Above the Fold: Visibility, Priorities and Typical UX Mistakes
What Above the Fold means, what content should be immediately visible and why this area is crucial for SEO, UX and conversion.
The topic often decides whether content is only available or actually meets the search intention. Usually, the biggest lever lies in better tailoring, clearer utility and less in mere amount of text.
What Above the Fold means, what content should be immediately visible and why this area is crucial for SEO, UX and conversion. This wiki page arranges the topic practically and shows, When priority arises, which mistakes are often and how you derive concrete measures from them.
Example: The offer disappears under the banner
On a narrow smartphone, the first view shows only logo, navigation and a large cookie hint. The actual performance and the entry into the form are below. Therefore, check the page with a fresh browser profile and at several screen heights – not only in the already confirmed desktop state.
Prioritize recognizable orientation and an achievable main action. Content below the first view is not automatically worthless; forced squeezing of all information often degrades readability.
Why Is Above the Fold Significant?
It is very important for the communication of the page what the user at first glance and without further action (scrolling or even clicking on a link of the Sitemap) sees. How important it is in concrete terms has been studied in various ways. Of course, it is also true that an interested user likes to continue scrolling and clicking on submenus, but his interest must first be aroused. This is done by the immediately visible part of the page. Before the page is even clicked, Rich snippets (snippets of text already visible in the search results) same function.
However, user behavior also depends on the specific search and on the topic at all. Anyone who wants to find out about a complex product knows that this cannot be explained in two sentences. Nevertheless, it is always recommended to include even the most complex facts in the immediately visible part of the page (even better in the even shorter) Rich Snippet) Short and precise to tease. This is admittedly a great art, but whoever masters it captivates his visitors in less than five seconds.
Above the fold: content design
In order for the immediately visible part of the page to have an effect, some content strategies are available. They should tune the user to the following in the best possible way and motivate them to continue reading.
- Teaser: The teaser summarizes the content in a maximum of three (shorter) sentences.
- Reference to interesting points below alone with the words “see below”
- (shorter) table of contents with a link to the respective point
- Cutting a subsequent image, a graphic or even the next text section
- Reference to the following content by pagination (page numbering, in this case visible: “page 1 of 10”)
For this to work, the web designer must determine the visible area. This differs depending on the end device. It is recommended to orient yourself on the smallest representation on a smartphone. If a web designer thinks that the visible part is very important, tests with users are recommended: They should indicate what is important to them at first glance. Such tests can also be carried out digitally, for example by measuring heatmaps and clickmaps. These are the positions on which a user moves his mouse and which he actually clicks on. Scrollmaps show how far the user scrolls down after capturing the visible part. This makes it possible to determine whether it has fulfilled its function.