Bing Favicon Not Showing or Updating – Easy Solutions (2024)

We have been experiencing an issue with our favicon* not updating in Bing search. This is a common issue and in some cases the icon doesn’t show at all.

* Favicon, short for “favorite icon,” is a small graphic that represents a website.

Below is a picture of both the old (blue) and new (red) icons.

The icon was updating in other search engines like Duckduckgo and Google but not Bing. So it seemed to be an issue unique to Bing.

In this post we cover steps to get the Favicon updated in Bing Search Results

The Basics

The first step is to ensure that the icon is updated in WordPress. In the editor go to Appearance – Customize (shown in the picture below).

The next step is to upload the images under the Site Identity option.

Make sure you publish the changes.

This is all you have to do in WordPress. In theory all the search engines should update the icon by your site name. However in our case it was still showing the older Blue Icon.

Troubleshooting

Let’s take some steps to solve the problem

1. Clear Browser Cache

Sometimes, the browser cache can cause issues with loading certain elements of a website, including favicons.

Steps to clear cache:

  • Google Chrome: Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data. Select “Cached images and files” and clear data.
  • Mozilla Firefox: Go to Options > Privacy & Security > Cookies and Site Data > Clear Data. Check “Cached Web Content” and clear.
  • Microsoft Edge: Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Clear browsing data. Choose “Cached images and files” and clear.

2. Refresh the Page

Simply refreshing the page can sometimes resolve issues with favicons not displaying.

Shortcut: Press Ctrl + F5 (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + R (Mac) to force a refresh.

3. Check Browser Extensions

Browser extensions can sometimes interfere with the display of website elements.

Steps to disable extensions:

  • Google Chrome: Go to More tools > Extensions. Disable all extensions and check if the favicon appears.
  • Mozilla Firefox: Go to Add-ons > Extensions. Disable extensions and check.
  • Microsoft Edge: Go to Extensions > Disable extensions and check.

4. Verify Website Settings

Ensure that the website settings are not blocking favicons.

Steps:

  • Check any custom content or ad-blocking settings that might prevent favicons from displaying.
  • Make sure your site is not added to any blocked list.

5. Update Browser

An outdated browser might have issues displaying certain elements.

Steps:

  • Google Chrome: Go to Help > About Google Chrome to check for updates.
  • Mozilla Firefox: Go to Help > About Firefox to check for updates.
  • Microsoft Edge: Go to Settings > About Microsoft Edge to check for updates.

6. Check Network Settings

Network issues can also affect how websites load.

Steps:

  • Restart your router or modem.
  • Try accessing the site from a different network.

7. Check for Site-Specific Issues

The issue might be specific to the Bing website itself.

Steps:

  • Visit the Bing favicon URL directly: https://www.bing.com/favicon.ico. If the Bing favicon doesn’t load, it might be an issue with Bing’s servers.
  • Check forums or Bing support for any ongoing issues.

8. Clear DNS Cache

Clearing the DNS cache can help resolve issues with site loading.

Steps:

  • Windows: Open Command Prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns, then press Enter.
  • Mac: Open Terminal and type sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder, then press Enter.

If after trying all of these steps the icon still has not updated try the following.

Contact Bing Support

In our case we had to do this as nothing else seemed to be working. For this you will have to have a Bing Webmaster acccount.

Once you have logged into your account and verified your site, you can contact support as shown in the picture above. It will take you to a form that you can fill out.

The Bing team is very responsive. We got this response back via email:

Thank you for contacting Bing Webmaster Support Team. 

This email is confirmation that we have received your request and created the following UCM Ticket UCM00000——-. Your ticket is being assigned to a Global Support Webmaster Engineer who will be contacting you about the next steps to resolve your issue.

A couple of days later – another follow up email:

Hi, Thank you for contacting Bing Webmaster support.

I have reviewed your query and would like to inform you that Favicon issue is escalated to our engineering team and will update you once got the response from team. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do.

A day later, the issue was resolved!

✅ The new icon now appears in Bing Search Results 🥳