Visitors Ignore Anything That Looks Like an Ad
Website visitors ignore anything that looks like an advertisement, even when it is not one. Nielsen Norman Group has documented this behavior, known as banner blindness, in studies from 1997, 2007, and 2018 (Nielsen Norman Group, 2018). It has held up across two decades of changes in web design.
What the research observed
Eye tracking showed users avoiding three kinds of content (Nielsen Norman Group, 2018):
- Content in positions where ads usually appear, such as a banner across the top or a column on the right.
- Content with ad-like styling: boxed, set on a colored background, heavily formatted, or with text inside an image.
- Content placed close to actual ads.
People have learned that these positions and styles usually contain material unrelated to their task, so they skip them without reading. A real offer that looks like an ad gets the same treatment.
What it means for a business website
Small business sites often present their most important message in exactly this form: a colored box at the top announcing a seasonal special, a promotional graphic with the offer written into the image, or a boxed “Get a free quote” panel. These elements are designed to stand out, and they do stand out visually. Visitors still skip them because they resemble ads.
Design tools that predict attention from color and contrast will often show a bright promo box as a hot spot. Real visitor data often shows the opposite. Trust the real data.
What to do
- Present offers as part of the page content: a plain heading, a short sentence of detail, and a button that looks like a button.
- Write offer details as text on the page, not as words inside an image.
- Avoid putting key content in the top banner slot or the right column.
- If your site shows ads or partner promotions, keep them in visually separate sections from your own content.
Sources
- Pernice. Banner Blindness Revisited: Users Dodge Ads on Mobile and Desktop. Nielsen Norman Group, 2018.