Where does Google get a site's favicon?
From one place: a link tag in the head of your homepage. Google doesn't read the icon from the page that's ranking, so a blog post or a product page can't carry its own. The site name beside it follows the same homepage rule, but it comes from markup rather than a file, and that's the half where getting the WebSite structured data right decides what Google prints.
Google's favicon guidelines accept icon, apple-touch-icon and apple-touch-icon-precomposed as rel values, plus the older shortcut icon. On WordPress the link comes from the Site Icon setting, in Settings, General since version 6.5. WordPress asks for a square image at least 512 pixels wide, which clears Google's size rules easily.
Here's what Google asks for, and what I look at on a WordPress site for each rule.
| Google's rule | What it means | What I check |
|---|---|---|
| A link tag on the homepage | The icon is declared in the head of the root URL | The homepage source, not the dashboard, for every icon link that's printed |
| Square, at least 8x8 pixels | A 1:1 image, and Google recommends larger than 48x48 | The file's real dimensions, since a wide logo fails the ratio |
| A supported format | BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM or TIFF | The type of file the link points to, and that it actually opens |
| Crawlable | Googlebot-Image can fetch the file and Googlebot can crawl the homepage | robots.txt, security plugins and CDN rules for anything that blocks either |
| A stable URL | The icon's address doesn't change often | Whether a theme or an optimisation plugin keeps renaming the file |
| One per hostname | example.com and news.example.com each get one, example.com/news doesn't | Which hostname Google treats as the homepage |
Not on WordPress? On Shopify the icon goes in the theme editor under Theme settings, Logo or Favicon, and Shopify's help says an oversized upload is reduced to 32x32 pixels, under the 48x48 Google recommends beating. On Squarespace it's the Favicon panel, which recommends PNG, won't take an .ico file and caps it at 100 KB. Its help still says Google wants a multiple of 48 pixels, but Google's current rule is a square of at least 8x8, so the 100 to 300 pixel square Squarespace suggests is fine.
Why is the right favicon not showing in Google Search?
Google shows what it saw on its last crawl of the homepage, not what's in your media library today. When the favicon isn't updating, or a default icon sits where yours should be, it's one of these, and I check them in this order.
- i.
Google hasn't recrawled the homepage yet
Google says crawling can take anywhere from several days to several weeks. If the new icon link is live and correct, waiting is the fix, and requesting indexing of the homepage in the URL Inspection tool is the nudge Google's documentation points to.
- ii.
The head declares two icons
WordPress prints the Site Icon, but a theme, a page builder or an old header snippet can print its own icon link as well. The page then offers two icons that disagree.
- iii.
www and non-www both answer
Google keeps one favicon per hostname, so www.example.com and example.com are two sites to it. If both load with a 200 instead of one redirecting to the other, the version you don't use can still carry an old head. One permanent redirect to the version you keep closes that door.
- iv.
The file or the homepage is blocked
A robots.txt rule on the uploads folder, a security plugin that challenges bots, or a CDN firewall can stop Googlebot-Image fetching the file. Google's rule is plain: neither the icon nor the homepage can be blocked from crawling.
- v.
The icon's URL keeps changing
Google asks for a stable favicon URL. A plugin that renames files, or a fresh upload every time someone tweaks the logo, hands Google a moving target.
- vi.
The image breaks a rule
A logo that isn't square, a file under 8x8 pixels or an unsupported format won't be used. Google also shows a default icon in place of any image it deems inappropriate, such as pornography or hate symbols.
The two-icon problem is also a launch check after any platform move, including the SEO side of moving a Wix site to WordPress, because a new theme and its plugins can each print icon links of their own.
Your browser keeps its own copy of the icon, so the tab you're looking at isn't proof of anything. Check the homepage source, or the live test in the URL Inspection tool, before you decide a fix didn't work.
Where does the site name come from?
Mostly from structured data, if you give Google some. Google's site name documentation says the name is picked automatically from the homepage and references across the web, and WebSite markup, with a name and optional alternateName values, matters most for stating a preference. The title, headings and og:site_name are read too. The markup sits on the root of the domain or subdomain, with the canonical homepage as its url.
WordPress has a Site Title field in Settings, General, and SEO plugins that print a WebSite node take the name from it or from their own setting. So I trust neither screen and read the name in the JSON-LD the homepage sends.
| Source | Where it usually lives in WordPress | What I check |
|---|---|---|
| WebSite structured data, name | The SEO plugin's schema output | The brand, spelled the way you want it shown |
| WebSite alternateName | An SEO plugin setting, if it offers one | Shorter forms or an acronym, most preferred first |
| The homepage title element | The SEO plugin's homepage title | The brand appears and matches the markup |
| Headings and page text | The homepage content and header | The H1 and the logo's alt text don't use a different name |
| og:site_name | The SEO plugin's social settings | It says the same thing as the markup |
Consistency does most of the work here. Google's guidelines ask for a unique, concise name that's used the same way across the homepage. If the markup says one thing, the title says another and the logo's alt text says a third, Google's system has to pick, and it mightn't pick yours.
Rather have me do this? One person, whole job.
Book a call on UpworkWhy does Google show a different site name than the one I set?
Because an automated system chooses it, and the markup is a strong hint rather than an order. These are the causes I look for, starting with the one Google's troubleshooting puts first.
The markup isn't really there. The plugin setting is filled in, but a stale cache, a switched-off schema module or a syntax error means the homepage doesn't send valid WebSite data. Google's first troubleshooting check is that the name in the WebSite markup has no errors and that the homepage's other sources agree with it.
The name is generic. Google steers away from generic names unless they're an established brand. A name made only of service words has a harder time than a distinctive one, and Google suggests offering the lowercase domain in alternateName as a fallback.
Duplicate homepages disagree. Google asks for the same structured data on every duplicate of the homepage, HTTP and HTTPS, www and non-www, not just on the canonical one. A version that doesn't redirect can keep an old name alive.
The site lives in a subdirectory. Google doesn't support site names for a section like example.com/shop. A subdomain can have its own, and if its homepage carries no markup, the domain's name can be used for it as a fallback.
How I fix a favicon not showing in Google Search, and the site name, step by step
Changing the favicon and the site name in Google Search both run through the homepage, so I do them in one pass. The first step is reading, not changing.
- Step 01
Read the homepage source as Google gets it
I open the raw HTML of the homepage on the exact hostname Google uses and list every icon link, the WebSite JSON-LD, the title, the H1 and og:site_name. The dashboard tells me what's set. The source tells me what's sent.
- Step 02
Settle one hostname
www or non-www, HTTPS only, with every other version sent there by one permanent redirect, so no forgotten copy holds an old icon or name.
- Step 03
Fix the icon file
A square PNG at least 512 pixels wide, uploaded once through the Site Icon setting. That meets WordPress's minimum, beats Google's 48x48 recommendation, and gives the icon a stable URL.
- Step 04
Leave one set of icon links
I remove the icon links a theme, a builder or a header snippet adds on top of the Site Icon, so the head declares one icon instead of two that disagree.
- Step 05
Check nothing blocks the file
I test the icon's URL and the homepage against robots.txt, then run the live test in URL Inspection, which catches a security plugin or CDN rule that treats bots differently.
- Step 06
Set the WebSite name and alternateName
The name is the brand as you want it shown. alternateName carries shorter forms in order of preference, with the lowercase domain last, which is the backup Google's documentation suggests. The url property is the canonical homepage.
- Step 07
Make the homepage agree with the markup
The title element, the H1, the logo's alt text and og:site_name all use the same name, so nothing argues with the markup.
- Step 08
Validate, purge, then request indexing
I run the homepage through the Schema Markup Validator, since Google says the Rich Results Test doesn't support site names, purge the page cache and the CDN, and request indexing of the homepage in URL Inspection.
Don't keep swapping the icon or the name while you wait. Each change gives Google something new to process, and I won't put a date on the recrawl either.
What should I check while Google catches up?
Not much, and that's the point. I check the homepage source once more after the purge, confirm the live test in URL Inspection shows the new head, and leave it alone. I judge the fix by what Google's crawl saw, not one search result on one day. If weeks pass and either one's still wrong, I go back to the causes above.
These checks sit inside a wider homepage review in a technical audit of a WordPress site, because the things that break an icon, like a blocked uploads folder or a second hostname answering 200, tend to break other things too.
If you'd rather one person read the homepage, cleaned up the icon links and the WebSite markup, and checked Google's crawl afterwards, that's work I do remotely. Here's how a job with me runs.
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