Site Logo, Site Icon, and Browser Tab Icon
If you uploaded your logo but the browser tab still shows a different icon, that does not mean the logo upload failed. The Site Logo, the Site Icon, and social sharing images are separate settings that do not automatically replace one another.
What each setting does
Three different images work together on a WordPress site, and each one is controlled from its own place.
- Site Logo: the image shown in your website header.
- Site Icon: the small icon shown in the browser tab, bookmarks, and some mobile shortcuts.
- Social sharing image: the image used when a page is shared through a social or SEO plugin.
Setting the header logo
The header logo lives inside your theme’s Header template part and is controlled by the Site Logo block.
- Go to Appearance → Editor and open the Header template part.
- Select the Site Logo block and upload or replace the image.
For a deeper look at the block’s options, see the Site Logo block guide on WordPress.org.
Setting the browser tab icon
You can either reuse the header logo as the browser tab icon or pick a separate image.
To reuse the header logo, select the Site Logo block and enable Use as site icon in the block settings. This option is covered in the Site Logo block guide.
To use a different image, set a separate Site Icon. In WordPress 6.5 and newer, go to Settings → General. On older versions, the setting lives under Appearance → Customize → Site Identity. The Create a Favicon guide covers both paths.
A square image works best. Keep it simple and readable at very small sizes.
Choosing the right image size
Each image has its own sizing rules. Pick the right source file for each role.
- Header logo: use a clean, high-resolution PNG or SVG.
- Site icon: use a square source image that still reads clearly at small sizes. WordPress recommends at least 512 × 512 px in the Create a Favicon guide.
- Social image: follow the requirements of your SEO or social sharing plugin.
Fixing a stale browser tab icon
If the browser tab still shows the old icon after you updated it, the image itself is usually fine and the issue is caching or an overriding plugin.
- Clear your browser cache.
- Clear any site or CDN cache.
- Test in a private window.
- Check whether an SEO or favicon plugin is overriding the default output.
If the image shared on Facebook or another network is wrong, that is a separate SEO or social metadata issue, not a logo problem.