Definition
A hero image is the large visual at the top of a website page. Its job is to help a visitor understand your business quickly, without having to work for it.
The best hero images do three things at once: they set the tone, show the outcome, and reduce confusion. When someone lands on your site, your hero area is your first chance to serve them with clarity.
For sizing, many teams use 1280 × 720 for desktop and a portrait crop around 800 × 1200 for mobile. More important than the exact pixels is that the image loads fast and reads clearly on a phone.
How a Hero Image Helps People
People don’t visit a website because they want more content. They visit because they want an answer: Can you help me, and is this for someone like me?
A hero image can quietly answer those questions by showing the real environment, the real customer, or the real result. It’s less about being flashy and more about being understandable.
Useful signals a hero image can communicate:
- What you do, without needing a paragraph
- Who you serve, without guesswork
- What changes after someone chooses you
Tracking What’s Working
You don’t need to overcomplicate this. Pick one goal (calls, form submissions, or clicks to your next step), then watch how people behave.
If visitors stay longer, scroll more, and take the next step more often, your hero section is likely doing its job. If they bounce quickly, your hero may be unclear, too busy, or not relevant to what they came for.
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