What information should you include at the top of your website’s front page?
The “above-the-fold” is the area of a website page you can see without scrolling. This use to be very important when everyone was searching the internet on a desktop. The idea of an above-the-fold area has changed because now people use desktops, tablets, and mobile devices of various screen sizes to browse the internet. This makes it difficult to know exactly what people can see before they scroll.
Check out what elements show on your website in different screen sizes, and you may want to make some adjustments. If you are a local service business like an HVAC site, you want to make sure your phone number stands out on a phone so they can easily click and call you.
When a website visitor comes to your front page, you only have a few seconds to encourage them to take an action. That may mean offering something that grabs their attention and makes them want to learn more about your products or services.
Use the PRIME REAL ESTATE portion of your front page to accomplish these goals:
1) Confirm they are in the right place
2) Pique their interest to learn more
3) Get them to the information they want quickly
1 – Confirm they are in the right place
- Location – Where are you located? What is your service area?
- Service/Product – What do you do offer?
If you are a local business, it is important to make clear what your service area is in addition to the service or product you offer.
If you service a specific city, include that in your h1 title tag above the fold.
Example: Tampa Air Conditioning and Heating
Right away as a site visitor I know what you do and where you operate.
2 – Pique their interest in learning more
- Points of difference – Why should they use you? Why are you better? What pain point do you help them relieve?
- Solution to a pain point – What solutions do you offer?
- Trust signals – If you have trust signals to include like great Google reviews or customer testimonials, they are great additions to your above the fold area.
3 – Get them the information they want quickly
- CTAs – What are the next steps you want them to take?
Offer 2 or 3 call to action choices to send them immediately to the information they are looking for. Again, using an air conditioning site as an example, offering CTAs for repair, replacement, and service might make the best sense. Most people coming to the site are looking for one of these options. - Contact info
Make it clear how they can contact you. This might be a phone number or a contact form. You don’t want them to have to work to find that information.If you are a business that handles emergency calls like a heating and air conditioning business, they might just be looking for your phone number to call you, so you want to make that very clear and prominent in the above the fold area.
How do you prefer to be contacted? If you are a local business like an air conditioning company, visitors might just be on your website to get your phone number to call.
What you offer depends on your business
These are just suggestions for what you should include on your website’s above-the-fold area. You should have a good idea about WHO your visitors are and what they are looking for. Some of these elements might not need to be on your site. If you service the entire country, you don’t need location information. If you are a new business, you may not have testimonials or reviews to showcase.
Avoid a busy, distracting page
If you have too many things crammed into the top of the page, a user’s eye doesn’t know what to look at. Clean and uncluttered is key.
Encourage scrolling
Try to have a little of the next section showing so visitors know there is more content. Mobile users scroll! Do provide helpful content past the top part of your site.
Take a little time to evaluate the top of your front page to see what elements you currently have and how you may be able to improve it.