For many years many web developers have stuck to the maxim ‘don’t place content below the fold’, however, times have changed and so have web pages (the best of them have anyway).

So, for those of you that think I am talking geek once more (yes Geoff I can hear your thoughts now!) what is ‘the fold’ ?

Think back to how you used to buy a newspaper (remember those things, printed text in ink on poor quality paper that helped to screw up the environment and keep you (mis)informed about what THEY thought was happening in the world). It commonly came folded in half.

The top half of the page with the headlines and the banner is ‘above the fold’ and the other bit ‘below the fold’. Makes sense doesn’t it ?

So what does this have to do with the price of fish and websites ?

Well, for a long time, the credible reasoning has been that people are basically lazy and that they will only read what is at the top of your website rather than scrolling down the page to check out the rest of your copy – so why put any copy ‘below the fold’ because no one will see it.

Times have changed, however, and your standard old fashioned ‘brochure’ website that is maybe changed once or twice or even 10 times a year no longer cuts it in a world of websites with dynamic content being updated many times a week and promoted like crazy.

Please accept my apologies if this describes your website. I do not mean to offend, rather to educate and if your are not interested in learning how to better market your business online you have no business being here on our website – so off with you now sirrah !!

Go on, those who are not serious about digital marketing for their business, go now – I’m waiting……………………………………………. and don’t slam that door !

So, now we have ejected the non-believers, we can get back to making a point.

Modern websites make sure they continually serve their visitors AND THE GOOGLEBOT interesting and relevant content that is updated regularly.

Many of the websites we build include a section on the homepage (below the fold) that summarizes the top articles on the website with an image as well to make it more enticing for the site visitors to click on the link and read the article (see the image of our homepage to the left).

This not only allows visitors to our website to checkout our new and best content very quickly, however, it also ensures that we are feeding the homepage (and the Googlebot) with new relevant content regularly. Yes the content is below the fold but visitors are used to that now and many of them have these magical little scroll wheels on their mouse which allows them to peruse all the content really quickly and without too much effort at all.

At the end of the day it is a tradeoff. By all means put the most important stuff above the fold. The rules still hold true for that.

Buy now buttons, links to special offers or special content, your logo, contact details, main menu etc. But do not constrain the effectiveness of your site by having a piddly little page with a tiny bit of content that is plonked there and stays there ad infinitum.

Anyway, as is often the case, others can say it better than I can so, if you want to read more, I suggest you click on the link to The Myth of the page Fold for more technical information on why this is no longer a big issue.

Oh, and by the way, this does not apply to any website where you have to scroll left to right to read content. If that is the case then any of the following might be true;-

• You are using an 800×600 pixel monitor – get a new monitor grand dad – honestly they do not cost that much you tight git !
• You have the resolution setting in your control panel set way too low for your monitor – get some glasses and you might be able to see the road as well
• The web designer who built the site either doesn’t care about you or is a moron (take your pick)

What d’ya mean you have to scroll sideways on your mouse to see this page ? No, I am not a moron !!!!!

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