As there are so many things to consider in a website, you have to form a reliable team in which you assign responsibilities to every one of them. However, the header of a website must be part of the equation. It is considered to be the crown on the website maker’s head. Its design is a combination of visuals and functions that highlight authority.
Moreover, it ensures that your website stands out from the rest of your competitors.
What is a Web Header?
Before we go into the features and strategies, we must first understand what website headers are.
As you can see by the name, the header of a website is found in the top section of your professional website. On many website builders, you will find designers that make different headers for different web pages. For example, they will make a huge header for the homepage and a comparatively smaller version for the rest of the pages.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
A header provides a variety of purposes for website visitors. Firstly, it can be defined as the section where you can find a company's logo (sometimes the names are mentioned as well). Secondly, it has a collection of menus that the users can use to navigate the website. Lastly, it gives a direction to the website visitors by telling what the web pages are about and how they can bring benefits to them. This section is strongly relevant to all the other web pages of a website. On Strikingly, you will find numerous website templates that offer unique headers that become a source of attraction to potential visitors.
Important Features of a Web Header
1. Logo
As we explained to you earlier, if you want to create the best website header for your platform, you must include the website logo as part of that section. Many website makers tend to include the name alongside their website logo. It has only one objective: to play a part in the brand identity. Apart from the brand objectives, logos also ensure that your brand gets recognized by the rest of your competitors. They are usually found in the upper left corner of the website.
Image taken from Strikingly
On Strikingly, you will find many established websites with suitable logos as part of their niche. The website makers used quality software to create magnificent website logos and include them in their websites. Many of them create different logo versions as part of their background. For example, if they want to change their background color to the darker version, they have the dark version of their website logo available to be included.
2. Navigation
Regardless of your niche, a healthy navigation system is an extremely important part of your site header. It is defined as the menu that provides you links to jump from one website page to another. This menu enables the visitors to navigate your site completely. Even though it contains all the website elements, make sure that you don’t include unnecessary ones. Moreover, the name of your elements shouldn’t be lengthy, which confuses the website visitors.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
If you have created a website on Strikingly, we can ensure that our navigation menu is easy to use. You can easily access the Style editor to personalize the selected website template and select the best navigation bar format for your website header on Strikingly. There are numerous things for you to consider in your navigation bar, such as layout, design, color, and font size. As most website visitors tend to read from left to right, it is better that you include your navigation on the left side of your website.
3. Search
When you create a website, it will be difficult to imagine a header image without including a search bar. If you have a Pro subscription plan, you can enable search on your Strikingly website. The search bar is usually beneficial if your website contains a lot of content. People usually use a magnifying glass as a symbol of the search bar. Unlike the navigation bar, the search bar identifies the website content according to your keywords. It is usually found in the upper-right section of your website header. It adds to your brand's value and the services you provide.
4. Call To Action
To build a quality website header, a call to action button should be part of your plans. It is defined as the button that attracts the user’s attention. It ensures the visitors about what they should do from the beginning. By taking the right action, they will play a part in boosting your conversion rate. The CTA button should include text that doesn’t misguide or confuse the visitors. For example, if you include a text with confusing words, the visitors will run away from your website.
Before building a quality CTA button, ensure that you rely on Strikingly to build the best business website. After creating your business website, make sure that you include a CTA button that suits your niche and gives a proper guideline to your visitors.
Best Strategies to Build a Web Header
1. Simplify the Structure
If we look at many of the established websites on Strikingly, you will realize that their website headers are very simple and structured. Some of them have navigation bars on the top of their home page, whereas others have them on the left side of the website. Similarly, you can find the search bar on the right side of the website. You will also be able to see the logo on the upper-left section of the website. Therefore, the talking point is that if your web pages are structured, it only makes life easy for your website visitors and you.
One of the most important things about the web page structure is the button called to action (CTA). It gives a guideline to the customers about what they should do after landing on your page. You have to ensure that your CTA button is attractive. For example, you cannot expect to attract your customers by writing informal words, such as “Download”, “Check it out”, “Click on the link”, etc.
2. Include Drop-Down Menu
A drop-down menu is one of the most important aspects of the website header design. Apart from just adding links to your navigation bar, you can include a drop-down menu. “Why did the Chicken” on Strikingly is one ideal example of a drop-down menu. The element containing the drop-down menu already has the arrow alongside it. Therefore, when the visitor puts his/her scroller on that element, it will open up with further links to the website. Drop-down menus are important to categorize the website content.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
Many of the Pro users on Strikingly tend to create high-profile websites with a lot of content. We have good news to bring to them as they can include a drop-down menu in their navigation system to organize and customize their website content. Once you include the drop-down menu, you will see that whenever your visitors put their scroller on one of your elements in the navigation bar, it will expand out with the links of the other website pages.
3. Include Attractive Background Image
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
Usually, a website maker tends to include the header image to improve the visuals of his//her website. However, it can also be an ideal strategy if you simplify your website header. Making your header smaller and less noticeable will make way for an ideal background image. By having this approach, you will ensure that your visuals exceed function. If you look at the Strikingly website above, it has an attractive background image. Even though it has no navigation links alongside it, the background image makes it a source of attraction for the visitors.
Conclusion
A quality website header can ensure that your website stands out from the rest of your competitors. It has a huge role in your website authority, relevance, and brand identity. It is also important to create a quality header from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective. A quality header will ensure that your website climbs in the search engine rankings.
If you apply the practices and strategies provided in this article, we do not doubt that your header will be prolific and unique. It will play a huge part in improving your website’s conversion rate. If you want to look at the best headers of a website, make sure that you head over to Strikingly right away. Create your Strikingly account today and use our tools to build an outstanding web header.
