Break Up Pages into Clearly Defined Areas

Studies have shown that Internet users decide which part of a page are likely to be of interest to them and ignore the rest.

Experience tells us where advertising banners and buttons are positioned in a Web page and we have learned to ignore those parts of the page as though they don't exist.

I do not recommend including hidden advertisements with content. This may seem like a clever marketing ploy, and it does improve clickthough rates. But ultimately users will get frustrated if they constantly end up on an advertiser's Web site, when they thought a link leads to more free information.

If you want to mix advertisements and content, make sure the ads are clearly marked, as in the new large-banner systems used by numerous top Web sites.

Use Standard Conventions >>>