Favicons are those tiny icons you often see up in your browser’s address bar, next to the page title on a tab (if your browser supports tabbed pages) and next to the URL address of a bookmarked page. While many web users notice favicons (whether they realize it or not), few understand their use and importance.
If you’re a business or organization that’s using a website to attract attention, promote your brand, or build value, favicons are one more tool for boosting visibility and increasing recognition on the web. Favicons are ideal for filling in a lot of little graphical gaps on the web that otherwise go unused. For example, when pages are bookmarked, most browsers will automatically drop a little blank page icon next to the page title if no other image is available. If you have a favicon, the browser instead will use that to help identify your page link. Bingo! You now have a little logo advertising your brand in someone’s bookmarked page list.
As an added bonus, the use of a favicon increases views because the human eye is drawn to graphical images before text. That means a person browsing through his or her bookmarks will notice your page first over un-faviconed bookmarks. First seen, first clicked. And all this extra promotion is free.
Speaking of advertising, a favicon will also boost your brand while someone is looking at your page (we’re assuming that the favicon is some form of your company or organization logo). All the time someone is on your website, your favicon is sitting up in the browser address bar, visibly reinforcing your brand identity. If that person is opening a lot of pages and creating a lot of tabs along the top of their browser toolbar, a colorful little favicon will help your tab stand out among a row of nondescript tabs.
Does your website already utilize a favicon? If not, it’s time to talk to the design professionals at inConcert about having a unique favicon designed for your website. They don’t cost nearly as much as you think they do!