Contrary to popular belief, most companies do not need to frequently change the look of their website. For companies like landscapers, pest control, chiropractors, dentists, etc., your website needs to be good, but it’s the content on the site and your placement in search engines that will sell them on your service.
But there are some websites that are clearly in need of an upgrade, and in those situations we frequently recommend designing a website with a video slider. That minor change can completely overhaul the appearance of a site.
What is a Video Slider?
“Sliders” are a term for the header image or slideshow of a website’s homepage, although some people may call them “header images” when it’s only a single image. These are almost always the first thing someone sees on a site, which is why many websites incorporate vibrant images or image effects to make the slider more noticeable. As of this writing, our homepage uses an example of a homepage header image.
In the past, these basically had to be static images, because placing a video there would require extensive programming and would add an extremely heavy amount of data/bandwidth, causing the site to load too slowly.
But now, websites can use video streaming services like YouTube to host the video, allowing the video to stream automatically from a 3rd party server. This makes it load faster and run automatically. One website, which we admittedly did not create but do very much like, uses a video slider perfectly – www.bearcattattoo.com. The video takes up the entire screen and walks people through their tattoo shop so that they can get a better idea of what a tattoo will be.
Video sliders are far more attention grabbing. They look more professional and modern as well, and they can be used to brand you better than any image can. They also have very few downsides. There are essentially only two drawbacks:
- You may need to design a new website. It can be difficult to integrate one of these into an existing site and still have it look professional.
- You may want to consider a professionally produced video, which can be expensive. In-house is possible and can be very cost efficient, and depending on the company, stock video can be used too, but professional video production tends to run between $2000 to $3000. Luckily, it is usually a one time purchase.
Beyond that, there are very few downsides to this type of website, and – outside of the production of the video – the cost to create this type of site is no more or less expensive than any other, because the programming is already a part of many templates and the design process is similar to adding images or any other type of content.
If it’s time for a new site, consider a video slider. The difference can be remarkable.
