Google has recently made revisions to its Search Central documentation regarding favicons, incorporating clearer language to address user queries more effectively.
In response to user inquiries about the appropriate use of favicons, Google has updated its documentation, providing enhanced explanations distinguishing between traditional and contemporary favicon formats.
Understanding Favicons Favicons serve as visual representations of websites, effectively capturing attention within search engine results pages (SERPs) and prompting increased user engagement. These icons are associated with the “rel” HTML attribute, establishing a connection between the favicon and the webpage itself. “REL” signifies relation.
Documentation Enhancements Google has refined its support page concerning favicons, specifically in the segment outlining recommended favicon types, offering more comprehensive explanations distinguishing between legacy and modern variants.
Key Revisions The following section underwent substantial modifications:
Set the rel attribute to one of the following strings:
icon apple-touch-icon apple-touch-icon-precomposed shortcut icon
The terminology in the above section, particularly the use of “strings,” was deemed overly technical and insufficiently informative.
This section has been replaced with the following:
Google supports the following rel attribute values for specifying a favicon; use whichever one fits your use case:
icon The standard icon representing your site, as per HTML standards. apple-touch-icon An iOS-compatible icon representing your site, as per Apple’s developer documentation. apple-touch-icon-precomposed An alternative icon for earlier iOS versions, as per Apple’s developer documentation.
Additionally, a new callout box has been introduced containing the following information:
“For historical reasons, we also support shortcut icon, which is an earlier, alternative version of icon.”
“Shortcut icon” refers to an outdated method of indicating a favicon’s presence by using rel=”shortcut icon” instead of rel=”icon.” Google’s documentation clarifies that support for this non-standard linking method will be maintained.
The revised documentation features improved clarity and descriptive language, enhancing user understanding.
