Find your perfect homepage header

Stock photography from Westend61 offers customized solutions for successful brand communication—such as vertical storytelling, which we recently introduced as an important visual communication trend on our blog. Today we’re going to take a look at more “traditional” elements of digital branding and talk about homepage headers, the industry leader of digital entry points, so to speak.

The homepage header triggers your online communication. It should allow easy navigation through the website while at the same time should draw attention to the calls-to-action (CTAs) that prompt the user to take a certain action (i.e., ideally to become a paying customer). So a good header is both a roadmap for the user and the hook for your brand story.

Exploit the potential of your homepage!

A homepage is not just a digital business card; it has so much more potential. This is especially true for the header. It should be the perfect doorman, so to speak, welcoming visitors at the entrance and then guiding them to their destination in a deft, snappy, and friendly manner.

Then, keeping with this image, the visitor enters the lobby where many interesting, perhaps decisive, conversations take place. But of course, in this virtual building, there are also shortcuts, side entrances, or maybe even a staircase to the heliport on the roof… These are then the corridors in the side wings that regular guests already know.

Functionality and emotion

If you wish your homepage to be a place that people want to visit again and again, you need the friendly doorman who shows newcomers the way so that they feel at home here and are happy to come back. In short: Design the entrance to your homepage so that is both functional and emotionally appealing—so that it is memorable. Less is often more.

You should keep your header well organized and structured. Once navigation and CTAs are set and the core message is in place with appropriate font and size, you need a strong image. A good photo acts as an eye-catcher and draws interest to the text. The structure and navigation through the website should be functional, but the image should be emotional. A good header image determines a visitor’s first impression. If the visitor doesn’t like the doorman, then they won’t enter….

It’s common to anchor parts of the brand story, such as your mission statement, a focus topic, or a CTA, in the header image. So, there should always be enough free space in the image. The composition should allow for a clean graphic design without overlapping text and subject matter.

Customized solutions for your presentation

Brand message and motif must fit together to interest, appeal to, and then convince the customer. Image, core message, and text must be presented in a coherent design that fits the brand story.

To sum up:

• The ideal header image is anchored in a functional toolbox.
• There are free spaces for text and CTAs.
• The image tells the story of your brand.

Now it’s your turn. We have created a Pinboard with strong homepage headers here as a suggestion. Take a look around and get inspired! Of course, we know that it can be difficult to find the right eye-catcher for your own advertising presence—if you have a choice, then you’re spoiled for choice. But don’t worry: We at Westend61 can help you perfect your visual communication. We are there for you in word and deed. Our many photographers, our creative department, and our sales team work hand in hand and always have their fingers on the pulse. And the image research is free of charge.