What does Above the Fold mean?
Above the fold simply means the area of the web page that is visible to the end user without scrolling. The term “above the fold” originated from the newspaper industry, referring to the portion of the paper visible when it’s folded in half.
It is the most crucial part in the user experience (UX) as the visitors would see and interact with it when they first visit the website. So, most important information and call to actions should be used in order to achieve better conversion rates.
Why is above the fold important?
Above the fold helps users understand what the page is all about. It also guides users to the most important part of the website via navigation buttons and related information.
Best experience in above the fold section will help businesses improve their SEO making search engines index their most important content on the website.
Above the fold for Mobile devices
As the number of mobile devices increases around the globe, many new and odd sizes of screens are adding up making it difficult for website and application designers to manage them.
Also, the internet is easily accessible on mobile devices, thus a variety of users are making their way on new products coming in the market. Current web designing practices have to make sure that they provide responsive designs that can be used across devices and manage content of various types without any issues.
How above the fold is used in SEO?
Google has released a number of algorithm updates over the past few years that helps webmasters understand what kind of content website owners should use on their website in the above the fold section; including putting less ads and misleading links.
Including too much content above the fold can make the page look cluttered and overwhelming. Thus the content should be easily visible without scrolling down and give enough idea to the user what the website is all about.
Even in the case of email marketing, it is very important to give proper information in “above the fold” sections as it will help users to make final decisions of buying the products.
Heatmaps for optimization
By using useful heatmap software, businesses will be able to gain insights about how users are interacting with the content in that area. That will not only help designers improve that section, but it will also help the marketeers to put useful links, content and buttons in that section.