Is having copy above the fold still beneficial for SEO

[vortexuk]

Many sites nowadays are approaching a section based approach with copy further down the page.  Is it still valid to keep copy above the fold now for SEO.  Will it impact on SEO if you have to scroll down the page?

[JVRudnick]

Yes. It matters...above the fold has proved time and time again that this is the best way to establish authority/trust based on UIX principles where conversions matter!

Also, I do not follow you with this comment "...a section based approach with copy further down the page..."

Can you provide some examples of HIGH ranking URLs with that type of 'below the fold' UIX?

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Just so we all understand, by "section based approach," are you talking about parallax? Or something else?

• Ruben

[EGOL]

Is having copy above the fold still beneficial for SEO

Yes!   You want to slap the visitors' face with the best thing that you got.

[JVRudnick]

As Egol so succinctly put it....this is the way life is on the interweb!!!

[EGOL]

When somebody lands on one of my pages, I make sure that - in a single view they have.....

1. a great image that is relevant to the topic (we can spend hours creating these, spend $$$ on specimens or props, spend $$$ on licensing professional images)

2. a good introductory paragraph

3) attractive image links to highly relevant content

4. relevant ads

[BBEXNinja]

This article on Google's content quality scoring definitely recommends having your content "immediately visible" and "above the fold." There was a page layout algorithm in 2012 that the article claims "lowered rankings" for sites that lack content above the fold.