If you do not know what a favicon is then you are clearly not up-to-date with website technology. Read in the following what a favicon is and why you need to have it.

This is where I am coming from: my firm has set up a niche business arm that deals with providing support to clients who want to license their know-how and intellectual property out (click here).

And on our company website (click here) you can find our latest venture, the “Jenny Xu ® ” Eyebrow Embroidery services. Don’t laugh about that business, you will be surprised to hear that you pay easily S$1,200 for an eyebrow embroidery procedure that takes only 30 minutes time.

Part of our services was to set up a simple website www.eyebrowembroidery.com so that we can demonstrate that this is a serious business. Once the business takes off, that simple website may or may not be converted to a better standard.

The Easy Way To A New Website

The easiest way to set up a new website is definitely WordPress.com. For little money, you get everything that you need, including the initial Internet domain.

There are just two details that are important.

• On the bottom of the start page, replace the “WordPress” company name with their logo. That makes it less likely that consumers would recognize that you have used a cheap online service for generating your website.
• Replace the WordPress favicon with a bespoke favicon of your own. The name for the favicon under WordPress is “Site Icon”.

What A Favicon Is

A favicon is a small 16×16 pixel icon that serves as branding for your website. Its main purpose is to help visitors locate your page easier when they have multiple tabs open. Due to their tiny size, favicons work best as simple images. Favicons are found next to anything that identifies your website. This means bookmarks, tabs, toolbar apps, history results, and search bars.

WordPress comes with a standard favicon, see here

If you do not change that favicon, everyone will immediately know that you have used a cheap online service for generating your website. And you don’t want that.

How To Make A Favicon

You need two things:

• a square image
• an online favicon generator

One of the easiest to use favicon generators is found here: https://favicon.io/favicon-converter/

You can generate your favicon from an image by uploading your image to that favicon generator. After that you can download the favicon to your computer and from there install it into your WordPress website.

Example Eyebrow Embroidery

Step #1: Find a nice motive online.

Eyebrow embroidery means that a good motive is an eye with a brow.

I found this free picture of an eye on Pixabay. I have earlier written about free photos online and how to use them (click here), please read it!

The motive is not bad, but it is too dark. And the contrasts are too weak.

I have used the Fotosketcher app to make the image lighter. I have earlier written about the Fotosketcher software (click here), please read it.

And this is the menu setting for the drawing parameters in Fotosketcher:

 

I have then uploaded the output from the Fotosketcher program to the online favicon generator: https://favicon.io/favicon-converter/

And this is the output from favicon.io, a set of files:

Installing The Favicon On WordPress.com

Use the following steps:

• Log in to your WordPress website, and then go to the ‘Dashboard’
• Click on ‘Appearance’, then on ‘Customize’, then ‘Site Identity’. Here you can define your site name, tagline, logo, and icon.
• The image that you set under “Site Icon” will be used as your site’s favicon:

Select the favicon-16×16.png image as a Site Icon.

Done.

This is so easy, right?

The Result

Check out Jenny Xu’s website: https://eyebrowembroidery.com/

The result is impressive, isn’t it?

 

Call-to-Action

If you have not yet done so, change your own standard favicon to a new image that is unique for your business.

Tell your friends about my article here. They will like it, promised.

 

Martin “favicon” Schweiger