Add a <link> tag to the header of your home page, for example <link rel="icon" href="/path/to/favicon.ico">. Google supports the rel values icon, shortcut icon, apple-touch-icon and apple-touch-icon-precomposed. The file “doesn’t need to be hosted on your site”, so a CDN is fine.
Officially documented · Google Search Central
“Google Search only supports one favicon per site, where a site is defined by the hostname.” https://news.example.com can have its own favicon. https://example.com/news can’t, because Google treats it as a subdirectory-level home page.
Officially documented · Google Search Central
A section published in a subdirectory of another site always shows that site’s favicon.
The favicon must be square (1:1 aspect ratio) and at least 8x8px. Google recommends one larger than 48x48px. “Google Search supports the following favicon file formats: BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM, and TIFF.” The favicon URL must be stable.
Officially documented · Google Search Central
The favicon file must be crawlable by Googlebot-Image, and the home page by Googlebot. And: “A favicon isn’t guaranteed to appear in Google Search results, even if all guidelines are met.”
Officially documented · Google Search Central
On August 28, 2026, Google added the list of supported formats to the documentation: “Google Search’s supported file formats haven’t changed; this update explicitly lists them in the documentation.”
Officially documented · Google Search Central
SVG is not on the list. A site that only offers an SVG favicon should add one of the listed formats. Browsers can keep using the SVG.
This wiki links a 96×96 PNG alongside its SVG favicon. Its build fails if a page has no favicon in a supported format.