Why do I See /favicon.ico in Clicks Stream?


Why do I See /favicon.ico in Clicks Stream?

Favicon is a website or webpage icon. A browser displays it in a tab next to a page name. Also, it's leveraged as an image in the bookmarks and other interface elements.


What is Favicon?

Traditionally, images of 16 × 16 pixels in an ICO format were placed in the root directory of the site, under the name favicon.ico. Many modern browsers do not require explicit reference to favicon.ico in the page code. Instead, when the code is absent, the browser tries to download favicon.ico from the root of the site.

To explicitly indicate the location of favicon.ico, the following line must be entered in the code of your website page, inside the head section:

link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/someimage.png"/>

Why does Short.io display favicon.ico?

Short.io displays every URL requested on your domain, even if a link doesn't exist - you'll see 404 Error in the report. Browsers send requests when you visit a page; the first is done to fetch an icon of a webpage (favicon); the second is done to load a requested web page.

The first request results in the URL with /favicon.ico, which you see in statistics.


How to remove

If you don't want "../favicon.ico" to be displayed in your clicks stream, you can filter it out. Navigate to Clicks Stream > Filters > Choose "Is not" for the path filter > Input /favicon.ico > Select the result from the drop-down list > Apply.


Short.io Clicks Stream


What did you learn?

  • Why is Clicks Stream showing favicon.ico?
  • I've noticed favicon.ico in statistics
  • What does favicon.ico mean?

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