You are here > Web Design > Web Site Design > 17.1.12. Advertisements

Advertisements

Web sites that rely on advertising to generate revenue need to have prime space set aside for its sponsors. Without doubt, the best real estate is usually on the home page and "above-the-fold" (visible without having to scroll down the page).

Even though you may need to show ads, the home page has to still download as quickly as possible. To help achieve this, try to minimize:

• Number of advertising graphics
  Minimize the number of ad banners on your home page. I have seen home pages with as many as two large (468x60) and three smaller (125x125) ad banners. This really is too much. When you consider that a 468x60 banner can be about 15 kilobytes, and the 125x125 banner about 10 kilobytes in size, it all adds up to a download of 45 kilobytes just for advertising banners. Most home pages files aren't this big!
  
  
• Advertising graphic file sizes
  Optimize all your graphic files using image optimization software or application service provider. You can usually shrink a GIF graphic by about 50-75% whilst still keeping most of the original quality of the image. You might also choose to not carry animated banners.
  
  
• Advertising graphic dimensions
  Smaller graphics usually produce smaller file sizes. So you should try to minimize the size, in terms of pixels, of your advertising graphics.
  
  Alternatively, you could have a smaller ad just on your home page. Since their inception, Yahoo! has always a smaller 230x33 pixel banner on their home page. On the rest of Yahoo!, they use the traditional 468x60 pixel banner

How to Sell the Benefits of Using Your Site >>>