Tracking: Where is “Above the Fold” Exactly for Each of Your Customers?

Everyone has different screen resolutions, but there is a way to find out exactly where that crucial fold is at — by using this one, free tool: FoldTester.

To show you how this works, I decided to examine three EDU landing pages:

LowerMyBills / ClassesUSA

(Click image for full size)

As you can see the page is color coded with approximately what percentage of internet users will see this page without scrolling. Over 90% will see the call to action, “GO” — which means this page focuses on getting the user started immediately on the form instead of trying to sell to them too much.

Phoenix

These guys are one of the heaviest marketers for online degrees so it’s likely they’ll be optimized. This landing page is used in their search marketing campaign. This page has one similarity to ClassesUSA; they both keep their form above the fold for virtually all users. This page has a lot of room for improvement, but the most important change would be to make a single, clear headline. There’s too much competing for attention above the fold.

GoGetEducation

Here’s a random landing page that obviously has not been tested much. Now, you might ask why I know it has not been tested much — because to many marketers, it looks good for these reasons:

1. It has the call to action above the fold
2. The headlines convey what the page is about
3. The photo is relevant
4. Use of credibility images

However, the photo breaks rule #7 of tested ways to increase your conversion rate:

People look at what others are looking at. Have a model looking where you want your user to look.

We want the user to look at the form — not at their back button or other distractions to the left of the page. This page with a few changes and a good presell page could do well though.

Is having your content “Above the Fold” important?

Yes and no. Here’s what I mean: Having your call to action above the fold is essential if your presell is very short. However, in long landing pages many marketers have found out that call to actions lower in the page’s content — instead of it in the first paragraph — have a higher conversion rate. Tracking each call to action and click is important to determine where your call to action should be. So, having your call to action lower in the pages, may actually force people to read your sales pitch before clicking.

Rule of Thumb: Have your most engaging content above the fold. And, at minimum answer these three questions above the fold by use of adcopy and/or design:

1. Where am I?
2. What can I do here?
3. Why do it here?