Bluehost Web Hosting Help

Adding Favorites icon (Favicon) to site

Problem:

How can I add a favorites icon (favicon) to my site.

Solution:

Step 1 - Find an Image

Most web sites use a smaller version of their logo or similar.

The main consideration is to keep your icon simple and clear at such a small size.

Most browser interfaces (the top tool bar containing the browser buttons) can display 256 colors, but it's best to use the Windows 16 colors.

Step 2 - Covert the Picture to an Icon

We recommend using DynamicDrive (www.DynamicDrive.com).

Step 3 - Including the icon in your web pages

Publish the icon into the root directory of your web site.
This is the location Internet Explorer will automatically look for your favicon when a visitor bookmarks your site.

Help the browser find your icon by including in the html, within the <head> tag, the following: <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.your-web-site-name.com/favicon.ico">.
Preferably nearer the closing </head> tag, because more important information, such as your meta tags , should come earlier.

Save your web page and publish it.
If you want to create different icons for different pages, simply call them something other than favicon.ico, but still retaining the .ico suffix.
Link to them in your pages in the same way as above, just changing the href location for the different icons.

Step 4 - Testing your Icon

Open Internet Explorer (version 5 or above) and bookmark your page.

Determine if your icon stands out from other bookmarked web sites with favorites icons.

If necessary, re-edit your icon and publish it again.
However, you will need to remove the bookmark (Favorites > Organize Favorites, select your bookmark and click "Delete") and delete your temporary Internet files and page history (Tools > Internet Options, tab "General" and click "Delete Files" under "Temporary Internet Files" and click "Clear History" under "History").
This may take a few minutes if you haven't done this recently.

Close your browser and re-open it, bookmark your page again to check the new version of your icon.

Repeat until you're satisfied your icon is suitably eye-catching.