I built a small React/TypeScript landing page for a client and host it on Vercel. Recently, I replaced the old favicon with the client's new logo, but Google Search still shows the previous icon after more than two weeks. I requested indexing twice in Google Search Console and added sitemaps, but nothing has changed. Is there anything else I can do to speed up the favicon update, or is this simply a matter of waiting?
4 Answers
Google's favicon in search results is independent of what appears on the live site. Google has to recrawl the homepage, process the new icon, and then update its search display. That can take days or several weeks, especially for a low-traffic site. Requesting indexing is about all you can do to encourage the process.
There are two separate things here. If the old icon is showing in the browser tab, that's usually browser or CDN caching. Try opening the site in a private window, doing a hard refresh, or clearing the favicon cache. Adding a version to the URL, such as `favicon.ico?v=2`, can also force browsers to request it again.
That makes sense, but the main issue is that Google Search is still showing the old icon beside the listing.
Before waiting, check that the favicon is linked correctly and meets Google's requirements for format, dimensions, and accessibility. Make sure the homepage references the new file, the file returns a successful response, and it isn't blocked by robots.txt. If all of that checks out, the delay is probably just Google's processing time.
Since the site is hosted on Vercel, a deployment or CDN cache is also worth checking, but rehosting usually won't make Google's result update immediately. Verify the new favicon URL directly and inspect the deployed HTML rather than only checking the local project. If the deployed page points to the correct file, your client will likely need to wait for Google's next crawl.
I've already requested indexing twice, so I guess this is mostly outside my control at this point.