How does the location of content with respect to the fold on a website affect conversions?
Setup
Original (A)
vs
Alternative (B)
I used google’s website optimizer to show the CD Label Maker product information in two locations on the home page of http://www.amfsoftware.com in a 50/50 split. In the Alternative (B), the CD Label Maker product information was located at the top of the page, while in the original (A), the CD Label Maker product information was located below the Business Card Designer product information and therefore below the fold.
Measurement
Visitors rarely directly click on the Buy buttons on the home page of http://www.amfsoftware.com. Rather visitors click on Try or Explore for all the products. I decided to measure the number of people who clicked on the download button and went to the download page, since I was trying to improve downloads. It didn’t matter if less visitors clicked on the Explore button because of the change since I wanted more downloads vs more people clicking on the Explore button.
Outcome
I saw a 68.2% increase in the number of people who clicked on the Download button. The results were so statistically significant that Google declared alternative (B) to be the winner in about 6 days.
Uncertainties and Errors
Both the CD Label Maker and the Business Card Designer have landing pages deeper within the site that get significant amounts of traffic from search engine positions. The home page however gets a wide variety of visitors looking for old products, who come there from back links, download sites etc. I am not sure if the visitors who clicked on the links were interested in the CD Label Maker product or just clicked because the link was right in front of them. I am also not sure if the downloads actually led to conversions in sales.
Result
I placed the CD Label Maker product above the fold on the front page and I saw a boost in downloads as measured by Urchin. The idea of the fold on the website is so important that I plan to post about what the fold is, post statistics on screen resolutions for the visitors to http://www.amfsoftware.com and why the fold is so vital.
Recommendation
High confidence: Inspite of the experiment being specific to product placement on the home page of a multi product website, I believe that the region above the fold on the home page gets a greater number of conversions than content below the fold. I recommend that all mISVs place vital information, action buttons and key benefits above the fold. I’ll post more about the fold and explain this recommendation soon.
