Animated Favicon... Good or Bad Idea?

[Branden_S]

I'm about to create a favicon for my company and noticed an animated favicon option.  I can't remember a major website using an animated favicon, but I use Chrome, which doesn't support them.

Are animated favicons visible on many browsers?  Do they have any impact on SEO?  Does anybody use animated favicons?  Is it worth my time to create one?

[capitalauto]

Just an uninformed opinion.  I'd suggest spending that time on something a bit more relevant unless your brand or business has "THE PERFECT" thing that would make such an amazing, stand out animated .gif, otherwise it may just be an unnecessary slice of cheese.

[mblsolutions]

Hi Branden

From what I understand favicons of any kind have no SEO value to them.

Favicons have a benefit from a customer point of view if they save your website to favourites/bookmarks they will then be able to identify your website a little easier through the favicon as they will recognise the branding.

One question that I don't know the answer to is: will the animated favicon slow down page loading time? If it does I would avoid them as this could have a negative effect in terms of customers interaction with your website.

To be honest I'm not sure that it is worth creating an animated version if it is going to take you away from other brand building strategies. Although it could be fun creating them.

Hope this helps.