You have 5 seconds to impress me.
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If you have any constructive comments, suggestions for improvements or corrections, please
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Location - does it make a difference?
Think about a newspaper. When it arrives what you see first is the front page. As you are reading the front page you have no idea what's inside the newspaper - there's interesting stuff on that front page.
Now think about a web page - if there's interesting stuff at the top, your visitors can be considering that while the rest of your page continues to arrive from your server. As far as your visitor is concerned, as soon as his or her browser window appears full, the page might as well all be there already.
The page content that fills the browser window is commonly called the content 'above the fold' - a holdover from newspaper jargon. As a simple example, consider the simulated page below and see what effect the arrangement of the content has on your visitors.
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Arranged as at left, this is what your visitors see when your page begins to load - an empty space. | |
Arranged as at left, this is what your visitors see when your page begins to load - interesting content. | |||
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If the image is at the top of the page - visitors see a blank screen until the image loads [example at left]. By placing the large, slow-loading, image 'below the fold' the visitor sees interesting content almost immediately [example at right].
Now nobody is suggesting that you begin every page with plain text that loads fast, just that you be aware of what a little page layout/planning can do to 'fool' your visitors into thinking your pages are fast loading. And your visitor's perception of page loading speed is what makes them happy or makes them leave.
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