Help centre

How to use Faviscan, answers to common questions, and what this tool can and cannot do — all in one place.

Getting started

How do I scan a URL?

Go to the App page, paste the full URL (including https://) of the site you want to check, and click Scan. Within a few seconds Faviscan returns a report showing every icon the page declares, which ones actually exist, and what a browser, Google, or iOS would end up showing.

No account needed?

Correct. There are no accounts, no logins, and no sign-up. Paste a URL, get a result. That’s the whole flow.

What exactly does Faviscan check?

Faviscan reads the page’s <head> for every icon declaration — <link rel="icon">, <link rel="apple-touch-icon">, <link rel="icon" sizes="...">, and similar. It then fetches each icon and reports:

Whether the file exists (HTTP status)
Its real format and pixel dimensions (parsed from the actual bytes, not the Content-Type header)
Whether the format matches what the declaration claims

It also checks the two root fallbacks — /favicon.ico and /apple-touch-icon.png — that browsers and devices request by convention even when not declared.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my favicon not showing in Google search results?

Google displays the favicon it last saw when it indexed your page. The most common causes:

The icon is missing or returns a 404. Run a Faviscan scan to confirm the declared icon exists at its URL.
The icon is too small. Google recommends a minimum of 48×48 pixels (or 96×96 for best quality). Your icon may be 16×16 and Google silently rejects it.
The icon uses an unsupported format. Google supports ICO, PNG, GIF (static), JPEG, WebP, and SVG. An animated GIF or unusual format will not appear.
Google hasn’t re-crawled your page. Even after you fix the icon, Google needs to re-index your page. This can take days or weeks. Use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console to request re-crawling.
The icon is blocked by robots.txt or lacks a Link header from Google’s crawler perspective. Ensure the icon’s path is not disallowed in robots.txt.

Faviscan will tell you whether the icon is reachable and its real dimensions. If the file exists and is 48×48 or larger, the issue is likely on Google’s side and may resolve with time.

Why is my favicon not updating after I changed it?

This is almost always a cache problem, and it affects every client differently:

Your own browser aggressively caches /favicon.ico. Force-reload (Ctrl+F5 / Cmd+Shift+R) or clear your browser cache and check again. Sometimes you need to close and reopen the tab.
Google search results update on Google’s schedule, not yours. Even after a cache-busting deploy, the old icon may appear for weeks.
iOS home-screen bookmarks cache the apple-touch-icon when the bookmark is created. Re-add the bookmark to pick up a new icon.

Pro tip: Faviscan fetches each icon fresh and bypasses caches (no If-None-Match / If-Modified-Since). If Faviscan sees your new icon but your browser doesn’t, the problem is entirely cache on your end.

What sizes do I need for apple-touch-icon?

iOS uses the icon you declare in <link rel="apple-touch-icon">. The recommended sizes:

180×180 px — for current iPhones and iPads with Retina displays. This is the single best size to provide.
152×152 px — for older iPad models.
120×120 px — for older iPhone models.

You can provide multiple sizes using the sizes attribute, e.g. <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="/apple-touch-icon-180.png">. If no sizes attribute is present, iOS scales the icon to 57×57 (older behaviour).

Faviscan checks apple-touch-icon declarations and also probes /apple-touch-icon.png at the site root, which Safari requests by convention.

Why does my browser tab show a blank or generic page icon?

A blank tab icon means the browser found no usable icon. Common causes:

No icons declared — the <head> has no <link rel="icon"> at all.
Root /favicon.ico is missing — even with no declaration, most browsers request /favicon.ico by default. If that returns a 404, the tab stays blank.
The declared icon is the wrong format — e.g. a PNG declared without a type attribute on an older browser that only supports ICO.
The icon file is corrupt or empty — the server returns 200 OK but the bytes are not a valid image.

Faviscan’s report includes a “Browser tab” verdict card that summarises exactly what your browser would end up using — and what’s missing.

What image formats does Faviscan support for analysis?

Faviscan reads the actual bytes of each icon and can identify real pixel dimensions for: ICO, PNG, JPEG, GIF (static), WebP, SVG, and BMP. For SVG, it reports the viewBox dimensions rather than pixel raster size (SVG is resolution-independent). The report flags any format that doesn’t match what the declaration claims (e.g. a PNG file masquerading as ICO).

What does the report mean by "per-consumer verdict"?

Each client (browser, Google search, iOS home-screen) uses a different icon selection algorithm. A page may have a working icon for one consumer but not another. The report’s verdict cards summarise:

Browser tab — what the browser displays (or a blank if nothing is usable)
Google search results — what Google would use in its SERP listing
iOS home-screen bookmark — what appears when someone adds the page to their home screen

Each card shows one of: OK, warning (works but suboptimal), or missing.

Known limitations

UNBUILT Scanning backend is not yet live. The App page is a front-end demo. When you press "Scan", the results you see are simulated. A real scanning backend (Cloudflare Workers) is planned but has not been deployed. You can inspect the expected report format from the demo data.
UNBUILT No monitoring or scheduled re-checks. Faviscan is a single-scan diagnostic tool. It does not re-check URLs over time, send alerts on icon changes, or offer a dashboard. Each scan is independent.
MOCK Pricing is a demonstration. The Pricing page and checkout form are illustrative. No payment processing, account creation, or plan enforcement exists. All scans are effectively free while the service is in market-test mode.
UNBUILT No API available. There is no public API to submit scans programmatically. Only the web form on the App page is supported.
MOCK Rate limits are not enforced. There is no rate-limiting system in place. Excessive usage may degrade performance for others, but no hard cap is currently applied.
MOCK No legal entity. The service operates without a registered company or governing jurisdiction. Terms and privacy policy are interim statements. See the privacy policy and terms of service for details.

Contact us

We’re working on a direct support channel

Support by email is not yet available. The operator is setting up a mailbox and will update this page when it’s ready. Until then:

Scan a URL

No email address exists on this domain. Any address you find elsewhere on the internet is not affiliated with Faviscan. Once a support mailbox is established, this section will be updated. To report a serious issue, refer to the privacy policy or terms of service.