Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Blogs

January 20, 2014

Above the Fold

The first time I had a story above the fold, I called my parents, carefully snipped out the article for my scrapbook, and did a little, early-20s celebrating.

Above the fold meant something. It’s what people would see when they opened their front door and the newspaper lay on the porch. It’s what might compel people to buy the paper from a stand or a gas station. Above the fold was a big deal.

And even though publishing has changed immensely in the past twenty years, above the fold still matters. Increasingly we turn to the Internet for our news rather than a traditional paper. But what appears on the landing page of a website makes a difference.

If you’re more comfortable, we can update the language from above the field to before the scroll. But the premise is the same: The amount, type, and look of content on the initial screen matters.
I read a great article about the importance of above the fold. It explains that even as our tools are changing, and we become accustomed to swiping on our smartphones or iPads, 80% of our attention is on the content above the fold on the homepage.

This article gives great technical tools to optimize your content for the different access points, as well as how to take into account various screen resolutions and other key pointers for implementation.

But what I hope we’ll think about here are the implications for our church websites. The article asks if our above-the-fold content expresses a “strong value proposition.” That is, does it tell the user why the content is important and how it will impact the user’s life. Now, if you’re saying to yourself, I don’t know the answers to those questions, then it’s time to back up and reassess. It may be that you’re uncomfortable articulating the answers to those questions when it comes to faith and your congregation. Or it may be that your congregation needs to evaluate its mission.

But presuming you know the value proposition of your congregation, the question is: Does the content above the fold tell that story to others?

Just as we need to find ways to make our physical structures inviting and hospitable, we need to spend the time and energy to make our virtual structures compelling so that folks are willing to scroll and follow links and dig into our site. We want all of our doors to be open and welcoming.