Google Updates Search Central Favicon Documentation for Clarity

Favicon is a visual representation of a site that can draw attention in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and potentially encourage more clicks. It is linked to a webpage with the rel HTML attribute, indicating the relationship between the favicon and the webpage. REL stands for relation.

Google made revisions to the favicon documentation to clarify the types of favicons recommended. They removed a section that used the term 'strings' and replaced it with more descriptive wording, specifying the rel attribute values for favicons:

• icon: The icon representing your site, as defined in the HTML standard.
• apple-touch-icon: An iOS-friendly icon representing your site, per Apple’s developer documentation.
• apple-touch-icon-precomposed: An icon for earlier versions of iOS, per Apple’s developer documentation.

Additionally, Google included a callout box stating support for shortcut icon, an earlier version of icon.

Google revised the favicon documentation to add definitions and provide clearer explanations in response to user questions about favicons. The update aims to distinguish between legacy and modern versions of favicons, making the documentation more understandable and descriptive.

You can read the new favicon documentation on Google's Search Central support page titled 'Define a favicon to show in search results'. For comparison, you can also view the old documentation through the Internet Archive link provided in the text.