eCommerce Glossary: Above the Fold

Glossary

-----

What Does "Above The Fold" Mean?

The fold has been in existence ever since the beginning of print media. Today, we noticeably see this in newspapers. More specifically, on newspaper stands. The way they get folded and placed on stands make the upper half of the newspaper very visible, and it is the most crucial piece of royalty in the entire newspaper.

In print media above the fold has been the key factor in capturing the attention of the audience. Today, when digital media is on the rise and slowly weaning out the presence of print media, the concept of the fold has shifted online.

Two people collaborating on web design with connected UI components

Above the fold, the website holds the same kind of power and can attract or alienate your audience. Even though newspapers don’t fold like physical media, the portion you see immediately as you log in without scrolling down is new above the fold.

However, the websites are perhaps not as simple as print media.

What Are The Ways To Determine The Ideal Above The Fold?

Analyzing the Importance of Above The Fold Dimensions in Websites

The main designing factor in creating a website should be how it looks to the reader. A majority of your readers and traffic will come from mobile phones and some from the desktop. There are iPads, varieties in sizes of interfaces. So every site has the creative complexity of deciding how to bypass the problems of resolutions and browsers and plugins, and simplify what should be the above the fold area.

The most confusing factor is perhaps how to figure out a consistent above the fold when there are so many varieties in dimensions of phones. They come in all shapes and sizes, so the concept becomes very unpredictable.

You can consider seeking help from online tools that allow you to test how you can place the website and how the fold turns out. This gives you a taste test of how the news is physically presented; however, don’t cross out a full website optimization because that is a much more accurate approximation of how it works in reality. You can see above the fold website examples in the full optimization and can change the layout to fit your requirement as needed.

Screen Resolution

There is no rule when it comes to above the fold placement. However, there are some common methods followed by news media, which is to keep the screen a standard 1000 pixels in width, 600pixels in height as the folded size for a common 1024 x 768-pixel resolution. You don’t have to conform to the same standards that have been followed by all newspapers, which causes many of them to look alike. You can create your unique template and twist it with different scrolling features, which will be much more comfortable for your readers.

Eliminate the Fold

Some news outlets don’t even conform to the idea of above the fold anymore and they create the outlets with content without an above or below the fold line, which works for their tight designs. They can look pleasing to the eye and fit on the screen.

Don't User a False Bottom

What you should be avoiding is a false bottom. This is when newspapers or websites create a page that has more things if the user scrolls down, but it is very difficult for the reader to predict at a glance. The fold should not become the main feature of the website, and it should come naturally to attract the visitors, or they will feel restricted and confused with the outline, and even miss out on things that are not above the fold content.

Where Do You Add Call To Actions?

The Importance Of Above The Fold

The usual practice in the industry is to utilize the value above the fold real estate by milking it for all its worth. And that means ad placements with a call to action that catches the eyes of the readers in an instant. But that is perhaps not suitable for today’s world. There is nuance to how a call to action should be placed with respect to the fold.

You have two types of visitors on a website. There are certain visitors and uncertain visitors. Certain visitors have already made up their minds about the brands you are advertising even before they are coming into your website. Placing your CTA above the fold is a mere convenience and a small push for them.

Uncertain visitors would rather benefit from CTAs being above the fold for the reason that they are yet to decide if they would like to do business with the brand. However, it also imbues value on informative content, because if this visitor does not understand what the CTA is asking, then simply putting it above the fold is not going to help educate and attract them. In fact, in such cases, the website might come off as pushy.

Even though many websites are choosing to opt-out of the notion, this is still an essential concept. Previously, people could rarely read below the fold due to how slow the internet speed used to be. Nowadays, scrolling is second nature to visitors, which means you don’t need to stuff all the information above the fold any longer. It can be spread out below the fold, and welcoming visitors with a minimalist design is considered better for the website considering nobody has time nor patience for clutter. A

study by Google showed that while the above the fold ads had around 73% visibility, below the fold had about 44%. But the equation of visibility is much more complex than that because when paired with engaging content, the gap between above and below the fold content gets lowered. And ads are seen as mere obstacles and inconveniences when they are crammed above the fold without giving due importance to the content which the audience is here for. Striking a balance between the design, text, ads, and content will help you find the perfect above and below the fold balance.