Most usability experts agree that rotating banners on the homepage are not always successful and are often ignored by users. Especially because most rotating banners are not user-friendly at all. With the right setup of the rotating banner, it can indeed be effective.
The use of rotating banners is almost indispensable on the homepage of webshops; unfortunately, most are poorly executed and not user-friendly. The Baymard Institute has researched the use of rotating banners on the homepage.
Not all banners are seen
Users often orient themselves from top to bottom and therefore only see one slide. Keep in mind that there is a chance your users will miss a number of slides. Therefore, be careful about placing important information in the rotating banner.
The first banner is the most seen
Ensure that the banner with the most important information is visible first. The first banner is often seen by many visitors, while the following banners are often missed or ignored. This is also clearly demonstrated in the research by Erik Runyon on the CTR of these rotating banners. More than half of all clicks were made on the first banner.
Banners should reinforce the product
Many rotating banners are animated and quickly attract attention, but not always in the right way. Users are not always pleased with unnecessary animations, so always ensure that the banners reinforce the products being sold.
Do not rotate banners too quickly
The automatic rotation of banners is a good way to present users with the different banners. However, ensure that users have time to read and absorb the information. It is important that the slider pauses when the user hovers the mouse over the banner, and it should remain paused permanently when the user clicks within the slider.
Do not rotate banners too slowly
The Baymard Institute has researched the optimal speed for rotating banners. They recommend displaying each banner for 5 to 7 seconds. For content-rich banners, they suggest maintaining 10 seconds.
GA UTM codes
When you also use the rotating banner in your webshop, it is good to measure its success. With the help of Google UTM codes the success of the different banners can be measured in Google Analytics.
