Above the fold is the part of a web page visitors see before they scroll.
It still matters, because it gets the most attention and decides whether people keep going, but it is not a rule that everything important must sit there: in our database, moving the right thing above the fold often wins, and cramming the wrong thing there often loses.
This page covers what the term means, what research says about scrolling and below-the-fold content, and what real A/B tests show about what belongs in the first screen of a website.
What above the fold means
The phrase comes from print. Merriam-Webster defines it as content located above the fold on the front page of a broadsheet newspaper, the half a passerby sees on a newsstand.
On the web, it means whatever loads in the browser window before any scrolling.
There is no single fold line. It moves with screen size, browser chrome, cookie banners and device.
A 1920x1080 desktop monitor and a phone show very different first screens, so "the fold" is really a range you check across your top devices, not a pixel value.
In CRO work the term usually refers to the hero section: headline, main image, price or offer, and the primary call to action.
Our hero sections hub collects every test on that area.
Below the fold: people scroll, but attention drops
Below the fold is everything a visitor has to scroll to see.
The old worry was that people don't scroll.
The data says they do, but attention is not spread evenly.
What the research shows
- Attention is front-loaded. In a 2018 eye-tracking study of 120 participants and more than 130,000 fixations on 1920x1080 screens, Nielsen Norman Group found 57% of page-viewing time was spent above the fold and 74% in the first two screenfuls. In their 2010 study, the above-the-fold share was 80%.
- Most time is spent below the fold on content pages. Across 25 million sessions, Chartbeat reported that the majority of readers' collective time is spent below the fold, and that the most-viewed area sits around 550 pixels down, not at the very top.
- Some people never scroll. Chartbeat's analysis of Slate, reported by Slate in 2013, found 5% of visitors never scrolled at all.
Both findings are true at once. People scroll, so below-the-fold content gets seen.
But each screen down gets less attention than the one above it, and the first screen decides whether a visitor stays long enough to scroll.
Note the source types. Chartbeat measures news and content sites, and NN/g measured reading behavior, not purchases.
Neither tells you what converts on a product page or a pricing page. For that you need A/B tests.
What A/B tests show about below-the-fold content
Long pages with content below the fold can win big.
Kasper Dolk tested a long-form landing page with eight sections (header, why, featured review, offer, reviews, how it works, comparison) and reported +259.7% revenue.
PayPanther made a short pricing page longer with FAQs and testimonials and saw +372.6% sign-ups, though on about 1,000 visitors with three changes at once.
Some content does better below the fold. Dave Diederen hid written reviews above the fold on product pages and reported +23.05% revenue per visitor, saying the change won in 8 out of 10 tests across brands.
Clean Commit moved three testimonials up next to the add-to-cart area and got -9.2% conversion rate (not significant, 89.3% probability control was better).
Ordering below the fold matters too. Dave Diederen moved the review section directly below the first screen, swapping it with the USPs, for +10.65% revenue per visitor.
The content didn't change, only which section a scroller meets first.
And moving things up does not always help.
Booking.com moved registration steps higher on its partner join page with no improvement.
Clean Commit moved Shop by Category under the homepage hero and saw -6.2% conversion rate, with mobile down 13.6% and desktop up 8.8% (not significant).
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Clean CommitClean CommitAbove the fold on a website: what to put there
The tests that win share one pattern: the first screen gives visitors the thing they came to do.
Trust content, brand stories and badges help further down, but they lose when they push the main action out of view.
Put the primary action in view
When a key call to action sits below the fold, moving it up is one of the most reliable wins in the database.
- VMware moved try and buy CTAs above the fold from a list of links at the bottom of the page and saw +956% clickthrough (copy tweaks were bundled in).
- Micro Focus moved its free trial button above the fold and removed a Contact Us button, for +12.37% form completions over 15 days on desktop.
- schuh moved the Collect or Reserve button into the first fold of product pages: +19.7% Collect or Reserve conversions, with no effect on Add to Bag.
- Tom's Planner replaced two homepage buttons with a four-field sign-up form above the fold and got +44% sign-ups on close to 3,000 visitors.
The schuh result is a useful detail: moving one CTA up lifted that CTA without hurting the other.
That is the outcome you want to check for in your own test.
Show products, not banners, on shopping pages
On ecommerce homepages and collection pages, shoppers are in browsing mode.
Several tests won by shrinking the header so products appear in the first screen.
- Oliver Kenyon shrank the top section of collection pages so products showed above the fold, reported at +$45K/month.
- Dave Diederen put best sellers above the fold on a homepage and pushed reviews below: +39.03% revenue per visitor.
- Spot Studio replaced brand copy at the top of a Muc-Off category page with a product image slider: +106.26% sales, with no sample size or significance published.
Not every module wins the slot. Clean Commit's best sellers below the hero test showed +16.9% conversion rate but was not significant, so it counts as inconclusive. See homepage optimization for more.
On product pages, get the buy box onto the first screen
A product page that opens with a full-width video and puts the price five screens down is the clearest case for the fold.
Convertibles moved an intimate wellness brand's buy box to the first screen and saw +12% revenue per visitor (872 vs 811 orders, 97% probability to beat control), with several changes stacked.
Clutter in the first screen can hurt even when each piece seems helpful.
Dave Diederen hid the USP badge bar above the fold on a fashion and furniture brand's product page for +8.75% revenue per visitor.
Read product page design and visual hierarchy for how to decide what wins the top spot.
A checklist for your first screen
| Page type | Usually belongs above the fold | Often fine (or better) below |
|---|---|---|
| Product page | Product image, title, price, add to cart, one short trust line | Written reviews, long descriptions, USP grids, FAQs |
| Collection page | Products, filters | Brand story, large banners |
| Homepage | Clear offer, a way into products or categories | Review walls, press, brand values |
| SaaS or lead-gen page | Headline, what it is, primary CTA or short form | Feature details, testimonials, pricing FAQs |
Treat this as a starting hypothesis, not a rule.
The Patrick McKenzie Bingo Card Creator test found downloads fell roughly 25% when a product screenshot moved below the fold, a reminder that for some products the visual proof is the main action.
That was a three-day before-and-after comparison from 2006, not a randomized test.
How to test your own fold
- Check the fold on real devices. Look at your analytics for top screen sizes and view the page on them, with cookie banners and announcement bars showing. Mobile usually matters most: see mobile CRO.
- Look at scroll maps. If most visitors never reach your add-to-cart or main CTA, that is a test candidate.
- Test one move at a time where you can. Many fold tests above bundle copy and layout changes, which makes it hard to know what caused the lift.
- Measure the main conversion, not just clicks. A CTA moved up will almost always get more clicks; what matters is orders, sign-ups or revenue per visitor.
- Segment by device. The Clean Commit category test went opposite ways on mobile and desktop.
Browse every above-the-fold experiment in the product page hero tests and homepage hero tests, or the full test database.
For the wider picture, start at the CRO guide or landing page optimization.