I cannot stress enough the importance of your header on your website. It is normally the first thing your reader will see when they arrive at your site. This is prime real estate to advertise YOU and get your brand across.
Let's Make a Plan
Making a plan for your header can be a wonderful process. It can help you decide on themes and feelings you want to carry over into your brand and website. here are a few things to think about.
Your logo
{ U S E I T. }
I have used my logo on my header and that is it! I did this because of the white space and my header is small enough to see the content in my blog posts and get the gist of what my blog is about. DIY Project blogs or photography blogs would do good by having photos of their posts in their header. I am talking blogs not necessarily websites.
Taglines
You don't only have to use images to get your brand across. use text too! If you have a tagline, use it. but make sure your tagline isn't more than just that. A line.
Colors
Colors too can set the tone for your blog. You could design your header then use it as your inspiration while designing the rest of your blog. Notice my flower colors carry over to the other elements on my blog design.
After you have thought about what you want to put on your header it's time to create it!
Let's Talk Size
There is an easy way to find out what is the right size for your blog!
Head to template on your dashboard then to customize.
From there you go to Adjust widths then look at what is the width of your entire blog.
Let's talk about height
Once you have that information we need to talk about height. Please PLEASE do NOT make your header more than half of your page. Let me explain why.
Back in the day there were things call N e w s p a p e r s.
(I'm only joking. Newspapers are still out there.) When you see a newspaper you normally only see the top half of the folded paper. That content you can see is "above the fold." They normally put teasing tag lines or curious photographs so that it will entice readers to buy the whole paper. The same thing goes with your blog.When they land at your site is your content "above the fold" enticing your readers to scroll down?
A lot of people say 200 px in height is a good way to go... shh... mine is 300px don't tell them. Keep in mind though my header is full of white space. The white space is a place for your eyes to relax and in turn makes the reader feel less overwhelmed with content.
HERE is more info on white space, and how important it is.
so unless you've got that "white space" I would stick to around 200px. *** UPDATE... so my screens are huge... on smaller screens my header goes past the fold!!! oh no... so I made it 200px wide. **
Now that you know what size to make your header get started! I use Photoshop, but I imagine you could use a free photo editing program.
Once you have created your header, its time to install it!
Head to layout on your Dashboard then click edit on the headboard
From there a pop up window will open
First you will need to select your placement. select Instead of title and description. Also if you find that your header is a little too bit big for your blogger template, check shrink to fit that will re-size it for you.
Sometimes your header will not center... so you will need to do it by adding CSS
Dashboard Template then Customize.
Go to advanced then Add CSS
This is the CSS you will need to add if you have a header INSTEAD of Title and description
If you have your image behind your title and description, add this CSS.
TA DA! You are all done! Leave a comment to your webpage to share so we can check out your awesome header!
Thanks for reading
With love,
