How to add a favicon to a website

If you don't know any image processing creating a favicon can be a daunting task , but luckily for you and me there are plenty of tools available in the internet where you create a favicon for free and some websites let you host them for free as well.

Wants part of the image as the favicon
If you want to cut crop and resize an image before you create your favicon then Genfavicon is my preferred choice.They let you upload an image and have an easy to use preview where you can resize and crop your image.You can set your preferred favicon size as well. 16 x 16 is the standard size used by many.

Have the image , just want the favicon
If you have the images and just want to generate the favicon Iconj is a good place to try out. You can upload an image and they generate the favicon for you and if you want you can host it in there servers for free as well. Having the ability to host in there servers is important, because not every photo sharing site lets you upload .ico files, which is the file extension normally used for favicon files.This is especially useful if you are trying to add a favicon in a blogspot blog.

Listed above are my personal favorites but there are plenty of other sites that provides the same service.Type "free favicon generator" in Google and you can find many other websites that generates favicons for you.

Now that you created your favicon its time to add it to your website or blog. All you have to do is add the following simple HTML line in your header section.

<link rel='shortcut icon' href='your URL' type='image/x-icon'/ >

Your URL is the path to the newly created ico file ( eg:- http://rumblinglankan.com/favicon.ico ). Now check your website and enjoy your newly added favicon.If it is not showing it could be that your browser is still showing the previous cached page, clearing the cache will solve the problem.
If your using self hosted Wordpress user there are plug-in's which helps you to add a favicon.All you have to do is install the plug-in and follow the simple instructions like uploading the picture etc.To add a favicon in Wordpress download the plugin for free.

Although it is easy to add a favicon you should spend some time choosing a suitable one. Below are few things you should consider when choosing one.

• It should be recognizable - Typing a long word in a square and making it a 16 x 16 image will make it unrecognizable. A picture with lots of details is also not suited for this. Check out some remarkable favicons at Smashing magazine if your running out of ideas


• Related to your website or brand - Although this is not necessary this helps in creating your won identity. Squidooand Youtube are good examples for using favicons to improve there identity.