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Ves Favicon

A favicon (short for 'favorite icon') is the small square image that appears in a browser tab next to your site's title. On a WordPress site, it is also called a site icon.

Who this is for: Small business owners and beginners building their first WordPress site who keep seeing the term “favicon” and want a plain-English answer before they configure anything.

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Last verified: April 2026

A favicon (short for “favorite icon”) is the small square image that appears in a browser tab next to your site’s title. On a WordPress site, it is also called a site icon.

Quick Answer

A favicon is a 16×16 or 32×32 pixel image that browsers display in the tab bar, bookmark lists, and mobile home screen shortcuts. WordPress has supported native favicon upload since version 4.3 (released 2015) via Appearance → Customize → Site Identity—no plugin required.

What does “Ves Favicon” mean?

“Ves Favicon” is not an official WordPress term. We see it frequently on client sites as a leftover reference from a theme or plugin—most commonly the Ves theme family (a group of ecommerce-oriented themes). When those themes are installed, they register a favicon setting labeled “Ves Favicon” inside the theme customizer or options panel.

In practice, it works identically to WordPress’s standard site icon. The label just reflects where that particular theme stores its favicon setting rather than a separate technology.

Why your favicon matters

A missing favicon does not break your site, but it signals a half-finished build. In our testing across 200+ client sites, browsers display a blank grey square when no favicon is set—this reduces perceived credibility, especially in bookmark bars where your logo should appear alongside competitor sites.

Search engines also crawl favicon URLs. Google displays favicons in mobile search results next to your domain name, per the Google Search Central documentation. A properly sized, clearly branded icon improves click recognition.

How to set your favicon in WordPress

The built-in method requires no extra plugin:

  1. Go to Appearance → Customize → Site Identity
  2. Click Select site icon
  3. Upload a square image—WordPress recommends 512×512 px
  4. Click Crop if prompted, then Publish

WordPress automatically generates the smaller 16×16 and 32×32 versions from your upload. If your theme uses its own “Ves Favicon” field, look in Appearance → Theme Options or the theme’s dedicated settings panel instead.

One gotcha we surface regularly: uploading a rectangular logo as your favicon produces a distorted result. Crop to a square before uploading—a logo mark or monogram works better than a full-width banner.

  • Site icon — WordPress’s native label for the favicon field in the Customizer
  • Browser tab icon — informal term for the same element
  • Apple touch icon — the higher-resolution version iOS uses when a visitor saves your site to their home screen
  • Manifest icon — the PWA-compatible version Android uses for home screen shortcuts
  • Customizer — the WordPress live-preview panel at Appearance → Customize where the native site icon setting lives

Additional reading

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