that has been disallowed.
• A non-square image.
• Favicon referenced only through JavaScript.
• Different site names in schema, title and Open Graph.
• WebSite markup on every page with slightly different names.
• Expecting an instant change. Google needs to recrawl the homepage and process the update.

How to test

• Search for your brand and check both elements on mobile and desktop.
• Use URL Inspection on the homepage and request indexing after a change.
• Fetch the favicon URL directly and confirm it returns 200 and is not blocked.
• Validate the WebSite markup with the Rich Results Test or Schema Markup Validator.

The GEO angle

AI answer interfaces show source chips with a favicon and a site or page name beside each citation. That little icon is frequently the only branding you get. A clear favicon and a consistent name across schema, Open Graph and the homepage also reinforce a single, unambiguous identity for your brand, which helps models attribute content to the right entity.

Add your title here

This is a paragraph. Writing in paragraphs lets visitors find what they are looking for quickly and easily. Make sure the title suits the content of this text.