Website Favicon

In this primer, you’ll be introduced to favicons. Discover why they’re so useful and find out what you can do with this tiny little graphic.

A favicon is shorthand for favourite icon, and it’s also known as a shortcut icon or a bookmark icon. Technically, it’s a file named “favicon.ico” although it can also use a PNG extension. It works very much like a logo, as it is displayed alongside the website name on the favourites menu and the favourites toolbar on your browser. It’s usually very small, about 16 by 16 pixels.
Try to click on your favourites menu, and if you have Facebook as a shortcut then you’ll find the unmistakeable lowercase white “f” on a blue square.

What is it For?
A favicon is a way for you to make your website different from everybody else’s. And if you have your own company, you can use a shrunken or simplified version of your logo for consistency among all your marketing and advertising materials.
Essentially, a favicon is a logo icon used for browsers. It offers your site a level of uniqueness that’s absent when the browser just adds a generic favicon alongside your website name. With the right favicon, you can also provide or signal some sort of personality to your website, just as a logo can define the essential character of a company. It can be playful or sombre; it can be youth-oriented or appeal to a more mature audience. With it, you have a way to show some commonality with your target audience.

What’s more, your favicon can help improve your brand identity. It makes your website much more memorable. In time, your favicon can become a shorthand symbol for your website, and for what you offer to your customers.
Even if you’re just running a website, you’re a brand. And a brand needs its own identity, just as a local shop needs a good name. With a favicon, you can then separate your brand identity from all your other competitors, and make your brand (and your website) much more memorable.

How to Create an Effective Favicon
To create one, you will first need to factor in the tiny size requirement. That means you’re probably not going to be able to fit your entire company name within the icon itself. What’s more, you have to make it simple. Details will be lost if you persist on an overly complicated design.

Then you have to make it unique. The point of the favicon is to separate your identity from everybody else’s. Many Internet users even remove the name of the website on their bookmark bar to save space. You should make it different from other favicons so that the user can easily remember just what website the favicon stands for.

If possible, it should also give a clue as to what your website represents. This always makes it more memorable, and it also reminds users just what kind of info can be found in your website.

So if you’re thinking of creating a logo for your company, here’s one crucial tip: make sure to take into account that it should function as a favicon too.