What belongs above the fold when the fold keeps moving

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

The argument recurs in every website project. One side says nothing important should sit below the first screen; the other says people scroll now and the whole concept is obsolete.

Both are partly right. There is no single fold, because screens vary enormously, and what a visitor sees first still determines whether they scroll at all. The useful version of the question is not where the line falls but what has to be visible before somebody decides to keep going.

1. What belongs above the fold is whatever earns the scroll

Reframe the objective.

The first screen has exactly one job: to convince a stranger that the rest of the page is worth their time. Everything placed there should be judged against that single test, and anything that fails it is occupying the most valuable space on the site for no return. Everything in it should be judged against that, and anything that does not contribute is occupying valuable space.

2. Include what the business does

The most frequently missing item.

A visitor should be able to tell what you offer without scrolling. Sites opening with a photograph and a slogan force people to hunt for the one basic fact that determines whether they stay, and a proportion of them decline to hunt.

3. Include who it is for

Recognition happens here.

A short indication of the customer you serve lets the right person identify themselves immediately. This is frequently one clause of six or seven words, and it does a wholly disproportionate amount of work for its length.

4. Include a way to act

Not because everybody will, but because some will.

A proportion of visitors arrive already decided. Making the primary action visible immediately captures them without requiring the persuasion the rest of the page provides.

5. Include one piece of credibility

Trust is assessed early.

A rating, a client name, a registration, a number of years. One concrete signal in the first screen changes how everything below it is read, and its absence leaves the reader assessing your claims without any reason to believe them.

6. Check it at the sizes people actually use

The measurement that ends the argument.

Look at your first screen on a small phone, a large phone and a laptop. The differences are substantial, and the small phone is usually the one nobody checked.

7. Do not let a banner consume the whole screen

A common and expensive layout.

Full-height images with a slogan push everything useful out of view, particularly on phones. Reducing that image so the first line of real substance appears above the fold is frequently the single most valuable change available on a small business homepage.

8. Signal that there is more below

Make the scroll obvious.

Content visibly beginning at the bottom edge tells people there is more. A screen ending on a clean boundary reads as the end of the page, and a share of visitors treat it as one.

9. Stop treating below the fold as unimportant

The opposite mistake.

People do scroll when given a reason, and cramming everything into the first screen produces something unreadable. The first screen earns attention; the rest of the page does the persuading.

Watch a recording of real visitors if your analytics allows it. Where people stop scrolling, and which screen they leave from, answers this question for your site far more reliably than any general rule about folds.

Conclusion

Judge the first screen by whether it earns the scroll rather than by whether it contains everything.

Make sure a stranger can tell what you do and who you do it for, provide a visible way to act for those already decided, include one concrete piece of credibility, check the layout on a small phone as well as a laptop, stop full-height banners from consuming the entire screen, let content begin at the bottom edge so the scroll is obvious, and use the rest of the page for the persuasion rather than compressing it upward.