Blog Layout Tips: What’s above the fold?
Tip: The best template layouts show the most important content above the fold. Examine your blog and edit to make sure yours does that.
Define “Above the fold”.
There is no firm definition of “above the fold”. People with larger screens see more; people with smaller screens see less. I consider “shows at the top of the Wordpress preview pane without scrolling” to be “above the fold.”
Here’s a screen shot of one of my recent blog posts:
Does the important stuff show?
Each blogger has their own opinion about what’s “important.” At my blog, I think showing at least a few lines of content is very important: People should not need to scroll to read the first few lines of content. I think showing adSense is somewhat important: If the first few lines of content don’t interest the reader, I’d like them to click the ads!
Viewing that post, I decided that I needed to shift the Google ads up a bit.
I also saw something I consider unimportant showing in my content area: both the date or categories will fulfill their purpose if they appear below the fold.
If I shift those, there may b some hope my content will capture a new visitor’s interest or, failing that, cause them to click on a pay per click ad before they need to decide whether to scroll or hit the back button.
Could I Make Additional Improvements?
Of course! There is no such thing as “the perfect template”. Anyway, I haven’t begun to evaluate my sidebars yet; they are atrocious. I’ll be editing those soon!
Tags:adsense blog blog design blogging layouts template
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6 Responses to “Blog Layout Tips: What’s above the fold?”
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Now to this post. I keep close watch on the analytics of what I have above/below the fold to see which items get the most clicks, which ads(if any) generate the most return, etc.. First impressions are important when a visitor is stopping by. One thing I have always tried to maintain is that my content loads first. I have visited quite a few blogs where everything except content loaded first and I was sitting waiting to read a post.
later all and have a profitable productive blogging day
I’d say that the best definition of “above the fold” for a webpage or blog would be what’s shown in the first screen on either a 1024×768 or 1280×1024 monitor; those seem to be the most common resolutions now - moreso 1280 because of all the LCDs that are being sold.
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
You know, on the one hand, pegging “above the fold” to the monitor display size sound reasonable, but I’m not so sure it’s quite right.
I’ve got 1440 x 900. As a practical matter, those values are nearly irrelevant to what I see above the fold when I arrive at a blog. I never, ever, ever surf with the browser pane covering the full screen. Never. Neither does anyone I know. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I walked into someone’s office and saw any window fully open on any screen. The only time I see windows fully open are at the library (where the pc’s have small monitors) and at the local community college (where the pc’s have small monitors.)
Someone may need to consider how people use their displays to truly figure out what’s above the fold.
Anyway, when I view my blog display in the preview pane of Wordpress, it turns out that’s very close to what I see when I adjust my display while surfing! (I’m not sure what that means though–but I use it as a guide.)
Yeah, I can understand where you’re coming from on that - I have a 1680×1050 monitor myself, but my browser window is generally full height (minus, of course, the Taskbar, toolbars and tabbar), but only about 2/3 the screen width. The only time that I find myself browsing in fullscreen is when I’m wanting to have something centered in the screen, or if I get a scrollbar when I’m browsing. In the end I think it’s just a personal choice of what to put in that first screen you see.
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
It is amazing to me that so many blogs in the “make money” niche use layouts where content loads last. I’m used to craft blogs, and when I became interested in this niche, I expected to the “money / blog about blogging / design / writing tips” blogs to be more aware of these pesky design issues. But, it would seem my expectation was mistaken!
Thanks for commenting!
I agree that what a blogger puts above the fold is a personal choice. But, I do think it’s advisable to force yourself to stop and look at what’s probably above the fold.
There are blogs I’ve visited that don’t show one iota of content above the fold. Sometimes, the blogs even have decent content (which I only have I trusted linked them so I scrolled down) But I honestly can’t help wondering if those people ever loaded their page, forced themselves to pause and looked above the fold!