Favicon is small thing but it is linked to your brands’ identity and quality. So, it is not a good idea to ignore the favicon of your site.
In fact, uploading a favicon for your site is one of the very first thing you must do while setting up your site.
First, let’s understand what is a favicon?
Favicon is the little icon that shows just before the URL in the browser. Favicon is also used as the identification of your site at many places such as bookmarks, tabs etc.
This file is also used by the modern devices as the identification icon such as the iPhone/iPad, Android devices, Windows 8 tablets etc.
The Favicon generally sits at the root directory of the site and it is a small square file of 16 x 16 pixels and is saved as favicon.ico.
However, you can use a favicon with other format as well such as a PNG file.
A favicon short for (favorite icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons, associated with a particular website or web page.
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The Favicon File Type
Though you can use a PNG, gif file also for your favicon, it is recommended to use an .ico file because almost all browsers support this file type including the old Internet Explorer.
So, how to create a .ico version of your favicon?
The process is simple. Most of the sites use the logo or part of the logo as the favicon. So, you can create the file in PNG, JPG format and use this tool to convert it to .ico quickly.
You can use Photoshop or any other tool that will help you to create an image with transparent background so that there is no unwanted background color in the image.
Two Ways to Upload a Favicon in WordPress
[divider]Upload a Favicon Using WordPress Customizer
It used to be a task to upload the favicon for your WordPress site before the WordPress version 4.3. But not anymore.
If you are using the WordPress version 4.3 or later, you have the easy option in the WordPress customizer to upload the favicon for your WordPress site.
You need to create a square file of size 512×512 px that carries your brand image. Go to the WordPress admin of your site.
Go to Appearance >> Customizer in your WordPress dashboard.
Go to the Site Identity tab in the customizer.
Here you have the option to upload the favicon file for your site.
Upload the file, save and refresh your browser. Now, you should see the favicon on your web browser.
Upload Favicon Using a Plugin
There are a few plugins that will help you to upload the favicon file for your WordPress site. Here are a couple of options.
Favicon by RealFaviconGenerator
This plugin has over 100k active installations. So, it is surely a widely used method to upload the favicon file for websites.
As mentioned at the start of the article, the favicon file is used in the browser as well as by the different devices such as the iPhone/iPad, Android devices and others.
You generally need to upload different file size to make it suitable for different devices. This plugin makes the process simple and easier for you.
You just have to upload the file in the recommended size and the plugin will do the rest. It is a quick solution for the newbie WordPress users to upload a favicon.
All In One Favicon
All In One Favicon is another popular choice to upload the favicon in WordPress. This plugin also have over 100k active installations.
This plugin supports .ico, .png and .gif file type. You can quickly upload an image or you can use a readily uploaded image file to show it as the favicon from the media library.
Final Word
These were the quick and simple ways to upload a favicon on your WordPress site. The logo and the favicon of your site makes the first impression about your business.
So, make sure to use a quality image for the favicon that nicely reflects the image of your brand.
