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How to Create a Favicon for Your Web Site
By: Kalena Jordan, Sun Mar 19th, 2006
Ever see those little custom icons next to a web site listing in
your favorites folder or on your browser address bar? Have you
ever wondered how to create one for your own site? Well I'm
going to teach you in this article.
The icons are called "Favicons", a contraction of the phrase
"favorite icons". To see an example, go to
www.searchenginecollege.com and bookmark the site (or add to
your "favorites" list). Now close your browser window and open a
new one. Click on your bookmarked sites or favorites list and
find the site you just bookmarked. See the tiny mortarboard
graphic next to the listing? That's a Favicon. It makes the site
stand out from all the others in your favorites list. If you
click on that site, the Favicon will even load next to the URL
in your browser address bar from now on.
Cool huh? Like to create a Favicon for your own site? It's
easier than you think. Here's what you do:
1) Choose an image or symbol that you would like to use to
represent your web site. This could be a tiny version of your
logo, a graphic or perhaps a stylized version of your company
initials. A famous example of this is the "Y!" Favicon used by
Yahoo! A Favicon is meant to reflect the look and feel of a web
site or a company logo. Remember it needs to be simple and clear
enough to have visual impact when converted to 16 x 16 pixels.
2) Take a high quality version of your chosen image in .JPG or
.GIF format and if it isn't already, convert your image to the
256 color Web Safe Palette or the Windows 16 color format (the
fewer colors the better).
3) Using your favorite graphics package or image manipulation
software, reduce the image down to 16 pixels wide by 16 pixels
high, being careful to preserve the image resolution. This is
the tricky bit, because you might find your chosen image looks
fantastic at the original size and downright silly at 16 x 16
pixels! Keep experimenting until you are happy with the finished
icon.
If you can't seem to make it work or you're short on time, you
can use a free icon converter like Image Icon Converter to
convert your graphic to an icon or use an icon editor such as
ImageAuthor to build your icon from scratch.
4) You're nearly done! Now, take your completed icon and save it
as "Favicon.ico". This is the default icon name that web
browsers like Internet Explorer and Netscape look for. If you
want to be really clever, you can even create a customized icon
for each page on your site - instructions for this can be found
at www.Favicon.com.
5) Take your .ico file and copy it into the the root directory
of your web site (the main directory that contains all your HTML
pages). Now every time a visitor bookmarks your site, your icon
is copied into their cache file and displays whenever that
visitor returns.
6) To test your finished Favicon, get a friend or colleague to
bookmark your site and then open a new browser window. You can
bookmark your own site but you generally only get one attempt at
this so it's best to save it for when you are sure you're happy
with your finished Favicon. Alternatively, dump your cache and
open a new browser window between tries.
If you did it correctly, you should see your shiny new Favicon
appear in your favorites list next to your site listing and also
next to your URL in the address field of your browser.
That's it, you're done! You now have an eye-catching icon
representing your web site in the favorites list of all your
visitors. A professional impact for very little effort.
Copyright © 2004 by Kalena Jordan. All rights reserved under
U.S. and international law.
About the author:
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and
respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as
running her own SEO business, Web Rank, Kalena manages Search
Engine College, an online training institution offering
instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses
in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing
subjects.
