Website Branding - America (Favorite) Icon

Have you ever noticed how certain websites in your favorites bookmarks have nifty little pictures next to the Link Title instead of the boring old IE symbol? This little piece of branding is the result of a nifty option available to any website, the use of a Favorite Icon. I thought it would be beneficial to talk about how to create a favorite icon, and then as an added bonus to our loyal readers, how to use this as an analytic tool.

First, let's talk about the basic of a Favorite Icon. The Favorite Icon is a graphic file placed in your root directory that IE searches for whenever a visitor using IE enters your website. If you have a favorite icon installed, IE will use this icon in place of the IE icon normally associated with bookmarks. If you do not have a Favorite Icon, then IE will use its own icon. So this means that any website may use the Favorite Icon option and replace Microsoft Branding with the IE icon with an image that brands their own website.

Favorite Icon requires that the image in question be saved in [.ico] format. In other words, the image you use for your favorite icon must end in [.ico]. It also requires the icon be 16 x 16, 24 x 24, 32 x 32, or 48x48 pixels. This begs the question, how do I save a graphic in this format? Thankfully there are some free programs that will help you change any image into an icon format image. Furthermore, the program will actually save multiple copies of the icon in as many or as few sizes as you require and store them all in that one .ico format.

My choice of programs would be AnytoIcon by aha-soft. This program allows 30 trial uses of the program before needing to purchase the software. Unless you are a web developer working on more than 30 websites, you will probably only need to use the program a few times and maybe only one time if the first image you choose is suitable to your needs. This means you can incorporate Favorite Icon into your website today, right now, for FREE! Aha-soft's program allows you to simply drag your image into the program, choose your sizing or custom options, and the program instantly creates the Favorite Icon in its proper .ico format. Then simply upload the icon to your root directory, and you are done. Every visitor who bookmarks your page from this point forward will see your chosen icon next to your link in their bookmark list!

Now, I promised I would tell you how Favorite Icon as analytic tool, but perhaps some of you can see where I am going with this. Once your Favorite Icon is active, simply use your analytics program or web logs to examine how many times the favorite icon was download on a particular day or week. Remember, Favorite Icon is only accessed when a visitor chooses to bookmark your website, so this resultant number will indicate how many visitors bookmarked your website over any given time period.

Now take the number of times the Favorite Icon file was accessed and divide it by the total number of visitor to your website over the same time period. The resulting figure is the percentage of visitors who bookmark your website! Over time you can track this percentage to determine if your content/products are appealing to customers. As you make modifications to your site's content you can measure if Favorite Icon % is increasing or decreasing giving you a quick baseline figure to see if your changes are helping you to retain and recirculate visitors!

With about 5 minutes work you can brand your website with a custom image icon, and add another useful and easily calculated metric to your analysis that measures the appeal of your website for repeat visits. So why wait? Post your Favorite Icon image today and start branding with the big boys!