Having a great header on a church website is crucial in order to grab the attention of visitors and make a lasting impression. A header can be the deciding factor in whether someone stays on your website or clicks away. Here are some tips on creating great headers for church websites.
A Great Header is Love it or Hate it
A header that stands out is one that people will either love or hate… a bit like eating vegemite. A header that is too bland or generic will not make an impact. The goal is to create a header that is memorable and pre-filters your visitors. Keep in mind you don’t need to be (and really shouldn’t be) offensive, but you do need to be direct in how you target your message.
A Great Header Lets People Immediately Know that the Church is for Them or Not
Partly as a result of “love it or hate it,” it should immediately communicate the message of the church and what the church is all about. A header that is too generic or doesn’t communicate the message of the church will not make an impact. The header should make it clear that the church is for them or not: younger, older, singles, family, fun loving, stoic, etc. This doesn’t mean you won’t accept people that don’t fit your header message, in fact, you will probably attract even more people outside that demographic just by being less generic than other churches in your area.
A Great Header has Personality
A great header should reflect the personality of the church. Both the images and the text should reflect the “vibe” of your church. Are you a modern low church service? Then you should use a modern sans serif font and a friendly writing “voice.” Similarly, your imagery should be relatively contemporary. It can be tough to get to fully understand your church’s personality, while I have a lot of serious theological critiques against Jung, Jung’s character archetypes can be immensely helpful in expressing your church’s personality (just be sure to avoid the church cliches like everyman or caregiver).
A Great Header Uses Images of People not Images of a Building
First and foremost, your church is not a building, it’s the people. If your church building were to be bulldozed tonight, you would still be a church tomorrow. Additionally, images of people are more powerful than images of buildings, in fact, images of people will create an emotional connection with visitors. Visitors will be able to see themselves in the images and relate to the message of the church. Images of buildings… or any inanimate object for that matter… will not create the same emotional connection.
A Great Header is Mobile Friendly
With the increase of mobile device usage, it is important that the header is mobile friendly. A header that is not mobile friendly will frustrate people who try to visit your website. The header should be easy to read and navigate on a mobile device. It should be responsive and automatically adjust to the size of the screen.
Let’s Create One Together
Ready to get started? In the following video I walk through creating a header for “The Celestial Church of Eternal Happiness”. Check it out!
Stay tuned for more walkthroughs for creating or updating your church website.
Final Thoughts
Creating a great header for a church website takes a little bit of time and effort. However, with modern “what you see is what you get” (WYSISWYG) website editors you can easily pull together something that communicates well with potential visitors. Don’t be afraid to dig in and make changes and iterate your header over time based on feedback you get.
