What is above the fold?
Above the fold is everything a visitor sees the moment a page opens, before any scrolling. The phrase comes from a newspaper folded on a stand. On a phone that window is small, and what sits inside it decides whether anyone reads the rest of the page.
Why it matters to a shop
People take a couple of seconds to decide they are in the right place. If the first screen holds only a huge photo and a logo, someone hungry at 11:40 still does not know whether you serve lunch or how far away you are, so they go back to the search results. Everything you are proudest of, further down, is simply never reached.
How to check what fits in your first screen
- Open your published page on a phone and screenshot it without scrolling. That image is your entire first impression — show it to someone who has never been to the shop and ask them what the business does.
- Four things should be in that screenshot: what you sell, where you are, one reason to pick you, and one button. A large photo can be one of the four; it cannot be all four.
- Watch the height of the header and hero image, because a menu bar plus a full-screen photo pushes everything useful out of view. Trying another of the 15 design styles, or cutting the headline to one line, usually buys the space back.
Common mistake: Believing nobody scrolls and cramming the whole page into the first screen: that screen's job is to earn the scroll, not to hold everything you sell.