On Google, the small round picture next to your business name is a grey globe while your competitors show their logo. Or the browser tab shows a blank page icon, the WordPress "W" or your builder's logo instead of yours. That picture is the site icon (the favicon). Google only shows yours when it can find it on your home page, fetch the file, and the file is a proper square. One look at your home page's source tells you which of those fails. Below is a rebuilt example (not a real client), the two-minute check, and the fix for each cause.
icon. You want a line like <link rel="icon" href="https://yoursite.com/.../icon-192x192.png">. No such line means no icon is set, and browsers fall back to asking for /favicon.ico.http:// address is your answer in the table below. Note its size too: a long thin logo squeezed into a square, or a tiny 16-pixel file, is a problem for Google.yoursite.com/robots.txt. A Disallow line that covers the folder the icon lives in (for example /wp-content/) stops Google fetching it. So does a rule for Googlebot-Image.| What the check shows | Why it happens | The fix |
|---|---|---|
No rel="icon" line in the home page source; the tab shows a blank page or the builder's logo | No site icon was ever set. Some themes show their own default, and Google shows a globe | WordPress: Appearance > Customize > Site Identity > Site Icon, upload a square image of at least 512 x 512 pixels. Block themes (no Customize menu): in the editor, select the Site Logo block and switch on Use as site icon, or look for Site Icon under Settings > General in recent versions. Shopify: Online Store > Themes > Customize > Theme settings > Favicon. Squarespace and Wix each have a Browser icon / Favicon setting (Wix needs a paid plan with your own domain) |
| The icon line is there and the file opens, but Google still shows a globe or your old icon | Google refetches the home page and the icon on its own schedule. A new or changed icon can take several days to a few weeks to show | In Search Console, run URL Inspection on the home page and click Request indexing. Then leave it. Keep the icon at the same address while you wait: changing the file name again restarts the clock |
Opening the icon address gives a 404, an old domain, a staging address or http:// | The icon was set before a move or an https switch, and the saved address now points somewhere that no longer answers | Upload the icon again in the setting above so a fresh address is saved. If the site's own address is wrong everywhere (styles, images), fix that first: see site shows plain text and images not showing |
robots.txt blocks the icon's folder, or has a Googlebot-Image rule | Google has to be allowed to fetch both the home page and the icon file. A broad Disallow: /wp-content/ or an image-crawler block hides the icon | Remove that Disallow line, or add an Allow line for the icon's path. Then request indexing as above. See not on Google for the other robots.txt mistakes |
| The icon is not square, very small, or is the full wide logo with text | Google needs a square image (it recommends larger than 48 x 48 pixels) and may replace an icon it cannot use. Long text squeezed to 16 pixels is unreadable anyway | Make a square version: just the mark or the first letter on a solid background, 512 x 512 pixels PNG. Upload it as the site icon. Keep text out of it |
| The tab shows one icon on some pages and an old icon on others, or the old one never goes away | An old favicon.ico file from a past web person is still in the site's main folder. Browsers ask for it whenever a page does not name an icon, and they keep their own copy for a long time | Replace (or delete) favicon.ico in the main folder through the host's File Manager so both match. To see the new one yourself, open the site in a private window: your normal browser can hold the old icon for days |
| Fine in the browser, but blank or a screenshot when someone adds the site to a phone home screen | Phones look for a separate, larger apple-touch-icon. Some themes and hand-built sites never add it | WordPress's own Site Icon setting adds it for you (a 180 x 180 copy); a theme or plugin icon field may not. On other sites, add <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png"> with a 180 x 180 PNG |
/wp-content/ in robots.txt to "hide plugins". It hides your icon, images and styles from Google too.Setting the icon takes a minute; finding an old favicon.ico, a robots.txt rule or a stale address after a move is where most people would rather have someone do it. If that is you, the box below is for that. Related: wrong text under your Google result, home page has no title and site not on Google.