| Every blogger knows the importance of banner click | | | | banner blindness? |
| through rates on their web pages. It's not rocket | | | | The golden rule for overcoming banner blindness |
| science. The more people that click on on a blogger's | | | | The trick to overcoming banner blindness is to do the |
| ads, the more valuable the ad spaces become, and | | | | opposite of what you might expect, make the |
| the more money the website makes. The problem is, | | | | advertisements less visible and look less like |
| as the internet has evolved, so too has its users. | | | | advertisements. The reason people have become so |
| What is banner blindness? | | | | skilled at ignoring banners is because the ads are in the |
| In the olden days of the internet (yes, I'm referring to | | | | same locations from site to site, and they all look about |
| ten years ago), people clicked on advertisements left | | | | the same. They usually stand out from the rest of the |
| and right because they didn't know any better. As | | | | page with an image that doesn't match the rest of the |
| people have become more accustomed to web page | | | | site, or text that's a different font, size, or color. |
| layouts, they've begun to learn which parts of the | | | | Since these ads stick out like sore thumbs, it's easy for |
| page are the most valuable. It just so happens that | | | | visitors to subconsciously block them out. It's kind of like |
| since most websites place advertisements on the top, | | | | telephone poles. When you drive to work, how many |
| left, right, and bottom of a webpage (overkill!) the "guts" | | | | telephone poles do you see? Most likely, your answer |
| of a web page are usually in the center. Take a look | | | | will be "none" even though you pass by hundreds each |
| at the heat map below, which measures eye tracking | | | | and every day. You don't notice them because they |
| when visitors look at a webpage. | | | | don't provide you with important information while |
| The areas where users looked the most are colored | | | | driving from point A to point B. |
| red while the yellow areas indicate fewer views, | | | | On the flip side, if you can incorporate advertisements |
| followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Gray areas | | | | inside your content instead of around it, you will see a |
| didn't attract any fixations. Green boxes were drawn | | | | much better click through rate. A great example of this |
| on top of the images after the study to highlight the | | | | technique has just been implemented by a few |
| advertisements. The phenomenon, coined by Dr. Jakob | | | | months ago. If you take a look at Digg today, you'll see |
| Nielsen in August of 2007, is referred to as banner | | | | a very cleverly disguised advertisement residing in the |
| blindness. As you might guess, banner blindness | | | | third Digg post of every page. As visitors scroll through |
| basically means that visitors are "blind" to banners | | | | each page looking for content of interest, there's a |
| (advertisements), making them ineffective in terms of | | | | great chance they'll click on the disguised Digg post, |
| earning revenue. | | | | sending that user directly to an advertiser's website. |
| As internet users become more and more skilled at | | | | As long as the user is being sent to a webpage |
| ignoring ads, ad driven websites (including blogs) are | | | | containing useful content, It's a win win situation. The |
| facing a growing crisis. If internet users stop clicking on | | | | visitor finds the information they were looking for and |
| ads, then advertisers will stop renting ad spaces from | | | | the publisher earns a small profit. |
| publishers, and free content services and blogs will | | | | Banner blindness, you've met your match. |
| start to disappear. What can we do to overcome | | | | |