What Does Above the Fold Mean in Site Design?

A phrase you might often hear tossed about in web design is “above the fold”.  Now what does it mean?  To find out the answer, you have to go back and look at those ancient documents or grandparents used to share information before the time of the Internet.  Yes, I am speaking of newspapers.

In Newspapers

Now picture a newspaper in your head.  When you purchase one, or unroll the one delivered to your door, it is folded in half.  The top half is what you see first – so it is important real estate for big headlines, photos and advertisements. 

In Web Site Design

In the web design world, the term has been extended to refer to the portion of a web page you can see without having to scroll down.  This is also sometimes referred to as “above the scroll”. 

So what can you learn from this? 

It is a key reminder to keep your most important content on a web site front and center, so it is seen first when a visitor comes to your web site.  However, with that said, you should also not try to squeeze all of your content above the fold either.