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I'm curious to know how many of you use favicons -- i.e. the little 16x16 images that appear in the address bar of your browser next to the website URL, and next to the bookmark title in the bookmarks.
I use favicons on some of my sites, but not all. There is no SEO benefit to using a favicon (that I know of), but I like having a favicon for certain sites. A few examples:
Jackpot Graphs
Online Casino Whitelist
5 Star Slots
How I created my favicons:
1. Using Photoshop, I made an image that was 16px wide by 16px tall. I saved the file as a gif and I made sure that the background was transparent. If your image is round or some other unusual shape, you'll want a transparent background. This way it looks better in the address bar and in the bookmarks when it's highlighted. Not a big deal if it isn't transparent, but that is my personal preference.
2. Go to this favicon generator and upload the gif image. If your image is larger than 16x16, not to worry -- the tool will resize it automatically for you. After you click "Create Icon," it will spit out a .ico image file. If you're happy with the way it looks there, then save the .ico file as favicon.ico and upload it to the main, top directory of your website, where the homepage index file is located.
3. Place this code between the <head> tags of your homepage, replacing yoursite.com with your own site URL:
Upload the revised homepage and viola, your site now has a favicon!
Note: If you don't see your new favicon showing up, or if your first attempt sucks and you'd like to try again with a different favicon, you will need to (1) clear your browser's cache, (2) remove the site from your bookmarks if it is bookmarked, and (3) close all instances of the browser. Then after you have uploaded the new favicon, go to your site again -- the favicon should show up in the address bar this time -- and then re-bookmark the site.
So, back to my original question -- does anyone else use favicons?
I use favicons on some of my sites, but not all. There is no SEO benefit to using a favicon (that I know of), but I like having a favicon for certain sites. A few examples:
How I created my favicons:
1. Using Photoshop, I made an image that was 16px wide by 16px tall. I saved the file as a gif and I made sure that the background was transparent. If your image is round or some other unusual shape, you'll want a transparent background. This way it looks better in the address bar and in the bookmarks when it's highlighted. Not a big deal if it isn't transparent, but that is my personal preference.
2. Go to this favicon generator and upload the gif image. If your image is larger than 16x16, not to worry -- the tool will resize it automatically for you. After you click "Create Icon," it will spit out a .ico image file. If you're happy with the way it looks there, then save the .ico file as favicon.ico and upload it to the main, top directory of your website, where the homepage index file is located.
3. Place this code between the <head> tags of your homepage, replacing yoursite.com with your own site URL:
HTML:
<link rel="icon" type="image/ico" href="http://www.yoursite.com/favicon.ico" />Upload the revised homepage and viola, your site now has a favicon!
Note: If you don't see your new favicon showing up, or if your first attempt sucks and you'd like to try again with a different favicon, you will need to (1) clear your browser's cache, (2) remove the site from your bookmarks if it is bookmarked, and (3) close all instances of the browser. Then after you have uploaded the new favicon, go to your site again -- the favicon should show up in the address bar this time -- and then re-bookmark the site.
So, back to my original question -- does anyone else use favicons?
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