Why ‘Above The Fold’ is Website Gold

In direct marketing we’ve always talked about ‘above the fold’ to mean that part of a sales letter that is visible before you unfold the paper.

It’s a crucial element that can make the difference between someone tossing your letter in the trash and opening it up for a closer look.

Technology changes, but the terminology doesn’t.  We still refer to ‘above the fold’, even for internet marketing, where it means that part of the web page which is visible to the reader without having to scroll down. I guess it’s simpler than having to call it ‘that part of the web page which is visible to the reader without having to scroll down’!

If above the fold was important in direct mail, it’s even more crucial online because your prospect isn’t holding your message in their hands – and leaving it behind without trace is a matter of a simple click of the mouse.  Don’t let anyone tell you that if your website looks great people will scroll down to get to the meat of your sales message … if they say that they know nothing about internet marketing.

In fact, the top of your page needs to be strategically planned to be both arresting and engaging:

The Three Best Things to Have Above The Fold

• An eye-catching graphic that is relevant to your message and optimized for your keywords
• A headline that grabs attention by highlighting benefits or suggesting a solution to ‘pain’
• Your contact information

The Three Worst Things to Have Above the Fold

• A graphic or slide show which, while it may be beautiful, doesn’t support your sales message, and which drives your headline down below the fold
• A sentence starting with the words ‘I’ or ‘We’
• A huge block of uninterrupted text

Yes, you want your website to be beautiful – but not at the expense of response.  When your message is presented strategically on every web page then great design and professional copy support one another in making your website irresistible.

If you want to know more about the strategy behind website design, download the free Website Strategy Report here.