Above the fold is the part of a web page a visitor sees without scrolling. It's the most-viewed area of any page: eyetracking research finds people spend roughly 57% of their viewing time above the fold [1].
The phrase comes from newspapers, where the most important story ran above the physical fold of the page. Online it's where a visitor's attention lands first and where the decision to stay or leave gets made. Attention is heavily front-loaded even on long pages; the same research found about three-quarters of viewing time happens in the first two screenfuls [1].
For a B2B site the job of this space is narrow: within a few seconds a stranger should be able to tell who you are, what you do, who you serve, and what to do next. That last part is a single clear call to action. When the top of the page is a vague slogan and a stock photo, the visitor can't answer those questions and the bounce rate climbs.
The fold isn't a fixed line; it moves with screen size, and mobile has the smallest window. So the goal isn't to cram everything into that first screen, it's to make the first screen orient the visitor and pull them into the scroll. Everything essential to a first impression goes up top; the depth comes below.
A test you can run in thirty seconds: open your homepage on a phone and don't scroll. If someone who's never heard of you couldn't say what you do and who it's for, the most valuable space on your site is being wasted.
Yes. People scroll, but their attention stays front-loaded: eyetracking studies show a majority of viewing time is spent above the fold and most of the rest just below it. The first screen still decides whether the scroll happens at all.
Enough to orient a stranger: who you are, what you do, who you serve, and one clear next step. Not every detail, just enough that a visitor knows they're in the right place and wants to keep reading.
There's no fixed pixel; it depends on the device and screen. Design for the common mobile viewport, which is the smallest and least forgiving, and treat the fold as a zone rather than a hard line.
Usually yes. The visitor who's already convinced shouldn't have to hunt for the next step. Put the primary action in the first screen and repeat it further down for the readers who needed more first.
Your hot referrals close almost regardless of the website. Your lukewarm ones are the ones the site has to convert without help, and they are the ones you are quietly losing.
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