Store Favicon Not Showing in Google Search results

Technical Q&A
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Topic summary

Problem: Shopify store favicon displays correctly in browser tabs and Google shortcuts, but Google Search results show the default globe icon instead.

Attempts made:

  • Cleared browser cache and used different browsers. No change.
  • Original theme.liquid used a single favicon link (32x32 PNG).
  • Updated to a fuller icon set (apple-touch-icon, 32x32, 16x16, manifest, mask-icon, theme-color, etc.). Waited ~1 month and requested recrawl via Google Search Console. Still no favicon in search.
  • Per Shopify support, added <link rel=“shortcut icon” …> to theme.liquid alongside existing icons.

Site state and hypothesis:

  • The store is “locked” (password-protected). The poster suspects this may block Google from accessing the favicon in theme.liquid.
  • password.liquid already had a basic favicon link; they plan to replace it with the expanded icon block used in theme.liquid.

Status: Unresolved. Key open questions:

  • Whether password protection prevents Google from fetching the favicon for search results.
  • Whether mirroring the full favicon setup in password.liquid will enable Google to pick it up once crawled.
Summarized with AI on December 19. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hello everyone,

I’m having some trouble setting up my Shopify store’s Favicon to show in the Google search index; it’s showing correctly in the tab, as well as the the shortcut tabs in the google homepage. But when I look it up in Google search, it’s the default globe logo.

I’ve tried:

  • Clearing my browser’s cache & history

  • Using a completely different browser

This was the original setting on my theme for the favicon:

    {%- if settings.favicon != blank -%}
      <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="{{ settings.favicon | image_url: width: 32, height: 32 }}">
    {%- endif -%}

Waited a few weeks and while it showed in the chrome tab, it still wasn’t showing Google search (cleared cache and history this attempt and all others afterward). I looked through some of the existing community threads and one recommended using the below (basically setting a favicon based on each platform / size):

    {%- if settings.favicon != blank -%}
      <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="xxlinkxx">
      <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="cdnlinkxx">
      <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="cdnlinkxx">
      <link rel="manifest" href="cdnlinkxx">
      <link rel="mask-icon" href="cdnlinkxx" color="#5a0f75">
      <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#603cba">
      <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff">
    {%- endif -%}

I know the change took effect because the tab’s favicon altered slightly with the change in size. I’ve since waited another month, went to the Google Console and requested the site to be crawled. Still nothing.

Today I spoke to Shopify support and they provided an article that suggested adding this line:

      <link rel="shortcut icon" href="{{ settings.favicon | image_url: '32x32' }}" type="image/png">

So I’ve added that line to the current block, it looks like this now:

    {%- if settings.favicon != blank -%}
      <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="xxlinkxx">
      <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="cdnlinkxx">
      <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="cdnlinkxx">
      <link rel="manifest" href="cdnlinkxx">
      <link rel="mask-icon" href="cdnlinkxx" color="#5a0f75">
      <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#603cba">
      <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff">
      <link rel="shortcut icon" href="{{ settings.favicon | image_url: '32x32' }}" type="image/png">
    {%- endif -%}

Anything I may be missing here? It’s worth noting the site is “locked” so I’m not sure if that may be preventing Google’s crawler from accessing the the favicon in the theme.liquid file, would I need to set this on the password page code file as well?

EDIT I checked and this line exists in the password.liquid code already:

    {%- if settings.favicon != blank -%}
      <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="{{ settings.favicon | image_url: width: 32, height: 32 }}">
    {%- endif -%}

I’ll be replacing it with what I have in the theme.liquid page, but it still doesn’t make sense to me as the chrome tab was able to pick this up still?