Updated:
by Wayne Smith
The content above the fold is the first thing visitors see when they land on your site—before they begin scrolling. It plays a crucial role in your marketing strategy, directly influencing SEO, conversion rates, and the likelihood of users bouncing back.
Solution Smith
Solution Smith evaluates above-the-fold content using the Search Quality Rater Guidelines. This approach ensures seamless improvements to search performance, the user’s marketing experience, and other digital channels. It enhances clarity by avoiding content overcrowding and aligning page messaging with user intent. It also accounts for visibility and scroll depth on smartphones and other mobile devices.
To optimize user engagement and make pages more memorable, Solution Smith strategically incorporates visual design and interactive elements. These features align with engagement signals considered by Google’s NavBoost algorithm, such as user clicks and dwell time.
While Google's official webmaster documentation remains vague about how above-the-fold content impacts rankings, the rater guidelines provide critical insights.
SEO for Above-the-Fold Content
Google’s NavBoost algorithm adjusts rankings based on user engagement metrics such as clicks, scrolling behavior, and dwell time. By placing compelling visuals and key information above the fold, you can increase the interaction signals that NavBoost favors.
On-Page Keyword Optimization Zones remain crucial. One of the earliest implementations of above-the-fold SEO came from Inktomi—later used by Hotbot—which analyzed CSS to determine visible text placement. Content that appeared higher on the page was given more ranking weight. Even today, modern algorithms continue to emphasize above-the-fold content.
Visual Predominance and SEO
This innovation changed the SEO landscape. Before it was well understood, many websites unknowingly buried key content below the fold—causing them to lose visibility in search results. Once site owners began prioritizing their top content zones, rankings significantly improved.
One of the most critical elements above the fold is the H1 tag, which acts as both the page’s visual and semantic headline. If it's not prominently placed or is visually subordinate, its effectiveness—both for users and search engines—drops.
See more in our guide on Optimizing Headlines for SEO: H1 Keywords.
This section of the page is ideal for A/B testing. What appears here directly affects user behavior, interaction rates, and overall engagement.
Unlike previous search algorithms...
Above the Fold -- type of content and user intent
The type of content affects what needs to appear in the above-the-fold content. The page intent needs to match the search intent and clairity needs to be maintained by not overcrowding the above-the-fold content.
A Video Watch Page
For video content, the video needs to show above-the-fold, or rendered HTML as shown in the Google preview. A "Video isn't on a watch page," results when the video is not above the fold.
The "in the rendered HTML," -- Source: Google Webmaster Support
A Call to Action
Call to action includes any action the user is intended to take when landing on the page. For example, downloading a report, Checking shipping status, etc., are called to action.
The call to action button should be visible in the rendered portion of a smartphone without the visitor needing to scroll.
Informational Pages
For informational content, it’s best to present a lead-in, summary, TL;DR, or a concise overview above the fold—where users can see it immediately without scrolling. This improves user experience and signals relevance to search engines.
Currently, only about 5% of search results receive AI-generated summaries from Google, and fewer than 4% are eligible for featured snippets. That makes your above-the-fold content especially valuable in communicating page intent directly.
FAQ Content Use Case
FAQs clearly signal user intent to both visitors and search engines. If the purpose of a page is to answer a question, that question should be visible above the fold—ideally as the main headline.
Structured data (schema) can reinforce this. For example, FAQPage schema helps Google understand that your content answers specific questions, while Recipe schema signals that the page answers a "how to make" query.
There’s no need to create multiple variations of the same question. Google’s Hummingbird algorithm accounts for query rephrasing and semantic similarity.
Even if a page answers a list of related questions, it shou
Above the Fold for the Home Page – Trust Signals
The H1 tag on the homepage should display the site or brand name. This acts as the primary keyword for navigational intent searches and should appear above the fold for visibility and clarity.
For informational pages, the H1 should also appear above the fold and include the primary keyword. A subheading directly beneath it should provide a TLDR or lead-in (LEDE) to summarize the page. In contrast, the homepage typically doesn’t include a TLDR, as its role is broader and more navigational.
Trust signals—such as your business name, address, and phone number (NAP)—should be prominently displayed above the fold on the homepage. Because the homepage often functions as a hub, links to pages like "About Us" and "Contact Us" should also be clearly visible.
Just as an informational page’s headline promises value and answers, homepage trust signals convey a promise of credibility and support. Even if full details appear below the fold or on linked pages, the above-the-fold area must establish trust at a glance.
Author Byline and Publish Date as Trust Signals
Displaying the author byline above the fold associates the author’s name with the page's primary keywords. This can help the page rank in search results when users query using the author’s name alongside those keywords.
N.E.E.A.T.T is an extended version of Google’s E-E-A-T. Kalicube developed the acronym to include: Notability, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and Transparency. While Google does not explicitly list Notability and Transparency, Kalicube argues these are essential to demonstrating trustworthiness in search results.
Why? Because humans at Google aim to serve content from notable and transparent entities.
Source: Kalicube
Byline Schema and Publish Date Semantics
Images Above the Fold – Use Case
Google does not honor the following meta tag to select a featured thumbnail for search listings:
Instead, Google chooses whether to display a thumbnail based on the inferred search intent. If a thumbnail is displayed, having a high-quality image positioned above the fold may improve visibility and ranking.
Image-based intent—such as users searching for infographics, charts, or product visuals—can trigger thumbnail displays in results. While not guaranteed, search engines continuously adapt to match user expectations.
When images are used, ensure they are high-resolution and meet the quality standards required for platforms like Google Discover (when applicable). Avoid pushing the headline below the fold, as it weakens SEO and user experience.
Additional Value of Images
Beyond SEO benefits, above-the-fold images contribute to user engagement and trust. Visual content can reinforce your message, highlight credibility, and keep visitors on the page. As always, create content with your audience in mind—not just search engines.
Table of Contents – Above the Fold Use Case
Not every page requires a table of contents, but pages with multiple subheadings often benefit from including one.
Google frequently generates jump-to-link featured snippets for pages where a table of contents improves navigation and user experience.
How to Optimize for Jump-to-Links Snippets
If Google is displaying jump-to-links for your page, placing a table of contents above the fold can enhance visibility and usability. Otherwise, a TOC above the fold may not be necessary. NavBoost can help determine whether including a TOC in this position is beneficial.
Above the Fold – Load Speed
A key challenge for search engines when ranking based on above-the-fold content is preventing visitors from seeing irrelevant or slow-loading content. Equally critical for user retention is the perception of fast page speed; slow or janky loading often causes visitors to abandon the site.
There is speculation that Web Vitals influence rankings. While a perfect Web Vitals score can be achieved by delaying content loading until user interaction (such as scrolling), this approach results in a poor user experience and offers little to no real return on investment.
Bounce rate is influenced more by the perceived speed of above-the-fold content loading,
not by overall page speed or Web Vitals metrics.
Users’ perception of page speed often differs significantly from what Google’s Web Vitals measure, and it is not directly tied to the total load time of the page.
Web Vitals can sometimes rate a page with poor user experience as good, and conversely, a page that feels fast to users may score poorly.
The user’s main concern is how long they must wait before they can meaningfully interact with the page, which breaks down into two primary factors:
1. How long before above-the-fold content stops shifting during page load? (Addressable via CSS.)
2. How long before users can interact with the page? (Addressable by optimizing resource loading and minimizing main thread blocking.)
The first can be improved by using inline CSS for above-the-fold elements while deferring external CSS for the rest of the page, especially when page styles are extensive.
Note that inline CSS optimization does not affect Web Vitals scores.
The second can be optimized by prioritizing above-the-fold content loading and lazy loading below-the-fold resources. To reduce wait times for interactivity, ensure that resource downloads don’t block the main thread—even if this might sometimes lead to lower Web Vitals scores.
Incomplete page loads, as identified in server logs, should be treated as critical issues.