Favicon

Silktide checks that every page of your website has a favicon, the small icon browsers show for your site in tabs, bookmarks, and on phone home screens.

A favicon is normally declared with a <link> tag in each page's HTML:

<!-- In the page's <head> -->
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/icons/favicon.png">

Browsers also fall back to a favicon.ico file at the site root when no tag is present, so either method satisfies this check.

Why this matters

Without a favicon, your site appears as a blank or generic placeholder icon in browser tabs and bookmarks, making it harder for visitors to find you among their open tabs and easy to overlook in bookmark lists. A missing favicon also looks unfinished, and browsers request /favicon.ico regardless, filling your server logs with avoidable errors.

Because favicons are usually set site-wide in a template, a missing one often indicates pages built outside your main template - which is worth knowing about in itself.

How to fix it

1. Create your icon. A 32x32 pixel PNG is a good minimum; providing an SVG or several PNG sizes lets each device pick the sharpest fit.
2. Add a <link rel="icon"> tag to your site template so it appears on every page. Most CMS platforms have a favicon or "site icon" setting that does this for you.
3. Alternatively (or additionally), upload the icon as favicon.ico in your website's root directory so it is served at https://yoursite.com/favicon.ico.

How Silktide tests this

1. On each HTML page, look for <link> tags in the page's head whose rel attribute includes icon and that point at a downloadable image.
2. If none are found, try the conventional fallback location /favicon.ico at the site root and check it returns a valid image.
3. Report each page where neither yields a favicon, and track the percentage of your pages that have one over time.

Troubleshooting

My site has a favicon but some pages are flagged

The favicon <link> tag must be present on each page. Pages generated outside your main template - error pages, landing pages, embedded apps - often lack it. A favicon.ico file at the site root covers every page at once, so adding one is the quickest blanket fix.

The tag is there but the check still fails

Check that the icon's address actually returns an image: a favicon tag pointing at a moved or deleted file fails the check just like a missing tag.

Learn more

• How to add a favicon (W3C)
• Favicons in your inventory