Above vs below the fold: where attention goes, and what belongs where

What is the difference between above and below the fold?

Above the fold is the part of a page on screen when it loads. Below the fold is everything a visitor reaches only by scrolling. The line between them is the bottom edge of the browser window, so it sits at a different height on every device.

Our guide on what above the fold means shows where that line falls on laptops, monitors and phones. This guide compares the two zones: who sees each one, for how long, and what to put where.

The difference is cost. Nielsen Norman Group calls it interaction cost: content above the fold costs nothing to see, content below it costs a decision and a scroll. In the words of NN/g: “Users do scroll, but only if what’s above the fold is promising enough.”

How attention splits between above and below the fold

In 2018 Nielsen Norman Group analysed more than 130,000 eye fixations from 120 participants on a 1920 × 1080 screen. The pages covered news, ecommerce, blogs, FAQs and encyclopedia entries. Therese Fessenden reported the results in Scrolling and Attention.

Part of the page	Share of viewing time
First screen, above the fold	57%
Second screen	17%
Everything further down	26%, in small amounts per screen

Inside the first screen, attention leans to the top again. More than 65 percent of the viewing time above the fold went to the top half of the window. Measured by page length instead of screens, the top fifth of a page got more than 42 percent of all viewing time.

The trend matters too. In the 2010 NN/g study, 80 percent of viewing time fell above the fold. People scroll more than they did, but the sharp drop after the first screen kept the same shape.

The fold is a cliff, not a slope

Attention does not fade evenly down the page. It falls at the fold line. In The Fold Manifesto (2015), Amy Schade of NN/g describes an analysis of 57,453 eye fixations: the 100 pixels right above the fold were viewed 102 percent more than the 100 pixels right below it.

Two strips of page a few pixels apart, and one gets twice the looks. The order of your content is a decision about who sees it, not a layout detail.

In short Above the fold reaches every visitor; below the fold has to earn its readers. Put the one thing a stranger must understand above the line.

People do scroll. Does below the fold still matter?

Yes, for the visitors who stay. Chartbeat looked at 25 million sessions on publisher sites, and Josh Schwartz reported where readers spent their time. The most viewed spot was right above the fold, at about 550 pixels, seen by a little over 80 percent of visitors.

From there, reach drops. Half of all readers got to 1,500 pixels on article pages, and only to 1,000 pixels on home pages.

Time tells the other half of the story. The top of the page stayed in view for about 4 seconds. The area around 1,200 pixels down stayed in view nearly three times as long, for the readers who got there.

So the two zones do different jobs. Above the fold wins reach: almost everyone sees it, briefly. Below the fold wins time: fewer people, reading longer, deciding whether to act.

What belongs above the fold and what belongs below

Use the split from the research. Above the fold goes what a stranger needs to decide to stay. Below the fold goes what an interested visitor needs to decide to act.

Content	Where	Why
Headline that says what you offer	Above	Every visitor sees it, and it decides the scroll
Who it is for	Above	Visitors check fit before they read on
Primary call to action	Above, repeated below	Ready visitors should not have to hunt for it
One proof point: a number or a named customer	Above	A reason to believe within seconds
Features and how it works	Below	Read by visitors who already care
Testimonials and case studies	Below, one teaser above	Proof works once the offer is clear
Pricing details and FAQ	Below	Answers objections at the point of decision
Longer forms	Below, or on their own page	Ask for effort after the value is clear

The hero section does most of the work above the fold. A headline, one line under it, one button and one image is all a single screen holds on a phone.

The false floor: when the fold stops the scroll

Below the fold only works if visitors know it exists. NN/g calls the failure the illusion of completeness: the screen looks finished, so people stop. Kim Flaherty describes it in The Illusion of Completeness (2016).

One case from that article: a food delivery site opened with a full-screen video and a Get Started button. Six of eight test users did not realise they could scroll. They clicked the button and filled in their details before they found out what the company did.

Signals that create a false floor:

• A hero image or video that ends exactly at the bottom of the screen, with nothing showing below it.
• A full-width line or a wide band of white space where the first screen ends.
• An ad or promotion block that looks like the end of the content.

The fix is a glimpse. Let the top of the next section show above the line, a heading or the edge of a card, so the page visibly continues. NN/g’s own verdict on scroll arrows: a good design should not need one.

How to check both halves of your page

Test the first screen with a five-second test. Show it to someone new for five seconds, hide it, and ask what the company offers, who it is for and what they would click. Vague answers mean the fold is not earning the scroll.

Check the rest with scroll depth in your analytics. If most visitors leave at the first screen, the problem sits above the fold. A better proof section will not help people who never reach it.

The free test on 5sec.io reads your first screen the way a stranger does. The Above the Fold Audit scores about fifteen key pages before the scroll. The Full-Page Audit follows the same pages down to the footer: page structure, story, proof placement and forms.