Advertising in Page Layout and Design

Everything can always be done better, no matter that it is. That goes for page design, layout, and even your advertising placement as well. One important thing to remember when developing your website is that the advertisments should *never* come first. That’s pretty strange coming from an advertising service whose job it is to sell advertising, but its the truth. The primary goal of your website is to provide the content, product, or service you intended. Your purpose should never be to just make money with advertising. So, when placing your advertising you want it to work in harmony with your website, and be effective, in order to keep your surfers happy, and your wallet. The average surfer scans a website from top to bottom, left to right. That means the Header or ‘Masthead’ across the top of the page will receive the most views, followed by what is normally the navigation or other most important links along the top-left side. This makes the Masthead and top-left areas very attractive to place ads. However, they should only be placed right of the Masthead and below any navigation links on the top-left in order to avoid confusing the visitor. Secondary placement of links normally occurs in the main page body anywhere on the page. Links ‘above the fold’ or first page of the website (without scrolling) is the most valuable space in the body of the website, the farther down you go, the less people will see it, and the less valuable that space is. Webmasters commonly place links along the top-right of their website as well. The clicks here are generally lower the farther you go to the right, but they are still ‘above the fold’ and therefore still will command attention from your visitors. However, the rookie mistake here is placing ads too far down on the page. The bottom-right area of a website is the worst place to place any advertising as the clicks are generally very low. Avoid this rookie move at all costs. Keep your surfers happy with a great designed and easy to navigate website. Make sure your advertising is placed well, but not overwhelming, and your surfers will be happy, clicky, and your advertisers will be happy too!