The right header can give your website a professional look, attracting attention from your visitors and even increasing your conversions. The header can set the tone for your entire page, and can help visitors decide to linger or leave.
Obviously, you want to spend some time making your header look professional and convey exactly the message you want. After all, if a picture paints a thousand words, then your header can say a lot about you and your product or service.
With this in mind, here are 7 tips on how to make your header work for you instead of against you.
1. Use great graphics. Think of the biggest benefit your visitors get from your webpage, blog or product, and then find a way to convey that in a picture. For example – if you teach gardening, then a luscious, bold garden filled with vibrant flowers will work nicely. If you teach cooking, you’ll want a header that conveys the type of cooking you teach – Italian? Vegetarian? Keto?
But what if your main benefit isn’t so easy to convey? For example, you’re selling a product on how to get massive traffic through social media. One idea is to have a person telling another person, who tells another, who hands over cash to the website owner. Or perhaps it’s one of those diagrams where one person tells 5, who each tell 5, who each tell 5 (think MLM.) There are a number of possibilities – you’ve just got to find the right one for your website.
2. So you’ve got the perfect web graphic for your header in your, um, head, but you’re no graphic artist. Now what? Consider hiring a professional to create your graphic for you. View their portfolios to find someone who makes headers you like, and then hire that person. The money you spend to make your header can pay off very quickly, so don’t sweat the $50 to $200 it costs for a professional looking header.
3. Don’t forget the headline. Sure, you’ve got your website name and your graphic, but what about a slogan or headline? Your header is prime real estate so be smart and think of the perfect headline that tells exactly what your site, blog, product or service does. Make it compelling and curiosity or benefit driven, something that grabs prospect’s attention and persuades them to read further.
4. If possible, place your best keyword(s) in your header. Again, this is to grab the attention of your visitor and get them to read further on your page, rather than passing you by for the next website.
5. Align your header with your theme. If your website is blue and yellow, use those colors in your header. If your website uses a particular font, consider using the same or similar font in your header, and so forth. Your website should look seamless, not like a bunch of disjointed parts slapped together in Frankenstein’s basement.
6. Make your header credible. Don’t claim to be the world’s foremost leading authority on space travel unless you really are. Credibility is everything online.
7. Consider including a simple animation in your video. We’re not talking about those horrible neon flashing things here. But something subtle with a bit of movement will catch the eye and add interest.
Want some inspiration to get you started? Here are 55 Awesome Website Headers. Mind you, some of these are totally out-of-the-box different, and maybe more than you need…
http://www.topdesignmag.com/55-awesome-website-headers-for-your-inspiration/
Here’s another 30+ Cool and Creative Header Designs…
http://www.tutorialchip.com/inspiration/website-header-designs/
