I have been asked by a few people how to create a favicon for your website.
Let's start off by defining what a favicon actually is.
A favicon is the picture or logo that sits on the left hand side of each tab that is opened in a browser. Every browser has a different interface and design, but they all show the favicon at the left of the page tab, if there is one.
Some WordPress themes have built in Favicon's that you can use, but the problem with that is your favicon will look just like thousands of other people's. The favicon is an important part of a websites branding, and should not be ignored.
If you look at the really popular websites they all have an original favicon. Facebook, Twitter, Google (their favicon is used for the image of this blog post), YouTube and Ebay all have their own favicon which is their brand and unique to them.
So now we can look at how to create a favicon for your website.
Convert your image to a .ico file
Choose your image file that you want to use as a favicon. If you have a logo for your business, then it is recommended that you use this for branding purposes.
Once you have chosen your image you need to convert it to a .ico file to be able use it as a favicon.
You can do a Google search for converting .ico files or creating favicon's , but the way I do it is by using a tool from http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-ico
This site makes it incredibly easy to upload an image and convert it to a .ico file at the push of a button. Don't worry about the dimensions of the image as it will resize itself when you upload it to your theme.
Upload your .ico file to your theme
Every theme has it different options and features, but all you really need to look for is the section that mentions the favicon and then upload it. There is nothing complicated to it. Some themes may not give you the option of using a favicon.
On Thesis (the theme that I use) you simply go to "Thesis" menu on the dashboard and then choose "Favicon uploader" and upload the .ico file.
It really is that simple to learn how to create a favicon for your website.
Image credit from Google.com how to create a favicon for your website
