Favicons Explained
Posted by Linda at March 14th, 2008Do you have a favicon for your site? DynamicDrive.com has come out with a very user-friendly favicon generator that I would like to share:
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/
To create a favicon you browse to find the image on your hard drive you would like to use for your favicon, and then click on “Create Icon”. Upload the favicon as favicon.ico and insert the code shown below into the head section of your pages:
<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”/favicon.ico”>
For anyone not familiar, a favicon is a 16×16 pixel image that is basically used for branding your site and getting people to remember your site by the little icon in the address bar. It also serves to be useful in favorites (or bookmarks) where your icon will show with the book marked listing. The idea is that if the bookmark for your site stands out in a potential visitors bookmark list then that user is more likely to see it and click to visit your site.
It is best to pick an image that represents your site. In many cases a site’s title is too long to be used as a favicon but there are many other options. You can try using your logo or even an acronym that accurately represents your site. For example, Yahoo uses their capital Y with an !. This red Y is small enough to fit in the 16 x 16 space and still be easily read. It also stands out and can be recognized by many as being the trademark for Yahoo!
If your site does not already have a favicon you will find that by adding one to your pages they will look more complete. It is amazing what one tiny icon can do to make your URL stand out both on your live site and in bookmark lists.
