I have been trying out a series of online RSS feed readers for the past week and I finally tried out the new Bloglines Beta reader thanks to Kyle. I am glad I found this beta because it features a 3 pane-view which I am used to with my current readers. While browsing the new beta I realized that some of my feeds that do have favicons were not showing up.
The problem:
This problem is occurring with other rss readers and a few other websites that are not familiar with placing favicons in different directories. Now days you can tell browsers where you find your favicon with the following header tag:
<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/ico" href="/favicon.ico" />
The issue:
This only tells the browser where your favicon is when your visitor is viewing your website through a web browser or other browsing device. RSS feeds and the other uses for favicons do not require your website to load and they may not realize you have placed your favicon in a different directory. They continue to search for your favicon in the default location.
The quick fix:
If you already have your favicon uploaded and pointed to another location, don’t worry about changing anything. You simply need to upload your favicon to the public root of your website which is typically the following location:
/home/username/public_html
You will now have the same exact image uploaded in 2 different locations, but it will be worth it if your favicon now shows up every time it is called for. You could of course relocate your favicon to the root directory and update your header information also, but this is much quicker!
Comprehensive Guide to Favicons Series
- 7 Reasons Favicons Increase Your Website Traffic
- How to Create Your Own Favicon
- 20 Free Favicon Icon Sets
- Quick Favicon Tip to Insure its Visibility
- Adding a Favicon on Blogger
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[...] of BlueJar.com has another helpful Favicon Tips post. I know who I am going to talk to when the issue of Favicons comes [...]
Nice tip!
When I changed favicons about 6 months ago, I actually had the old one in the root directory still, which really screwed things up. It took me several months to finally figure out why I couldn’t view the new favicon and fix it.
I’m just adding this as a reminder to change all your favicons if your logo changes (or changes colors in my case).
Favicons can give you some big headaches sometimes thats for sure, even though they are so tiny! Good tip too, if you do change your website logo or design and your favicon no longer matches: time for a favicon makeover!
Man, I really need to find something to brand my site with so I CAN make a favicon of something *rolling eyes*. And I don’t know if I’ve said it Sarah, but you have such a good looking site. Especially the header and top content with it. *drool*
[...] offers useful tips on ensuring your favicon is visible. This is particularly useful when your favicon isn’t viewable in some RSS feed [...]
You never seemed to note that a favicon has to be named favicon.ico to be found as one. I usually save the icon that I link to in my html file as .PNG.
Hi Jake, welcome to BlueJar.com and thanks for commenting. I have a How to Create a Your Own Favicon article that goes over the naming aspects of your favicon. Hope that helps!
Sarah,
Your favicon looks great. I really like it.
Thanks Steven. I wasn’t sure if I should keep it when I got a “jar” in my logo. But I couldn’t let go of the cute little science flask.
wow , thx , great post