Banner Ads

Did adding the banner ads sabotage my site? A month ago today I added the 125 x 125 banner ads to my site, and I must admit that I was concerned my bounce rate would go up. The good news for me? A whopping 5% decrease in bounce for May comparing to April.

It’s What Visitors Expect

I believe it was Jakob Nielson that coined the phrase, it’s what visitors expect. Visitors spend most of their time on other sites, not yours or mine, and because they do, they learn to expect certain things on a website. A simple example would be a link to the home page. Most websites have a link to their home page. It’s an important thing to do, and most visitors to a website would expect to find it.

Though banners are hardly as important as a link to the home page, visitors do expect to see them, especially on a blog like this. They may even add a little credibility. Who would advertise on a spam site?

Did Banners Decrease the Bounce?

I seriously doubt that the banners were responsible for the major drop in the bounce rate, but they certainly didn’t hurt it. In my particular case they could have helped at least a little. Two of the banners link to other pages on this site. I’m basically using them to advertise myself. What better place to do it? Nearly 25% of the traffic I received on my Twitter Toolbar page came from that little 125 banner. With those numbers I doubt I will ever take that banner down.

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