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To change a website’s tab icon, upload a square image to a publicly accessible, stable URL and add a <link rel="icon"> element inside the page’s HTML <head>. For example: <link rel="icon" href="/images/favicon.png" type="image/png">. If you use WordPress or Wix, change the platform’s Site Icon or favicon setting instead. The browser tab is usually the quickest place to check the result; Google Search may take longer to recrawl a site and decide whether to show its icon.
What a favicon is—and what changing it affects
A favicon is the small icon associated with a website or page. Browsers commonly show it in tabs and bookmarks; search services may also show one beside a result. The icon is an image file, while the HTML or site-builder setting tells browsers where to find it. Changing the file without updating the reference, or changing the reference without publishing the file, can leave visitors seeing the old icon or no icon at all.
The steps depend on how the site is built. On a hand-coded site, you control the image URL and the markup. In WordPress or Wix, use the site’s built-in Site Icon or favicon controls. Those platform settings are generally simpler, but they may not provide the same direct control over the icon URL or page-specific markup.
Change the favicon on a custom HTML site
1. Prepare a suitable image
Use a square image in PNG, GIF, or ICO format. A favicon is commonly displayed at 16 × 16 pixels, so a detailed logo can become difficult to recognize at tab size. Prefer a simple mark with strong contrast and enough margin that its important details remain visible when reduced.
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If your image editor or workflow offers several sizes, make sure the artwork still reads when scaled down. WordPress’s Site Icon upload guidance uses a different, larger minimum: a square at least 512 × 512 pixels. That is a CMS upload requirement, not a claim that browser tabs display the icon at that size.
2. Put the file at a public URL
Upload or copy the image into a directory served by your site, such as /images/, or place it at the site root. For example, a file at public/images/favicon.png in a typical static-site project might be served as https://example.com/images/favicon.png; the URL must match the actual public path in your own hosting setup.
Open the resulting URL directly in a browser to check that it loads the intended image. A file that exists on your computer or in a project folder is not necessarily publicly available. The image must be deployed and accessible to visitors without relying on a local path.
3. Add the icon link in the document head
Place an explicit icon link between the page’s opening <head> and closing </head> tags:
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<link rel="icon" href="/images/favicon.png" type="image/png">Here, rel="icon" identifies the resource as the page icon, href gives its URL, and type identifies its image format. Use the path that actually serves your file. A root-level file named /favicon.ico may also be discovered automatically by browsers, but an explicit link is clearer, particularly when the icon is somewhere else.
In a site made from templates or a framework, edit the shared layout or document-head component that produces the rendered page, rather than changing an isolated source fragment that never reaches visitors. If different pages need different icons, put the appropriate link in each page’s rendered head, provided your framework and site setup support that arrangement.
4. Publish and verify the rendered page
Deploy both the image and the markup change. Then load the page and inspect its rendered HTML or page source to confirm that the head contains the expected rel="icon" link and that its href points to the public image. Check the browser tab as well. If the icon is missing, use the troubleshooting steps below to separate a bad URL, a missing head link, and conflicting icon declarations.
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Change the Site Icon in WordPress
For WordPress 6.5 and later, WordPress.org’s current instructions place the Site Icon control at Settings → General Settings → Choose a Site Icon. Select or upload a square image; WordPress recommends an image at least 512 pixels high and wide, with PNG recommended for the upload workflow. Follow the prompts to choose and save the image, then visit the live site to check the browser tab.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11WordPress.com describes the Site Icon as an image used in browser tabs, bookmarks, and search results. On a block-theme site, the Site Icon can be changed from the Site Editor. The exact controls you see can therefore depend on whether your site is on WordPress.com, uses another WordPress hosting setup, or has a particular theme and administrative interface. If the path above is not present, look for the Site Icon control in your installation’s available site settings rather than assuming the custom-HTML method applies.
Do not mistake the recommended 512 × 512 upload image for the size at which the browser tab will display it. WordPress’s upload guidance is about the image supplied to its Site Icon workflow; the displayed icon is commonly much smaller.
Change the favicon in Wix
Wix’s official help says that setting a custom favicon requires a published site, a Premium plan, and a connected domain. If one of those prerequisites is missing, address it before expecting a custom icon to appear publicly. Once the site meets the requirements, use Wix’s favicon controls, publish the site, and check the browser tab on the live domain.
Setting the site’s favicon and getting an icon to appear in Google Search are separate outcomes. Wix says Google controls whether and when an icon is indexed or shown in results; changing the setting does not guarantee an immediate search-result change.
Why Google Search may still show the old icon—or none
Google Search Central documents favicon markup using rel="icon" and also recognizes rel="shortcut icon" for historical reasons. Its guidance says, “The favicon URL must be stable (don’t change the URL frequently).” Avoid repeatedly moving or renaming the image when possible.
Even with valid markup and a stable image URL, search display is not immediate or guaranteed. Google needs to recrawl the relevant page and controls whether and when it shows an icon. First verify that the live page and icon URL work. Then allow for Google’s separate recrawling and display decisions; a correct browser tab does not prove that a search result will update at the same time.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Troubleshoot a favicon that is not showing
- The icon image URL does not load. Open the exact
hrefvalue in a browser. Confirm that it returns the intended image and is publicly reachable. Correct the path, publish the file, or fix access if it does not load. - The link is absent from the live page. Inspect the rendered page’s
<head>, not just a template file or editor view. Move the icon declaration into the shared layout or page head that is actually published. - Several icon links are present. Search the rendered head for duplicate
rel="icon"elements. Remove obsolete entries or make theirtype,sizes, andmediahints appropriate. Browsers use such hints when selecting among available icon links, so conflicting declarations can make the outcome unclear. - The file format and declaration disagree. Make the file you serve match the format identified by the link’s
type, such asimage/pngfor a PNG. Check that the URL points to that file rather than to an old image in another format. - The tab is correct but Google’s result is not. Treat this as a search recrawl and display issue, not automatically as a failed browser implementation. Check the stable public icon URL and valid home-page markup; Google decides when and whether it appears in Search.
- The site uses WordPress or Wix. Confirm that you changed the platform’s Site Icon or favicon setting, saved or published the site, and checked the live version. Wix additionally specifies a published site, Premium plan, and connected domain for a custom favicon.
There is no single browser-independent cache-clearing shortcut established here. If the deployed markup and image are correct but one browser still displays an earlier icon, compare the live page in another browser or device and check the URL and head again before changing files at random.
Or skip the browser setup
ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server from Yorker Media. It does not set a favicon; use the HTML or platform steps above to make that change. It can help you capture the published page to inspect how it looks after deployment. The following request captures a page as an image:
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.com -o shot.webpSee the ScreenshotNeo documentation for API details. Before capture, it accepts cookie or consent banners like a visitor and removes 60+ known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets; each of those steps can be turned off. Bot checks, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits cost nothing, and responses identify the page verdict and billing status in headers. Its MCP server offers take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf for Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients. The Free plan includes 1,000 shots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots.
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Frequently asked questions
Does a favicon change the website’s page title?
No. A favicon is the small associated image; the document’s title is separate page metadata. Changing the icon link does not change the title text shown in a browser tab.
Can every page on a site have a different favicon?
It depends on how the site is built. In custom HTML, the icon link belongs in each page’s head, so pages can reference different images. A platform-level Site Icon setting generally describes the site-wide icon; consult the platform’s available controls if page-specific icons are required.
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Will visitors see the new icon as soon as I publish?
Publishing makes the new file and markup available, but the browser tab and Google Search are different checks. Search display depends on Google’s recrawling and selection, so it may not change at the same time as the live page.
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