Best Practices Suggest Increased Online Conversion Rates By Focusing Above The Fold

  • Written by By Raquel Hirsch, Senior Marketer,
  • Published in Feature Articles
Conversion Optimization is both the science and art of getting more actions (i.e., increasing the conversion rate) on your web pages from the traffic that is already coming to your site.

Why do web actions matter? It all comes down to simple math: by improving the online conversion rate of your landing pages, you improve the ROI on your marketing investments (which I am sure you’ll agree, from an ROI perspective is smarter than simply spending more money on advertising driving more traffic to your site).

As a strategy, Conversion Optimization is “science” because it requires you to run statistically valid experiments that prove the work of your web designer is supported by real conversion data. But it is also “art” because you absolutely need a creative and conversion-savvy designer to build the better pages (a statistician would have no clue as to how to actually design your web page for improvement).

Conversion Optimization “best practices” vary widely depending on the industry, product, season, target market, etc, and so there are very few truisms. You need to run your own conversion experiments to determine what works best for you and your company’s offering.

Having said that, a “best practice” for you to consider when designing your landing pages for increased conversions is to make sure the call to action (CTA) is visible to the highest possible number of web visitors, that is, it is “above the fold.”

“Above the fold” refers to the section of your web page that is visible without scrolling. As Steve Krug writes in his excellent web usability book Don’t Make Me Think, what most web users (i.e., your customers) do is “glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they are looking for”. In other words, your web visitors simply don’t scroll. We at WiderFunnel Marketing have run countless client experiments proving this point.

Externally, there are interesting stats supporting the importance of keeping your key content above the fold – and not just on your website:

We learned from the Vertical Response’s email blog that:
  • 43-60% of all clicks in an email happened in the first article which is mainly above the fold

  • 15-30% of all clicks happened on the 2nd article

  • 6-8% of all clicks happened in the third article
While these stats are for email clicks, the conclusion has been demonstrated repeatedly to be one of the top factors in website conversion rates too.

Also in Search behavior ranking above the fold matters. We learn from SEO Design Solutions that although the way we search is unique, based on the keywords and phrases we use, certain elements remain intact, such as the innate desire to click the search results above the fold. One thing is certain, and that is that ranking above the fold (the top 5 positions) can make or break a business as far as conversion and click through rates.

WARNING SIGNS TO WATCH OUT FOR:
  • Is your web designer’s screen the largest you have ever seen?

  • Does your web designer minimize his/her window to reflect what most of your web visitors will see “above the fold”?
If your web designer isn’t designing for your web visitors but for other designers with extra-large screens, it’s time to rethink your designer. Remember: people avoid scrolling, reading and generally exerting effort so your Conversion Guru needs to design landing pages (and emails) to make your desired Actions happen above the fold. And this most likely means a 1024 x 768 pixel screen.

YOUR CONVERSION IMPROVEMENT ACTION ITEM:
The first thing you can do to increase conversions is make sure that every site visitor has the ability to immediately see (and act) on your CTA. Here is a quick checklist of what you can do right now:
  1. Find out what screen sizes your customers use by taking a quick look at your Screen Resolution stats (this should be easy to find in your web analytics data)

  2. Determine where the fold is for 80% of your web visitors (i.e., the spot beyond which most visitors will have to scroll to see more)

  3. Go to your website and determine whether or not 80% of your web visitors can actually see your call to action without scrolling.
If fewer than 80% of your visitor can see your Call-To-Action, get conversion rate lift by moving it higher on the page.

EXAMPLE:
www.whistlerblackcomb.com is the Official Site for Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort in Whistler, BC Canada. This remarkable resort has a powerful website where web visitors are able to plan and book Whistler vacations including lift tickets, ski and snowboard rentals, ski and snowboard school and Whistler hotels, lodging and condos (they can also see Whistler web cams, photos, snow reports, live weather and everything else to help plan a dreamy Whistler escape).

WiderFunnel Marketing Inc (www.widerfunnel.com) is a conversion optimization outsourcing company. They run statistically valid experiments on their clients’ web pages and deliver new web page designs that have a higher conversion rate, thereby improving the ROI on clients’ marketing investments. Raquel has over twenty years of senior marketing experience in diverse industries with extensive expertise in lead-generation and conversion optimization. She can be reached at Raquel.Hirsch@widerfunnel.com