The term “above the fold” originated in reference to the portion of the front page of a newspaper that was above the crease. An up and coming journalist might dream of the day that one of his headlines appears above the fold. The front page of any newspaper is prime time real estate, and the top half of that page is the “crème de la crème.”

In this case, what is true in newspapers is also true in web pages. It’s great when your stat-counting software tells you that a new visitor stayed on your site for 2 minutes and 38 seconds after first landing on your page. But far too often webmasters encounter the dreaded notice that the time on site was “0:01”.

The problem is that the web is just too big; there is too much information out there to ever hope to be able to digest it all. With so much information and so little time we are forced to make snap judgments about every web page that we land on. And if we happen to land on a new web page, what information are we going to make our split second judgment based on…?

Most likely, based on whatever is above the fold. The portion of a web page that is said to be above the fold is the portion that you see when you land on a page before you do any scrolling. If you look at the top of our webpage you will notice a header image, as well as opt-in form for our email newsletter. Nowhere above the fold on our site will you notice any Google AdSense ads.

This fact should act as a big hint that we are more interested in email opt-ins that we are in having people click on advertisements. Regardless of what you wish to emphasize on your site, pay special attention to the most valuable visual real estate you have, the area above the fold.