Google Updates Favicon Docs: Googlebot Must Be Able to Follow Homepage Redirects to Favicon Pages
TLDR
Google's favicon documentation now states that Googlebot must be able to follow redirects from the homepage to the page where the favicon is specified, and those URLs must not be blocked by robots.txt or other means.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Google Search has updated its favicon documentation to specify that Googlebot must be able to follow redirects from the homepage to the page where the favicon is specified. The document also explicitly states that these URLs must not be blocked by robots.txt or other means, as first reported by SERoundtable.
How we got here
- Aug 31Google Redirects Hide URLs from Search Results, Complicating Ranking Analysis
Google is obscuring listing URLs via redirects to restrict bot access, making it harder for SEOs to analyze and track search rankings.
- Aug 28Google Updates Search Docs With List of Supported Favicon Formats
Google's Search documentation now explicitly lists seven favicon file formats it supports (BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM, TIFF).
- Aug 24Google Fixed Favicon Bug and Search Console Crawl Stats Data Gap
Google fixed a favicon display bug affecting search result snippets and a missing-data gap in Search Console crawl stats over the weekend of August 22–23, 2026.
- Jul 17Google Refreshes StoreBot Help Doc With Clearer Guidance on Crawler Access and Reprocessing Times
Google updated its StoreBot crawler troubleshooting documentation with clarifications on accessibility, robots.txt, IP blocking, and reprocessing timelines.