Is there any SE benefit to using a favicon.ico file?

[RyanM]

A co-worker and I were debating the usefulness of this tag in HTML: <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="/images/favicon.ico">I knew what it did, but neither of us had used them before. In case some of you didn't know... on this site, http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/favicon.ico is the favicon and it shows up next to the URL (or other locations based on your browser).

Is there any benefit to SEO by using this tag in HTML pages?

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

This is possibly my shortest answer ever: NO :)

[mcanerin]

Mikkel is right - there is no direct SE benifit to the use of the favicon tag.

However, there is a minor positive affect in two areas if you have one - first, it helps shortcuts to your site saved to a user's computer stand out better (good marketing) and if you have one you no longer get errors in your logs, and having clean, easy to use logs is a good thing.

Both of these are very minor and neither affect SE's. But I recommend spending 10 minutes making one and putting it in, assuming you basic site design is already done (ie: it should be on your "to do" list, but at the bottom).

Ian

[Jill Whalen]

No direct search engine benefit, but a benefit to those who use Firefox to view your site as the icon shows up in the tab for your pages and it makes it easier to know which tab is which site.

[RyanM]

Thanks for the replies. I'll make sure we get one on our site soon. I like seeing the icon in tabbed browsing on Firefox and in bookmarks as well.

[randfish]

I'd say it's an indirect benefit - favicon = logo = branding = memorable = visitors remember you = they come back = links

It's about as indirect as good content when you think about it - something we preach day in and day out. I love good favicons, and I'm probably not alone.

[cryptblade]

Aren't there some sites or other resources that show you how to create your own favicon?

I love these because they really are soooo useful & memorable. Firefox tabs show the favicons, bookmarks show the favicons...I thought IE also showed favicons... at least in the past? For me it's cool to see and I can quickly tell which site I'm clicking on.

Does anyone know if these favicons are also the ones that show up on feed readers?

[ligcar]

http://www.plinko.net/404/custom.asp

[Chris_D]

The biggest advantage of a favicon is that it takes some of the 'noise' out of your 404 analysis. By having a favicon - you don't get a whole pile of 404 errors which other wise occur. A favicon can also help in ascertaining the entry page for a firefox session.

Same as a robots.txt exclusion file - by actually having a robots.txt - even if it doesn't actually exclude any spiders - you minimise the 404's generated by failed requests if you don't have one.

[I, Brian]

I'd say it's an indirect benefit - favicon = logo = branding = memorable = visitors remember you = they come back = links

It's about as indirect as good content when you think about it - something we preach day in and day out. I love good favicons, and I'm probably not alone.
Absolutely - SEO that focuses entirely on robots and not on humans is, imo, completely missing the point of SEO in the first place as a marketing device.