A banner is often the first thing people see when they open an intranet. That makes the decision to add SharePoint banner content more consequential than it sounds. Done well, it gives staff a clear sense of where they are, what matters now and where to go next. Done badly, it becomes a large image people scroll past without reading.

The practical question is not simply how to place a banner on a page. It is how to make that space earn its place at the top of the page – without slowing the site down, obscuring useful content or creating another item that someone has to update manually every week.

Start with the job the banner needs to do

Before choosing a layout or image, decide what the banner is for. An intranet homepage banner usually has one of three jobs: welcome people to the site, direct attention to a priority action, or promote a time-sensitive internal message.

Trying to do all three at once tends to produce a crowded result. A welcome banner with a short message and a clear route to key areas is useful over the long term. A campaign banner for annual benefits enrolment, a new policy or an upcoming staff event should have a defined end date. A banner that changes constantly without a clear purpose teaches users to ignore it.

This distinction also affects where the content should live. A permanent visual identity belongs on the homepage or in the page title area. Urgent or changing messages may be better handled through a news post, an alert area or a targeted page section. Not every important announcement needs to dominate the whole screen.

The built-in ways to add a SharePoint banner

Modern SharePoint gives intranet owners a few useful starting points. The right option depends on whether you need a simple page header, visual navigation, or a more branded experience.

Use the page title area for a straightforward header

Every modern SharePoint page has a title area that can include a background image, title text, author information and other page details. For a departmental page, project hub or policy area, this is usually the cleanest approach. It establishes context without adding another web part or making the page harder to maintain.

Keep the title readable against the image. A photo may look good when uploaded but lose detail once SharePoint crops it for different screen sizes. Use an image with quiet space behind the heading, avoid placing text over faces or detailed patterns, and check the result on a mobile screen as well as a desktop monitor.

The limitation is flexibility. The title area is a page header, not a fully configurable promotional banner. If you need several calls to action, audience-specific content or a consistent branded welcome panel across sites, it may not be enough.

Use the Hero web part for prominent links

The Hero web part is useful when the banner needs to act as navigation. It lets you create a large featured tile or several tiles, each linking to a page, document or other destination. This can work well for an intranet launch, a small number of priority services, or a homepage that needs visual routes to key content.

It is less suitable for a conventional single banner. Hero layouts can become visually noisy if every team wants a tile, and the larger the set of images, the more upkeep is required. Use it for a small, intentional set of routes rather than a colourful directory of everything the organisation does.

Use a dedicated SPFx banner when brand and control matter

A purpose-built banner web part gives more control over the things that typically matter to internal communications and intranet teams: background treatments, copy placement, calls to action, display rules and consistency across pages. It can also remove the need to recreate a design in every site collection.

For organisations that want this without commissioning a custom build, ThePoint’s Branded Welcome Banner is one of its production-ready SharePoint Experience Pack apps. It installs in the tenant, works within Microsoft 365 and can be trialled before purchase. At £249 per year for an individual web part, it is a different commercial decision from spending several thousand pounds on a bespoke SPFx component for a familiar requirement.

That does not mean a dedicated app is always necessary. If you only need an attractive title area on two pages, built-in SharePoint is likely the sensible answer. The case for a web part becomes stronger when the same requirement appears repeatedly across the intranet and someone needs reliable control without developer involvement.

Design for comprehension, not decoration

The most effective banners are usually restrained. Staff need to understand the message in a few seconds, particularly on a homepage they visit between meetings or while looking for a document.

Start with one clear heading. “Welcome to the staff hub” is adequate for a permanent homepage message. “Complete your annual security training by 30 June” is better for a campaign because it states the action and deadline. Supporting text should add only the information that helps someone decide whether to click.

Use one primary call to action. Two can work where the choices are genuinely equal, such as “Read the guidance” and “Book a session”. More than that starts to turn a banner into a navigation menu. If there are several destinations, place them lower on the page in a quick links or services section.

Images should reinforce the message rather than compete with it. Brand colours, subtle gradients, office photography and simple illustrations can all work. The common failure is selecting a dramatic stock image that leaves no clear space for text. Cropping is not an edge case in SharePoint: it is the normal behaviour across layouts and screen sizes.

Accessibility is part of good design, not a final check. Ensure there is sufficient contrast between copy and its background, avoid embedding essential text inside an image, and use meaningful labels for buttons. If a banner relies on pale text over a busy photograph, some users will struggle to read it and everyone else will read it more slowly.

Make ownership and expiry explicit

Banners often fail operationally rather than creatively. A campaign ends, the page stays unchanged and staff continue seeing an out-of-date message for months. That damages confidence in the whole intranet, not just one page.

Every non-permanent banner should have an owner and a review date. Add these to the editorial process when the banner is published, not when someone happens to remember it later. For a short campaign, set a date to remove or replace it. For a permanent welcome message, review it quarterly alongside homepage links and navigation.

It also helps to define who can publish homepage banners. Giving every site editor access may sound democratic, but the homepage is shared real estate. A simple approval route through internal communications, HR or the intranet owner prevents conflicting messages and keeps visual standards consistent.

Use targeting carefully

Audience targeting can make a banner more relevant. New starters may need onboarding links, managers may need a reminder about appraisal deadlines, and office-based teams may need local facilities information. Relevant content is more likely to be used than a generic message aimed at everyone.

There is a trade-off. Targeting adds administration and can make it harder for content owners to see what different groups receive. It works best for stable audiences with clear needs, not for every minor variation in messaging. If a banner is useful to almost everyone, showing it to everyone is usually clearer.

Where targeted banners are used, test with representative accounts and ensure there is still a clear route to essential information for people outside the intended group. A policy deadline should not disappear simply because someone’s group membership is incomplete.

Test the page people will actually use

Do not sign off a banner solely in the page editing view. Publish it to a test audience or ask a few colleagues to use the page as they normally would. Can they identify the message quickly? Do they know what happens when they select the button? Is the image still sensible on a laptop, a large monitor and a phone?

Look at the rest of the page too. A large banner can push useful tasks below the fold, particularly on smaller screens. If the homepage exists mainly to help staff find forms, news, policies and systems, those routes should remain visible without excessive scrolling.

A well-managed banner is a small but visible sign that the intranet is being looked after. Give it one clear purpose, design it for the real viewing conditions in SharePoint, and remove it when that purpose has passed. People notice that level of care – and they are more likely to return to a site that respects their time.