Is favicon.ico still required?

Yes. Some browsers and crawlers automatically request /favicon.ico regardless of declarations. Serve it at the domain root to avoid 404 noise in your logs.

What sizes do I need?

At minimum: 16x16 and 32x32 ICO, 180x180 apple-touch-icon, 192x192 and 512x512 PNG for PWA manifest. An SVG favicon scales to any size for modern browsers.

Does favicon affect SEO?

Yes, indirectly. Google displays favicons in mobile SERPs alongside the title — a recognisable brand favicon improves click-through rate and trust.

Yes, alongside PNG fallbacks. SVG favicons scale to any size, support dark-mode media queries, and stay crisp on retina displays. Older browsers fall back to the PNG / ICO.

How do I generate the full set?

Use realfavicongenerator.net or a build-time tool like favicons npm package. Both produce every required file and the matching tags from a single source image.

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Favicon Test

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The Favicon Checker verifies that any URL serves a complete favicon set — the legacy /favicon.ico, the modern <link rel="icon"> SVG / PNG variants, the Apple touch icon for iOS home-screen pinning, and the PWA manifest icons for installable web apps. Missing or broken favicons leave a generic browser-default icon in the tab, the bookmark bar, the iOS home screen and increasingly in Google's mobile SERP — all visible loss of brand trust.

What This Tool Checks

/favicon.ico at the root of the domain
<link rel="icon"> declarations in <head>
<link rel="apple-touch-icon"> for iOS
PWA manifest with icons array
Multiple sizes for different display contexts
SVG favicon for modern browsers
HTTP status of every favicon URL

Why It Matters for SEO

Google now displays favicons in mobile SERPs alongside the title and description, making the favicon a real CTR signal. Browsers display favicons in tabs, bookmarks and history. iOS uses apple-touch-icon when users add to home screen. PWA installers use manifest icons. A complete favicon set is small, easy to ship, and a meaningful brand-trust signal — leaving it incomplete is leaving free CTR on the table.

How to Fix It

Generate a complete favicon set from a single 512x512 source PNG using a tool like realfavicongenerator.net. Upload the resulting files to the site root. Add the recommended <link> tags to <head>. Include an SVG favicon for modern browsers. Verify every icon URL returns 200 with correct content type.

How It Works

We fetch the URL, parse <head> for every icon-related <link>, request /favicon.ico and the manifest.json directly, and verify each declared icon URL returns 200 with the correct content type. Missing sizes, broken URLs and missing PWA manifests are reported individually.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

No favicon at all (browser shows generic globe icon)
favicon.ico exists but apple-touch-icon missing (broken iOS bookmarks)
PWA manifest declared but no icons array (install prompt breaks)
Single 16x16 favicon used for everything (fuzzy on retina displays)
Favicon hot-linked from another domain (fails with HTTPS / CORS)

Quick Checklist

/favicon.ico returns 200
apple-touch-icon at 180x180 minimum
SVG favicon for modern browsers
PWA manifest with icons array (192px and 512px)
No 404s on any declared icon URL

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