Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Do you find Banners at the top of a page unprofessional?

[fsn]

annoying or unprofessional? I wanted to add some banners on my page (for traffic) but I always thought that banners at the top of the page are annoying, ugly, unpro. However, I've read that the smaller banners and ones appearing further down the page are less likely to be hit than banners that draw attention and meet the eye first.

whats your take?

[SoftWareRevue]

I find nothing wrong with proper banners.
It's pop-ups/unders that, to me, make for an unprofessional appearance.

[PulseHost]

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
I find nothing wrong with proper banners.
It's pop-ups/unders that, to me, make for an unprofessional appearance.

I totally agree with you on that....

[Noldar]

If the banners are nicely intergrated into the site design and the advertising is targeted to the audience of the site, I don't have a problem with them.

Pop-ups/unders are hugely annoying and tend to make me want to avoid sites that use them even if the site does have some useful content.

Richard

[derek.bodner]

I wouldn't put banners on a business site. A service site (like say news, products, etc) I wouldn't have a problem with it.

[AcuNett]

If it's a hosting site I wouldn't.

[Gadgy]

If its a high profile site, would depend upon how sympathetic the banners were to the theme of the site. As in "sympathetic architecture". They can definately be a good thing.

Networks with "tight" control may not be able to view banners.

Banners that use 3rd party systems could cause a site to have problems by lots of commercial networks if the 3rd parties control site gets put onto a smartfilter list.



Just on a side note, do you think this is realy strange?

Was tappin me fingers, ssl - bt.net UK. I signed up as a regular residencial customer, the process just as expected, about 4 pages in total, got to the second page. The process for each page was realy slow, about 1min each. I was watchin the open ports on the proxy when I see another port open, glancing at the bottom of the browser box screen I see the url flashing ad.*****words.com. 1 browser window.

I am still stunned, WTF was a call to an add/banner hit service doing getting triggered by the internal process of the ssl signup?

corrected spelling.

[sharkman]

I definetly wouldn't, it makes you site look like it not making enough revenue, by itself. Not a good image to portray.

[SoftWareRevue]

Originally posted by sharkman
I definetly wouldn't, it makes you site look like it not making enough revenue, by itself. Not a good image to portray.

Maybe he needs to make money.
Maybe he's not a host or any other business.
Maybe he could help us out by saying what his site is about.

[Chang Lee]

I also agree with SoftWareRevue here.

It all depends how the banners integrate with the site. If its aesthetically done, it should be OK.

However, do take this imporant fact into account. Most viewers hate advertising stuck in their faces. Some experienced viewers also know that all free sites offer similar banner advertising.

Just be careful that by using banners you dont give the impression that you are hosting your site on a free server, when in reality you are not. This could backfire easily. Keep that in mind.

If i were you, I'd not use conventional banner like advertising on my personal site... even if it was advertising my own services or products. I'd simply project the message with a different graphical layout, look & positioning!

[Phoenix]

Although banner ads generate traffic, isn't the purpose of your business web site to sell your goods and services? Advertising other goods/services on your web site is not only counterproductive, but it gives an amateurish look to the site.

Unless your site is a content site or an adult site, nix the banners.

[jtm2001]

I agree with the rest of the board... a banner does not do any harm, unless it is like the new kind I've ex. lately... I think they are made with Flash and bounce around or make some really funky designs on your screens... so far I've not found a way to "kill" these. I think I saw a couple on msnbc.com . (but I'm not 1000% sure.)

Also I'd say that banners from the casinos, and X-10 are kinda old... I do like visiting a site and having the banner related to the content of the site... lets say if I visit a site and they sale bikes... but have a banner for a company who specializes in "race tires" for bikes.... As far as I know companies who "cross advertise" come out on top as well...

[MKelso]

If the banner is integrated nicely into the site, and also is relevant in topical interest or product/service to what the business site is about...then yes, it would be fine.

If not, then it definately can detract from a site and be a negative impact.

[fsn]

the range of opinions and information is well taken.

first i have to admit that i meant to post this topic in the lounge and not in the wh-forum as my site (tentatively) will not include webhosting.

next. i think i might shy away from the banner up top of my main site and place the a max of two 90X60s on the side panels. the forum might potentially be a better place for them anyhow. I'm just not the fan of the 468X60s at the top; however, that doesnt' mean i won't change my mind in the future if its necessary or profitable.

and to jtm2001, i know those moving flash banners you are talking about. i've run into a couple thousand for that undercover cop movie (or whatever), thorougly annoying.

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by fsn
and to jtm2001, i know those moving flash banners you are talking about. i've run into a couple thousand for that undercover cop movie (or whatever), thorougly annoying.

Those are called ShoshkelesTM...they are supposedly a secret patented technology, but it's just a flash animation with a transparent background color and a DHTML layer that goes over the top of the main page layer (uh oh, I revealed the secret, I'm going to have to go into hiding now).

Anybody who is familiar with both can create an annoying Flash ad that you can't get rid of. A shame, the animations could be a great way to make a site more engaging and amusing, particularly a children's content site, but noooo...

The 'owners' of the secret technology are http://www.unitedvirtualities.com/