How to Force Google to Update Your Favicon in Search Results

The Problem

You updated your site’s favicon, deployed it, and confirmed it works in your browser tab. But when you search for your site on Google, the old favicon still shows up next to your results. Days pass, sometimes weeks, and nothing changes.

Google caches favicons aggressively. Even after your new favicon is live and your site has been recrawled, Google’s search results can keep displaying the old icon for a long time. There is no official way to force a refresh through Google Search Console or any other Google tool.

Why Google Shows the Old Favicon

Google fetches favicons through its own internal service. When you visit a URL like:

https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=example.com&sz=64

Google returns a cached version of that site’s favicon at the requested size. This is the same service that powers the favicon display in search results. The cache is persistent and does not automatically update when you change your favicon.

The problem is that Google only stores and serves certain sizes. The default request at sz=64 or sz=32 will keep returning the cached version indefinitely because Google already has that size stored.

The Fix

The trick is to request your favicon at sizes that Google has not cached yet. When Google does not have a cached version for a specific size, it is forced to fetch the favicon fresh from your site.

Step 1: Request your favicon at a large, uncommon size:

https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=yoursite.com&sz=512

Step 2: Then request an even larger size:

https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=yoursite.com&sz=1024

Open both URLs in your browser. Google will fetch your current favicon to generate these sizes because it does not have them cached. This forces Google’s favicon service to pull the latest version from your site.

After making these requests, the updated favicon should start appearing in search results. In my experience, the change showed up within hours rather than the usual days or weeks of waiting.

Why This Works

Google’s favicon cache is keyed by domain and size. When you request a size that has never been generated before (like 512px or 1024px), Google cannot serve a cached response. It has to go back to the source, download your current favicon, and generate the requested size. This process appears to update Google’s internal favicon cache across all sizes, including the smaller ones used in search results.

Think of it as a cache-busting technique. You are not clearing the cache directly. You are making a request that the cache cannot fulfill, which triggers a fresh fetch that updates everything.

Quick Checklist

Before trying this technique, make sure the basics are in place:

• Your new favicon is deployed and accessible at the expected path (usually /favicon.ico or referenced in your HTML <link> tags)
• Your favicon works in browser tabs when visiting your site directly
• Your site is accessible to Googlebot (not blocked by robots.txt or authentication)
• You have both ICO and PNG versions available (Google prefers PNG)

Summary

If Google is stuck showing your old favicon in search results:

1. Visit https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=yoursite.com&sz=512
2. Visit https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=yoursite.com&sz=1024
3. Wait a few hours

That is it. No Search Console requests, no waiting weeks, no complex workarounds. Just two URL visits that force Google’s favicon service to refresh its cache.