How to show your favicon in Google Search results
Google shows a small icon next to each website in search results. If yours shows a grey globe or the wrong icon, the favicon doesn’t meet Google’s rules, or Google hasn’t picked up the change yet.
Google’s favicon requirements
According to Google Search Central, your favicon should:
- Be square, with a size that is a multiple of 48 pixels: 48×48, 96×96, 144×144 and so on. SVG files have no fixed size and are also accepted.
- Be linked from your home page with
<link rel="icon" href="…">(orapple-touch-icon). - Have a stable URL that doesn’t change often.
- Be crawlable. Google must be allowed to fetch both your home page and the favicon file (check
robots.txt). - Represent your brand and be appropriate for all audiences.
Google uses one favicon per hostname, so blog.example.com can have a different icon from example.com.
A simple setup that works
Include a 48×48 image in favicon.ico, or link a larger PNG such as 192×192 (48 × 4):
<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" sizes="48x48">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="192x192" href="/android-chrome-192x192.png">
The favicon generator includes 48×48 in favicon.ico and makes the 192×192 PNG.
How long does it take?
Google updates favicons when it recrawls your home page, which can take days or several weeks. You can ask for a faster recrawl with URL Inspection → Request indexing in Google Search Console for your home page.
Check your site
Run the favicon checker. The "Google Search" line tells you whether you have an icon that meets the 48-pixel rule.