Favicon not showing in Google search results: Google's requirements
Google shows a favicon only if the homepage links it, it's square and at least 8x8 px in a supported format, and Googlebot can fetch both. Check each.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·8 min read
Google shows a favicon in search results only when your homepage has a <link rel="icon"> tag pointing to a stable icon URL, the icon is square and at least 8x8 px in a format Google supports, and Googlebot can crawl the homepage while Googlebot-Image can crawl the icon file. If any of those fails, your favicon does not appear, and even when all of them pass, Google says a favicon "isn't guaranteed to appear."
Check four places, in this order: a tag on the wrong page or missing from the served HTML, an icon in the wrong shape or format, a robots.txt rule or firewall that blocks one of the two crawlers, and a homepage Google has not recrawled yet.
What does Google require to show a favicon?
Google's favicon documentation, updated in August 2026, sets out the requirements. The homepage must link the icon, the icon must be a square of at least 8x8 px in a supported format, its URL must be stable, and both the homepage and the icon file must be crawlable. The table turns each rule into a check you can run.
Requirement (Google's documentation)
How to check it
Common failure
A <link> tag in the homepage <head> with rel="icon", shortcut icon, apple-touch-icon or apple-touch-icon-precomposed
Why is my favicon not showing in Google search results?
Usually one of Google's requirements is not met: the homepage has no link rel=icon tag, the icon is not square or is in a format Google does not list, robots.txt blocks Googlebot from the homepage or Googlebot-Image from the icon file, or Google has not recrawled the homepage since you added it.
Tag added only on inner pages, or injected by JavaScript
Square (1:1 aspect ratio), at least 8x8 px; larger than 48x48 px recommended
Open the file and read its dimensions
A wide logo used as the favicon
Format: BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM or TIFF
curl -sI the icon URL and read Content-Type
Only an SVG icon offered
Googlebot can crawl the homepage
robots.txt and URL Inspection on the homepage
Disallow: / left from staging
Googlebot-Image can crawl the favicon file
robots.txt rules for the icon's path
A rule blocking /static/, /_next/ or /assets/
A stable favicon URL
Compare the href across two deploys
A URL that changes with every build
One favicon per hostname
Check which hostname the result is for
Expecting a subfolder to have its own icon
Visually representative of your brand, and not inappropriate
Look at it at 16 px
Google replaces inappropriate icons with a default one
Is the favicon linked from the homepage?
Google reads the favicon from your homepage only, through a <link> tag in its <head>. The simplest valid form is <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico">. The href can be relative or absolute, and Google says the file "doesn't need to be hosted on your site", so an icon on a CDN is fine.
Check what the server actually sends for the root URL, not what DevTools shows after scripts run:
If nothing prints, the tag is missing from the served HTML. Two patterns are common. The first is a single-page app that adds head tags after it loads, so the raw HTML has no icon link. The second is a site where the homepage redirects, for example from example.com to www.example.com or to /en/. Google's rule applies to the homepage of the hostname, and "one favicon per site, where a site is defined by the hostname," so make sure the hostname that appears in results serves the tag at its root.
The tag must also be read. Google's guidance on page metadata says that if an invalid element such as an <img> or <iframe> appears in the <head>, Google "assumes the end of the <head> element and stops reading any further elements." A favicon link placed after a tracking pixel in the head can be ignored. Put <link rel="icon"> near the top of the head, before any third-party snippets.
Subfolders cannot have their own icon. Google's example: https://www.example.com/ and https://code.example.com/ can have different favicons, but https://www.example.com/sub-site shares the one for https://www.example.com/.
What size and format does Google accept for a favicon?
The current rule is a square image of at least 8x8 px, with Google recommending one "larger than 48x48px so that it looks good on various surfaces." The supported formats listed are BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM and TIFF. A 96x96 or 144x144 PNG, or an ICO containing a 48x48 layer or larger, meets every version of the guidance.
The rule has changed, which explains conflicting advice online. Google's page as archived in June 2023 said the favicon "must be a multiple of 48px square, for example: 48x48px, 96x96px, 144x144px," and that "SVG files don't have a specific size." The December 2025 version accepted "any valid favicon format." The August 2026 version names the formats above and does not list SVG.
For that reason, do not rely on an SVG alone. Browsers handle SVG favicons well, so keep one if you like, but also link a PNG or ICO:
The icon also needs to be square. A horizontal logo squeezed into a favicon slot fails the 1:1 rule. Use the symbol from your logo, or your initial, on a solid background, and check that it is still recognisable at the small size it will be drawn in results.
Can Googlebot fetch the homepage and the icon?
Both crawls must succeed: Google says "Googlebot-Image must be able to crawl the favicon file and Googlebot must be able to crawl the home page; they cannot be blocked for crawling." Googlebot-Image follows rules addressed to Googlebot-Image, and falls back to rules for Googlebot, and its preferences apply to "all features in Google Search where images, logos, and favicons are presented."
Check robots.txt for any rule that matches the homepage or the icon's path:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /_next/ # blocks a Next.js icon served from /_next/static/
Disallow: /assets/ # blocks /assets/favicon.png
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: / # blocks every image, favicon included
Any of these rules stops the favicon. Remove the rule, or add an Allow: line for the exact icon path. Blocked by robots.txt covers testing rules against a URL.
Then fetch the icon itself and confirm it returns 200 with an image content type:
A 404, a redirect to an HTML page, or a text/html content type means Google gets no image. A firewall or bot-protection rule that challenges crawlers can do the same even when robots.txt allows the path, so run URL Inspection on the homepage and read the Page fetch result.
How do you add a favicon in Next.js so Google finds it?
Use the App Router's file conventions. Put favicon.ico in the root of app/, and optionally icon.png (or .jpg, .ico, .svg) and apple-icon.png beside it. Next.js reads the files and "will automatically add the appropriate tags to your app's <head> element," including type and sizes derived from the file.
For app/icon.png, Next.js outputs a <link rel="icon"> whose href points to /icon with a generated query string, and sets type and sizes from the file; a 32x32 PNG gets type="image/png" and sizes="32x32". Four details matter for Google:
favicon.ico only works in the root app/ folder. Icons in nested segments apply to those routes, and Google only reads the homepage's.
Make icon.png at least 48x48 px, and preferably 96x96 or larger, so it meets Google's recommendation. A 32x32 icon passes the 8x8 minimum but falls short of it.
If you only add icon.svg, add a PNG or ICO too, since SVG is not in Google's current list.
If you generate the icon in code (app/icon.tsx with ImageResponse), check the rendered href on production across two deploys. Google asks for a stable favicon URL.
Confirm the result on the live homepage with the curl command above, because a custom <head>, a middleware rewrite or a proxy can change what production actually serves. Open Graph images use similar metadata files and fail in similar ways; Next.js Open Graph image not working covers those.
How long does a new favicon take to appear?
Google has to recrawl and process the homepage, and its documentation says "crawling can take anywhere from several days to several weeks, depending on how often our systems determine content needs to be refreshed." You can speed up the first step by requesting indexing of the homepage in Search Console's URL Inspection tool.
Work through the fix in this order:
Confirm the <link rel="icon"> tag is in the homepage's raw HTML, near the top of the <head>.
Confirm the icon is square, at least 48x48 px, and a PNG, ICO or other listed format.
Confirm the icon URL returns 200 with an image content type.
Confirm robots.txt lets Googlebot fetch the homepage and Googlebot-Image fetch the icon.
Run Test live URL on the homepage in URL Inspection, then click Request indexing.
Wait. Changing the icon URL again while you wait only resets the clock, because Google wants a stable URL.
If the favicon still does not appear after several weeks with every rule met, Google offers a favicon feedback form, though it says feedback "doesn't guarantee it will be acted upon individually." The favicon sits beside your site name and title link in a result, so the title is worth checking at the same time; title tag length covers how much of it Google shows.
Check the homepage conditions Google's favicon rules depend on
The favicon file is one part; the homepage it hangs on is the other. Run the free scan on LaunchScaler with your homepage URL, no account needed. It does not grade the icon image itself, but its checks cover the homepage conditions the favicon depends on: a robots.txt rule blocking the page, a noindex directive, invalid markup that closes the <head> early and drops the tags below it, redirect chains, and a certificate chain that is incomplete or expired. Fix those, then request indexing of the homepage.
What size should a favicon be for Google?
Google requires a square (1:1) favicon of at least 8x8 px and recommends one larger than 48x48 px. A 96x96 or 144x144 PNG meets both. Older versions of Google's guidance asked for a multiple of 48 px, and those sizes still satisfy the current rule.
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Does Google support SVG favicons?
Google's favicon documentation, as updated in August 2026, lists BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM and TIFF, and does not list SVG. Serve a PNG or ICO favicon for Google, even if you also offer an SVG icon for browsers.
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How long does it take for a favicon to show in Google?
Google says crawling can take anywhere from several days to several weeks. You can request indexing of the homepage in the URL Inspection tool, and even with every guideline met, Google says a favicon is not guaranteed to appear.
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Can a subfolder of my site have its own favicon in Google?
No. Google supports one favicon per hostname. www.example.com and code.example.com can each have one, but www.example.com/sub-site uses the favicon of www.example.com.
