Creating a website is not just about compelling content, you also have to decide on strategic ad placement. What is most important to promote? How can you ensure it falls within a viewer’s immediate line of sight?

Considering the popularity of laptops as desktop computers, we know that browsers are not always full screen, with other things like toolbars and docks taking up space. Visitors do not always bother with scrolling down a page if it is not enticing enough. For me, this is an idea of a surfing consumer on a hot lazy day, sometimes what I feel when I troll through the Internet :

You get the idea.

On the other hand, imagine yourself as an online merchant, who is trying to sell a particular Product X. First thing’s first, you might choose to provide your company’s information on the home page, only placing the image of Product X in the middle of the page. Seems reasonable to you, you might not want to overwhelm your visitor from the get-go. But if your product is too far down the page (and i mean just a mere 100 pixels down), others may not see it when they first view your site.

Then the question is, how do you know how the majority of your visitors view your site?

This is when Google Browser Size comes to your rescue. Google Browser Size is “based on a sample of data from visitors to google.com. Special code collects data on the height and width of the browser for a sample of users. For a given point in the browser, the tool will tell you what percentage of users can see it.” For web designers, you can utilize this to minimize scrolling and ensure that your Product X is always prominent to the audience.

You can have a look at how your website’s propagating your information by keying in your company’s URL here. This is how it looks:

I really like how this works. It is simple to use and understand, any average Joe (or Jane) will be able to look at it and get an idea of the effectiveness of your website. Try using this tool, and contemplate with your web designer on how you can further improve your business’s advertising strategy. Knowing which section captures attention on the majority of your audience’s browsers will definitely prove useful in this discussion.

If you’re interested in learning more, read about Google Browser Size on the Google Code Blog.