Favicon

[Eric S]

I know what it is. But is it really necessary?

Is the error messages that I see coming from other peoples browsers trying to access the Favicon?

Or is it Robots trying to access the Favicon?

I was just wondering because if its not neccessery I think it would be a great way to monitor how many real users are trying to access the front pages by not having the Favicon.

If the favicon is not avaliable I guess I just want to know the pros and cons of having one or not?
(Besides BRANDING)
Like the effect on SEO work if it could have anything to do with it.

 

[mlou]

For those that don't know about the favicon... Have you notice the red "Y!" symbol that appears in the left-most area of the address bar when on Yahoo.com, that's Yahoo's favicon.

Your favicon should be 16 X 16 pixels and the file name should be favicon.ico.

Internet Explorer is the most notable browser to use favicons. Without a favicon, Internet Explorer includes a default "IE" icon next to all bookmarked sites.

Large, well-branded sites such as portals and media companies always use favicons. Now most smaller sites are using them also.

Here's Matt Cutts info...
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/make-a-favicon/

Is there any SE benefit to using a favicon.ico file? There is no direct SE benifit to the use of the favicon tag but...

You might be interested in these two discussions...
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/001904.html
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=5569

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