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A Favicon is an icon image that you can use to 'brand' your Website and make it stand out from the crowd. It lends your site sharpness and polish and improves 'stickiness'. Favicon stands for 'Favorites Icon'.

If you have installed a Favicon on your server, then every time someone bookmarks your site your own icon will be displayed in their favorite's folder instead of the generic I.E. symbol. This makes it much easier to see your site amongst all the other bookmarks, therefore making browsers more aware of your site, and getting you more repeat visitors. See how the BannerSharp site stands out from the rest of the crowd here.

The favicon.ico convention is used at present by Microsoft's Internet Explorer versions 5 and above and Linux's Konqueror Web Browser. However, as approximately 80 percent of all surfers are currently using IE5/6+, having your own Favicon makes very good sense.

When someone calls your site up from their favorites folder your Favicon will be displayed in the address bar as well, as illustrated below. In fact, anywhere where you can display an icon you can display your Favicon. This includes on your desktop, start menu and even your taskbar.

We will provide you with two files, yoursite-favicon.gif and favicon.ico. The first file is purely for demonstration purposes so that you can see what your new favicon is going to look like. The favicon.ico file is your actual favicon. It must be uploaded to your root directory without changing its name. To test for success, in Internet Explorer's Address field, type www.yoursitesname.com/favicon.ico and it will appear, possibly distorted somewhat, in your browser window.

To view your new favicon, go to your favorites and delete the shortcut to your home page. Now, in Internet Explorer, go to Tools/Internet Options/Clear History in order to clear your cache. Type your site's name manually into the Address line of your browser and then add it back into favorites. Your favicon may take a second to appear, but when you next open your favorites list you will see it next to your site's name.

Note: If you delete your cache in the future, you may have to re-do the process above to show your favicon again, but this will not affect anyone else's ability to see it.