Anatomy of a Web Page

Anatomy of a Web Page

Hero Section

Header

The Header at the top of the page is the first thing a visitor will see, along with the Hero section, and can contain a range of information. In the case of this site, there are three rows with the top row containing extrernal links to our service site and a Social Menu. The second row contains the a Logo, Site Title and Tagline. The last row contains the Site Menu and a Call to Action (CTA) button, this row is “Sticky”. This means that it will remain at the top of the screen as the visitor scrolls down. Some companies like to include their contact information in the header and the background can be altered to include images or gradients of colour.

Heading

Separate from the Header is the Heading. The Header could be the headline of your page or used to split your page into sections. Web crawlers will use heading to index a page for search engines. There are several levels of Heading from H1 to H6. The site should onyl have one H1 section, as this focuses the crawlers to the topic of the page. In this case, the Hero Section title uses the H1 tag. H2 to H6 are for page sections and sub sections. Page Readers for the visually impaired also use Headings to navigate a web page easier.

Paragraph

This is the body text for your page. The paragraph should contain terms that link to the subject of your page. The paragraphs should also contain the keywords you are using for your page. Paragraphs nust also be easy to read and not overly complex. If you present a visitor with a large amount of text to sell your services, it may put them off. You can also include lists.

  • Lists of text
  • Can show many services
  • or products
  • in an easy to read list

Sidebar

The Sidebar is to the right of this page if you are viewing it on a desktop or laptop. The screen is not wide enough on a mobile or tablet. Sidebars are not as common now as many sites are aimed at mobile browsing. They can hold a range of information. In the case of this site, it lists the most recent articles to be published. The sidebar could be used to sort information or act as a second or side menu bar.

Images

Images can serve two functions. They can highlight the topic of your page and draw the visitors eye to where you want them to look. At the same time, a well set up image can have a text component such as this which gives a crawler text to index for the site. The description can also be added to help the visually impaired.
Images can serve two functions. They can highlight the topic of your page and draw the visitors eye to where you want them to look. At the same time, a well set up image can have a text component such as this which gives a crawler text to index for the site. The description can also be added to help the visually impaired.

Gallery

A simple gallery can display products or a portfolio in a simple and easy to see way. Images can be set to show text when the mouse is hovered over it or set below each image. This will allow visitors and crawlers to gain further information about the images shown. The images can also be set to link to separate pages should a visitor want to see more. Gallery’s can be altered further as seen by the one below which has many more aesthtic additions.

Sliders and Carousels

Sliders

Sliders can give you a range of options to post content that can slide to the next post automatically or manually using the arrows

You can include text or images

Title

Or titles and calls to action as in the button below

Or with borders, icons and background images

A carousel could be used to show posts or images utilsiing one image or post at a time as above or several as below. The speed can be changed. The scrolling can stop if the visitor hover over the post.

See More

To see an example of how the elements can fit together click on the link