Banners are a well established tool to encourage certain actions by website visitors.

Most often they are used on Ecommerce websites to drive visitors to specific areas of the website. In most cases these areas have special offers, key messages or specific content that the website owner wants to draw attention to.
But where do you place your banners or “sign posts” to gain the maximum effect when a user is on your page?
The image on shows the result of some (anonymous) research into this and indicates where the best places are to catch the eye of your website visitor. I have not tested these claims but they seem reasonable.
I thin its worth mentioning though that this research is in its infancy and does depend on the overall content of your website and the layout. For example look at the image below. This tracking was apparently done with people who have visited this particular website often and clearly shows the main banner is ignored!

If you have an opinion or comment on this, let me know.