Is an icon declared?
Read supported rel values from the hostname homepage and resolve each unique public icon URL.
Free Google favicon checker
Is the globe a setup problem—or just a recrawl delay?
Verify the homepage declaration, live icon response, actual square dimensions, and Googlebot-Image access. Get a technical readiness verdict without a false promise that Google must display the icon.
✓ No signup✓ Actual image size✓ Honest verdict
1 hosthostname homepage checked
6 maxunique icon files fetched
1:1square geometry verified
0website changes made
Four public facts behind a Search favicon.
RankLatch checks the evidence a site owner can control, then marks Google's later crawl and display decision as outside the result.
Does the asset respond?
Follow bounded public redirects, record the final response, content type, format, and byte size.
Is it actually square?
Inspect PNG, SVG, ICO, GIF, JPEG, or WebP geometry instead of trusting only declared sizes.
Can Google crawl it?
Evaluate applicable robots rules for both the homepage and final icon host using Googlebot and Googlebot-Image.
Read the verdict correctly
Passing means ready to process. It does not mean already processed.
If the declaration, response, square geometry, minimum size, and crawler access pass, the useful next step is stability—not another redesign. Keep the favicon URL unchanged and give Google time to revisit the homepage.
Google Search Central favicon documentation ↗What the result does—and does not—prove.
- ✓Hostname homepage response and final URL
- ✓Explicit favicon link declarations
- ✓Bounded icon responses and redirects
- ✓Supported format geometry and square ratio
- ✓Applicable public crawler rules
- —Google's private crawl schedule and cache
- —A guarantee the favicon will be displayed
- —Whether Google considers the artwork appropriate
- —Browser-rendered or authenticated markup
- —Historical favicon URL stability
Verify now → protect next
Do not let the approved homepage signal quietly disappear later.
RankLatch stores the approved homepage state and checks it daily. A removed or changed favicon declaration becomes evidence alongside higher-impact title, canonical, robots, response, redirect, and heading drift.
See what RankLatch monitors →Straight answers
Before you change the icon again.
A correct new favicon can still show as a globe while Google refreshes its stored result.
01Why does Google show a globe instead of my favicon?+
Either Google has not processed the current homepage yet or one of the public technical signals is unresolved. This check separates observable setup issues—such as a missing declaration, blocked file, failed response, or non-square image—from the recrawl delay RankLatch cannot control.
02What favicon size does Google require?+
Google documents a square image of at least 8×8 pixels and recommends an icon larger than 48×48 for display quality. RankLatch reads actual supported image geometry rather than trusting only the sizes attribute.
03Does a passing result guarantee Google will show the icon?+
No. Google explicitly says favicon display is not guaranteed even when the guidelines are met. A passing result means the checked public technical requirements were observable at scan time.
04How long does a corrected favicon take to appear?+
Google says recrawling and processing a homepage can take from several days to several weeks. Requesting homepage indexing once is reasonable; repeatedly changing the favicon URL can work against the recommendation to keep that URL stable.
05Does the checker load private files or log in?+
No. It checks the hostname-level public homepage, up to six unique declared icon URLs, and the relevant public robots.txt files through bounded read-only requests.
06What happens after I fix the favicon?+
Rerun the checker to confirm the public state, request homepage indexing in Search Console if appropriate, then keep the icon URL stable. RankLatch monitoring can alert if the approved homepage favicon declaration later changes or disappears.