A website header displaying imagery in motion is powerful. Adding a video to your website’s header makes your site stand out. The video header option outlined in this article adds a silent video to the top of your website.

Note: Video headers are a Pro plan feature.

This Help article covers the following:

  • How to add a video header
  • How to add filters to your video header
  • Video formatting
  • How to change or remove a video
  • Commonly asked questions
  • Troubleshooting upload issues

Adding a Video Header

  1. From the ‘Edit Content’ tab, click on the ‘Edit Header’ button
  2. At the top of the setting pane on the left, click ‘Video’
  3. Click ‘Upload Video’
    • Notes:
      • After selecting your video and clicking ‘Open’, the video may take a few minutes to process. Please wait for the video to load before leaving the page or making other updates.
      • Devices that do not support video autoplay (often as a power and data-saving feature) will display your header image instead of your video header
  4. Toggle ‘Apply to all pages’ if you’d like this video to appear in the header on all pages
  5. Click ‘Save’

To switch back to an image or slideshow of images

  1. Click ‘Images’ at the top of the left-hand pane
  2. Click ‘Save’

Adding a filter to your video

  1. From the ‘Edit Theme’ tab, click the drop-down under ‘Image filters’
  2. Click the filter name to apply it to the header
    • None: Your original video.
    • Darken: Places a darker hue over the video.
    • Lighten: Boosts the brightness of the video.
    • Grayscale: Removes color and converts to shades of gray.
    • 1977: Adds a faded look and a red tint.
    • Brannan: A high-contrast, high-exposure filter which brightens your video and gives it a yellowish tint.
    • Brooklyn: Brightens your video and boosts yellow tones.
    • Earlybird: Desaturates colors in your video while allowing bright colors to still show. Also adds a sepia tint and vignetting to your video.
    • Gingham: Removes some color from the video, and adds a yellow hue and a brighter exposure.
    • Kelvin: Uses high saturation and a warm tint.
    • Moon: A black and white filter that intensifies shadows.
    • Nashville: High exposure, low contrast, and adds a warm tint.
    • Toaster: Adds a dodged center to your video with a strong red tint and a burnt edge.
    • Walden: Brightens the center of your video and adds an icy blue tint.
    • Xpro2: Bumps up the contrast, adds a strong vignette, and warms all colors. Intensifies shadows, dark elements, and adds a strong vignette.
    • Dots: Adds a layer of tiny dots over your video.
    • Squares: Adds a layer of tiny squares over your video.
    • Custom: Use the filter customization option here to select your custom filter overlay and transparency. (Only available on select templates.)
  3. Click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the settings pane on the left.

Some of our templates also offer filter customizations

  • Next to ‘Image filter custom color’, click the color swatch to change the color and opacity
    • Choose a preset color
    • Select a custom color from the color wheel
    • Enter the hex code for the color you’d like to use
  • Next to ‘Image filter custom mode’, click the image filter name to select the one you’d like
    • Normal: Your video as is with your custom filter overlay.
    • Multiply: Darkens tones using your custom color.
    • Screen: Brightens the video using your custom color.
    • Overlay: A combination of Multiply and Screen filters.
    • Hard-light: Adds a strong contrast to the video using your custom color.
    • Soft-light: Adds a mild contrast to the video using your custom color.
    • Color burn: Darkens the video using your custom color.

For more detailed information on filters, please view the ‘Header Image Filters’ Help article.

Video Formatting

What type of video file should I use?

  • Your video header must be in MP4, MOV, or AVI format.
  • If you use Windows, you’ll likely upload an MP4 file.
  • If you use a Mac, you’ll likely upload a MOV file.

What size video file should my video header be?

  • Your video file must be under 30MB.
  • Your video should be landscape (horizontal).
  • The video dimensions should be 1920 x 1080 pixels for HD quality.

I have a long music video. How can I use this for a video header? Select a short clip or excerpt from the video that is visually impressive. There’s no audio on video headers, so the clip should be strong visually.

How can I create clips from longer videos?

If you’re on a Windows computer, use any video editor on your computer. Check out this tutorial for more information.

If you’re on a Mac computer you can use iMovie.

If you aren’t sure how to use either of these suggestions, you can upload and edit a clip on YouTube..

Changing or removing a header video

You can change the video header file at any time.

  1. From the ‘Edit Content’ tab, click on the ‘Edit Header’ button.
  2. At the top of the setting pane on the left, click ‘Change Video’
    • Note: After selecting your video and clicking ‘Open’ the video may take a few minutes to process. Please wait for the video to load before leaving the page or making other updates.
  3. Click ‘Save’

Note: We do not store videos, so if you want to change the header in the future, you'd need to upload a video each time, rather than selecting it from a video library.

After a video has been added there is no way to delete it. You have two options under ‘display style’ in the ‘Edit Header’ settings:

  • Click ‘Change video’ to replace the current file with a new video.
  • Click ‘Image’ in the left-hand pane to switch back to displaying an image or slideshow instead of a video.

Note: It’s not possible to delete all images. You must have at least one image or a video in the header area if you are using a template that includes a header image.

Commonly Asked Questions

Can I use a video from YouTube? Videos have to be uploaded directly to our system, so it's not possible to embed a video hosted on YouTube or any other streaming service.

What is the maximum file size I can upload? Videos up to 30MB can be used as a video header.

How long can my video be? There’s no time limit on videos - as long as the file is 30MB and under, it can be uploaded to the header.

How can I set different video headers on different pages? Only one video can be uploaded per account, and it will be applied site-wide by default. You can, however, have different static images on different pages of your website.

Can I upload a video from my phone or mobile device? Yes, you can upload a video directly from your iPhone, iPad, or Android device - as long as it's a compatible file type under the size limit.

Can I change my video display for mobile vs. desktop devices You can adjust your header height and custom mobile header height in your ‘Edit Theme’ tab and it will apply to your video header height.

What does "processing" mean? The “Processing” message means that the upload has completed, and the video file is now being encoded into a format that will display nicely across all web browsers. This step shouldn't take too long, but if you're on a slower connection or have uploaded a larger file, it may take a bit of time.

Why is there no sound? The video background does not play audio - it's only visual. Use a music feature in the content area of your site to add audio for visitors.

Why isn’t my video header working on mobile? Video headers are supported on the most recent version of iOS and Android software. If the video header is not playing on a mobile device, these issues may be the cause:

  • Using an operating system that is out of date. To check for an update, read this tutorial on Android devices or this one for iOS products, like iPad or iPhones.
  • Chrome’s "Data Saver" setting may be enabled for mobile devices. You can read more on the Data Saver feature here. To disable the setting follow these steps: Open Chrome on your Android or iOS device. Select the three-dot icon in the top right corner, and choose ‘Settings’. Select ‘Data Saver’. There should then be a toggle in the top right corner for it - once that’s off, the video header should play without issue.

Troubleshooting upload issues

If you are experiencing issues uploading your header video, here are some troubleshooting steps to take:

  • It could be a sign of a weak or slow wifi connection. Try switching to a different wifi connection if possible, or tethering to mobile data to see if that solves the problem.
  • Disable any VPN’s or antivirus software temporarily that you may have running, and attempt the upload again.
  • Disable any active browser extensions and attempt the upload again, to see if they may have been interfering.

Note: You’ll also want to make sure that you’re working on the latest version of a supported web browser. For more information on which web browsers are supported and how to update yours to the latest version, take a look at our ‘Supported Web Browsers’ Help article.