Add a favicon

20 min Impact: medium Effort: low ✓ Scan-verified — no manual checkbox

A favicon is the small icon shown in browser tabs, bookmarks, and browser history — a missing one looks unpolished and unfinished, a small but real trust signal, especially now that favicons also appear directly in Google's mobile search results next to your listing.

Google has shown favicons in mobile search results since 2019 — a missing one is a small, visible gap in how your site presents itself right in the search results page.

How to fix it

1

Create a favicon file

A simple, recognizable icon — often a simplified version of your logo — exported at the standard sizes (16x16, 32x32, plus larger sizes for modern devices).
2

Add it to your site root and reference it

Place favicon.ico at your domain root, and/or add explicit <link rel="icon"> tags in your head for more control over sizes and formats.
3

Test across browser tabs and bookmarks

Confirm it displays correctly, not as a broken image icon.

Common mistakes

Favicons are aggressively cached by browsers — after adding or changing one, you may need to clear your own browser cache to see the update, even though new visitors see it immediately.

How you'll know it's done

A favicon displays correctly in browser tabs across major browsers.

H.I.V.E. checks this automatically

Fix it, then re-scan — the check confirms itself. No manual checkbox, the scan is the truth.

Run this check in H.I.V.E. →

Add a favicon

How to fix it

Common mistakes

How you'll know it's done

Related checks

H.I.V.E. checks this automatically