Above The Fold

5.3 Above The Fold

One general rule on the Internet is that people spend most of their time on a site “above the fold.”

The first thing people do when they reach a website is to absorb as much information as possible before they start scrolling. The part of the page that they can see without scrolling is called “above the fold.”

That’s where you want your ads.

The number of links that appear above the fold affect how likely people are to click on your AdSense ads. That’s why more ads doesn't always mean more money!

Google always puts the top-paying ads on the top and the lowest-paying ones at the bottom.

If you have a stack with three or more ads, the cheaper ads might steal attention away from high-paying ads and clutter up your website.

You don’t want ads and links competing against each other. If you want to increase your earnings per click, remember: Less is More! And that’s particularly true above the fold.

Let's take a look at two sample pages:

Fig. 5.2 www.MegaBookshop.com has a search form, a featured product, category links and AdSense ads, all above the fold.

Fig. 5.3 WWW.SafetySurf.com is not the most attractive site, but ONLY has AdSense ads above the fold.

Now, which of these sites’ ads do you think brings a higher click-through rate? You guessed it. The second site has triple the click-through rate of the first site. The moral of the story? If you want to maximize your AdSense clicks, give your visitors fewer choices above the fold!