html - Favicon of format PNG doesn't appear on Google search result page

Question

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://www.website.com/template/img/website/favicon.png?ver=v2.1.31">

We changed our 32x32 png favicon to a 48x48 png favicon, because one of our websites reverted back to the default Wordpress favicon and after deploying the change we noticed that the favicon was reverted back to the Wordpress favicon still on the websites we deployed. So I was wondering if there was a fool-proof way of making sure that our favicon appears on the search result page.

One of the answers I got from Googling was that we should change favicon.png to favicon.ico, but the Google documentation tells us it's not necessary. What changes can we do to make it work without changing the file format?

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/appearance/favicon-in-search

Answer 1

First, keep in mind that Google can take days or weeks before reflecting your icon in its search results. So any change you make needs patience, unfortunately.

However, you can get insights from Google. Visit https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.website.com , just make sure to replace the domain parameter with your own site. There is no evidence that this is what Google is actually using to fill its results pages. But chances are that what this entry point returns is what you can expect in results pages a bit later.