Banners for Website Advertising

Banner advertising you either love it or hate it but there is no denying that it still plays an important part in many website advertising campaigns.
However, many Internet security software suites have taken it upon themselves to block these banner adverts by using JavaScript that appears within the page code. This is totally unbeknown to the visitor who may not notice any real difference in the website they are viewing.
Now for a website visitor this is an excellent breakthrough, but from a website designer and banner advertisers aspect this can be a potential nightmare.

Example - Norton Internet Security has default settings that automatically block many banner adverts from appearing on the websites that you visit. The software looks for images that are in folders named: promote, promotions, sponsor, sponsors and banners to name but a few. Any images placed within these directories are unlikely to appear.
It can also detect the common banner advertising sizes and block these as well e.g. 460 x 60 pixels (Full Banner).
Considering that Norton Internet Security is one of the biggest selling security software suites (source Amazon) it makes you wonder how many people are unaware of what they are missing or not as the case maybe.

How to recognise the banner block on a website?

If a banner fails to appear, ask the user to click view source in Internet Explorer. If Norton is in use, it will show code similar to this:

function SymError()
{
return true;
}

window.onerror = SymError;

var SymRealWinOpen = window.open;

function SymWinOpen(url, name, attributes)
{
return (new Object());
}

How can a website designer overcome this?

1. If you have to use banner adverts be sure to place them inside a directory that the software does not have in its ban list. The straightforward image or images directory is the obvious choice. No software is ever likely to block these directory names.
2. Make your banners non-standard sizes e.g. 461 x 61 pixels

Do not forget to ask as many people as possible to check the website to ensure that all banners are appearing correctly.

Webdimension
Cardiff Wales UK

Tel: 029 20555509