If you’ve got a company logo you use on letterhead or business cards, marketing gurus will tell you that displaying it prominently on your Web site is a great way to solidify your online and offline branding.
I’m here to tell you that adding a logo to your Web site header is a pretty simple task, although you may want to experiment a bit with how you display it. But let’s start with the basics:
1. Sign into your Office Live Small Business account.
2. Click Web site, then click Design Your Site.
3. After the Site Designer launches, click Logo at the top of the page.
4. If you haven’t already uploaded your logo, click Upload pictures and browse to the location on your computer where you’ve saved your logo.
Note: To make sure your image appears on your Web site exactly as you want it to, save the image at the size that you want it to appear before you upload it to the Image Gallery.
5. Once you’ve uploaded the logo and selected it, choose the Display option you want. You can place your logo at the top of the header or next to your page title.
6. Next Select the size you want your logo. You have three options.
Note: If you’ve uploaded your image at the size that you want it to appear on your Web site, select Large, which gives you the true size.
Changing the logo and header style
You may want to play around a bit with steps 6 and 7 until you get a look you like. Or you may want to get even more creative by changing the position, layout and appearance of your logo and header. Here’s the easy way to do that:
1. In Site Designer, click Style. The drop-down menu shows example images of the different possible header layouts.
2. Click the layout that you want to try. (To close the drop-down menu, click anywhere on the Web page outside of the menu box.) You may want to try a few different options before you find one you like.
3. Click Save when you’ve found a style you like and want to save your changes. (Remember, once you click Save, all the modifications are published to your Web site immediately.)
4. If you want to replace the Theme Image with your logo or a custom image, you can do so by selecting Custom Theme Image under the Theme menu.
You can play around with different combinations of theme, stock, or custom images, styles, and uploaded logos until you have just the look you like.
And if you don’t have a logo
Of course, all of the above presumes you have a logo for your business. If you don’t, I have a couple ideas for you—and, yes, we made these same suggestions in another recent post:
1. if you’re signed up for Office Live Small Business, go to our Special Offers page and learn how you can get a free custom logo from our friends at LogoYes.
2. Read these how-to articles for ideas on creating a logo yourself:
Now it’s your turn. First, post a comment if you have any questions about what I’ve discussed above. Second, let me know if there are other tasks that you could use some help with.
Skip Chilcott