Our web design services in Swansea talk about hero headers
Your company’s USP or CTA needs to be one of the first things a visitor sees when they come to your site. Something like a signup form or a button to start shopping would be two great examples. This can be included in a hero image in addition to a high-resolution graphic. As an example: If you look at our site’s homepage you can see our lead generation, SEO and web design services in Swansea. Video or animated GIFs are replacing still photos as the preferred hero image in modern web design.
We briefly mentioned it in the last paragraph but to confirm: The large banner image that typically appears at the very top of a website is known as a “hero header” in the world of web design. As it is located at the top of the page and often fills the entire screen. The “hero header” is the user’s first impression of your business and its products or services.
What's the point of a hero header?
For instant credibility and trust in your brand, a hero header can be a great way to add a personal touch. This will typically be in the form of a high-quality photo or video. As people are mostly visual, having some high-quality, fullscreen imagery at the top of your page can help make a good first impression. A hero header may showcase your company’s main offer or bring attention to a particular CTA. It can also emphasise an important portion of the page.
Two things to think about when using hero headers:
There are a few considerations to make before determining whether or not to employ hero photos on your website.Â
Image choice
When choosing a hero header, keep in mind that huge images might slow down loading speeds, particularly on mobile devices. In one study, Google found that a delay of only 0.4 seconds in page load time resulted in a 20% decline in visits. Ineffectiveness increases if loading times for hero headers are too lengthy. To save website load times from increasing, large banner pictures and videos should be compressed.
You need to decide if the image you’ve chosen is useful e.g. A roofing company could have a photo of their vans or a recent project they’ve just completed. Both of these would add an excellent element of social proof too. Using a stock image for your featured image may seem like a quick and easy way to solve your problem. But in reality, they are often overused and lack originality. It’s challenging to find a stock image that perfectly complements your business, which is what the hero image should do.
Image testing
As part of our web design services in Swansea, we analyse the results of split-screen A/B tests with multiple hero headers. Due to their prominent placement, hero headers should be tested. This is to determine which ones best encourage the desired actions from your visitors. Some of these actions could be reading an article, responding to a call to action, or making a purchase.
In A/B testing: Half of your visitors see the control version of your website. The other half see the new web design test version. To find out which version of your page converts better, show it to a subset of your visitors at random and analyse the results.
If the results of a challenger page are inferior to those of the original, further A/B testing can be conducted. This can be done by changing the page’s CTA, copy, and/or visuals. The hero header you display to various subsets of your visitors can also be tailored to their specific interests.
Conversion rates and user satisfaction can be increased over time through the use of multiple image tests.
Concepts for evaluating hero headers:
Here are some suggestions for better hero image quality:
Comparison of the effectiveness of still and moving images
If your users find your visuals distracting rather than interesting, informative, or engaging, you want to find out why. You could carry out A/B testing between a static image and a moving image. This may help you determine which format is more popular with your target audience.
Testing the outcomes of an automatically playing or interactive video
It’s becoming more usual to browse a website and have music or sound start playing automatically. Sites that use video messaging may learn about the significance of video content by conducting A/B tests. This is to see whether people click to activate the content or if playing the video automatically is the best option.
A litmus test for the hero header's worth
The purpose of this test would be to discover how various visuals influence your visitors’ reactions and subsequent behaviour on the site.Â
Hero header final thoughts:
A lot of interesting issues are brought up by depictions of hero headers. As this is the first thing a user sees, the hero header must be spot-on for your website. Still struggling to decide? Contact our web design services in Swansea and we will gladly take a look at your options.
