Putting banners above the fold?

The first few seconds of viewing a website or blog are decisive in terms of whether the Internet user stays or not!  The area above the fold provides that first impression.

Couple that with the fact that the vast majority of Internet users dislike being blatantly advertised to means that the older style banner is generally not appropriate for an over the fold position on your home page.

The older style banner was brash, colourful and often flashed messages of graphics. They were mainly full page width, graphically based and generally slow to load.

Banners of this type were a popular way to monetize web pages not so long ago and still are in some niche markets. They can generated significant volumes of targeted generate niche traffic.

Monetization was generally provisioned on a pay per click basis and frequently managed by third parties who rotated the banners.

Can banners be appropriate over the fold?

We have used banners successfully in the past when placed over the fold to generate targeted niche traffic to affiliate sites; squeeze pages and generate pay per click revenue.

Banners work but their presentation and integration into a site has to be quite different from the older style.

Banners have to be subtle, visually in keeping and seamlessly integrated into the site. They must appear to be part of the site, not a bolt on component that doesn’t quite fit!

Enticing benefit statements with gentle invitations work well in conjunction with product based content. The same applies to page content based questions with banner based answers.

You can also combine content with a smaller graphical banner in a side bar as a combined page entity

Remember to incorporate keywords and keyphrases that can be read by search engine spiders and capitalise on in the text from SEO perspective.

The content of the page needs to have relevancy not only to your niche market, its keywords and phrases but also to the banner’s statement so the page has a cohesive feel about it and visually has a good fit.

Conclusion

In conclusion, banners can be used successfully above the fold, at the top of the page or in one of the side bars, preferably on the right hand side of the page

Plan carefully so the banner is fully integrated into the page

Banners still have a place and you will be surprised at how well they work and can generate niche traffic that you can direct to wherever you want it to go!

Kind regards Chris Nizzi