Above-the-Fold Blogging For Business

Just how important is it to keep business blog posts short enough so they fit above the “fold”, meaning short enough so that the reader has no need to scroll down the page? At least one commentator, Kelly A. Meyers, doesn’t think that’s something about which blog content writers need be concerned.

The expression “above the fold” derives from newspaper publishing, with editors careful to put the most important stories and photos above the crease of the newspaper so they would be visible in a face-up stack of papers.  Meyers questions whether there’s any validity to this form of content presentation when it comes to websites and to blogs.  “In a world gone mobile,” Meyers points out, “where iPhone and Android users spend their time touch screen scrolling,” she adds, “it really doesn’t matter whether the content is “above the scroll” or not.  

FutureNow’s Brendan Regan says a good part of success in writing for business comes from getting the mechanics right, including sparing readers the “inconvenience” of scrolling. In providing business blogging help and corporate blogging training through Say It For You, I advise making blogs as long as they need to be to get the point across, but not a single sentence longer.

Since the whole point of business blog writing is to engage readers and spur them to action, in offering business blogging assistance, I stress the fact that online searchers tend to be scanners rather than readers.  That means the most important task is, as early on as possible in the content of each blog post, to convey the message to those searchers that they’ve come to the right place for the products and information they need.

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization , use of key words and phrases in the title and “above the fold” makes a lot of sense. Having said that, I agree with Kelly Meyers: if a visitor has come to your site for a reason, and if your blog appears to be a good match for that reason, “they aren’t going to mind scrolling”.

OK, readers, you’ve already gone below the fold on this one – what are your thoughts?