The term "The Fold" is probably based on the Broadsheet Newspaper. As a reader reads this newspaper they may "fold" it so that it is more convenient to handle. The part of the newspaper that the user is able to read could be said as being "above the fold". This is the first to be read and generally the most important.
In computer terms the section above "The Fold" is the section of the display that may be viewed first without the user having to scroll down to view any more of the web site content.
Screen Real Estate could be classed as being all the content of any particular web page.
Some search engines also only read the first part of the web page content, (in addition to meta tags), to try to find what the content of that web page is about and which keywords to allow the search engine user to find that web page.
Advice: Try to keep the most important content at the top of the web site page. Content at the top of the page, above 'the fold', should try to encourage the user to access more of your web site.
As well as real people reading web page text some search
engines are less likely to give a good
ratings to links that are places lower down.
Computer display units, (therefore Screen Real Estate), have increased in size. Also the display quality with greater colour depth and more pixels and other hardware have been increased.
This with the increase in internet speeds make multimedia solutions are more acceptable to more users.
A lot of computer monitors have a four, (wide), by three, (high), aspect ratio. Other sizes such as wide-screen monitors which have a sixteen, (wide), by nine format, (high), and other aspect ratio are being used.
Web site designers may have to deal with how to get the most important information displayed
'"The Fold" so visitors don't have to scroll down too much.
Some displays may also be viewed in portrait, that is for example as a four, (high), by three, (high), aspect ratio. In these cases the VDU may be rotated to be viewed as a four, (high), three, (wide), aspect ratio. This may generally be done to appear more like a standard sheet of writing paper.
web site designers maybe put off by an assumption that multimedia solutions are expensive and/or complex to use and implement, with software such as Instant Video Suite this is not the case, as this makes it easy to add video to your web pages.
In the case of the internet, different Internet Browsers, (and different computer hardware), may have an impact on how the web pages is displayed.
Advertisements placed above "The Fold"
are more likely to be viewed and therefore clicked. Therefore these adverts
usually are mare expensive, but may produce a Return On Investment.
Advertisements placed below "The Fold"
may not even get viewed or clicked. (The viewer may not, scroll down, view all
the page). You may still be charged for an impression because the advert may be
loaded.
Using web site layout that causes the user to scrolling left to right is not recommended. The introduction of the 4 way scrolling mouse, and other input devices, may go some way to solving this issue.
Allow for users who may not have good eyesight or may be colour blind.
Google Heat Map Certain locations tend to be more successful than others. This "heat map" illustrates these ideal placements on a sample page layout. The colours fade from dark orange (strongest performance) to light yellow (weakest performance). All other things being equal, ad placements above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold. Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well because users are focused on those areas of a page.
Enquiro Google Heat map. Red colour's show the areas of Google Page which get the Clicks. Blue area get less clicks. Did-it, Enquiro, and Eyetools uncover Search’s Golden Triangle: EyeTracking Study verifies the importance of page position and rank in both Organic and PPC search results for visibility and click through.
Eyetrack study performed by the Poynter Institute, when someone visits your Web page, their eyes start to the left and then move right. Thus, the left and middle positions "above the fold" are prime real estate.
Study after study indicates people are less likely to click on paid search ads and are more lightly to click on results from organic search engine optimization. For example, one study found that search users are up to six times more likely to click on the first few organic results than they are to choose any of the paid results while an
eye tracking study showed that 50 percent of users begin their search by scanning the top organic results. Other studies have shown that only 30 percent of search engine users click on paid listings, leaving an overwhelming 70 percent who are clicking the organic listings. A 2003 study found that 85 percent of searchers report clicking on paid links in less than 40 percent of all of their searches, and 78 percent of all respondents claim that they found the information they were searching for through sponsored links just 40 percent of the time.
Blasting the Myth of the Fold. The Above-the-Fold Myth.First, a definition: The word “fold” means a great many things, even within the discipline of design. The most common use of the term “fold” is perhaps used in reference to newspaper layout. Because of the physical dimensions of the printed page of a broadsheet newspaper, it is folded. The first page of a newspaper is where the “big” stories of the issue are because it is the best possible placement. Readers have to flip the paper over (or unfold it) to see what else is in the issue, therefore there is a chance that someone will miss it. In web design, the term “fold” means the line beyond which a user must scroll to see more contents of a page (if it exists) after the page displays within their browser. It is also referred to as a “scroll-line.”
Screen performance data and new research indicate that users will scroll to find information and items below the fold. There are established design best practices to ensure that users recognize when a fold exists and that content extends below it1. Yet during requirements gathering for design projects designers are inundated with requests to cram as much information above the fold as possible, which complicates the information design. Why does the myth continue, when we have documented evidence that the fold really doesn’t matter in certain contexts?
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