Importance of text above the fold

[mhkatz]

I am being advised by an SEO that each page of my ecommerce site must have a significant block of unique text "above the fold" to do well in Google post-Panda.  This recommendation is at odds with what my design/usability/conversion people want to see.  The current site design features eye-catching graphics just below the header and goes right into product listings, with SEO text near the bottom of the page.

How important is it to have SEO text near the top of a page?

[RyanKent]

As a general rule, when a SEO makes a suggestion you feel is in conflict with the user experience I would recommend A/B testing.

Make copies of a few pages with the recommended changes. Have half your users see the original page "A" and the other half will see the modified page "B". Track the results for a period of time and closely monitor all relevant statistics. If the SEO changes do not have a negative impact, then make the change. Otherwise, you would need to weigh the possible SEO benefit (higher ranking/traffic) with the lower user experience. In most cases, what's good for the user is also good for SEO.

[mhkatz]

I understand your point about testing the effect of the change on the conversion rate, but my question is more basic than that.  Is it a given that there needs to be text above the fold to satisfy google, or is text lower down on the page just as good for SEO purposes?  I am not sure how seriously to take the SEO suggestion.

[RyanKent]

I agree with your SEO that text contained at the top of the article is given more weight then text at the bottom of an article. It is really difficult to provide any estimates on how much more weight.

If Google would allow us to look at their algorithms, we would be able to provide a specific answer. Since that is not the case, we are left to making our best guesses using experience and related knowledge as a guide.

We know that keywords in a title have more weight when they are earlier in the title. We know it makes sense from a user experience perspective to offer your best, most relevant content upfront rather then buried at the bottom of an article. I would build upon that logic and my experience to suggest that relevant text be provided at the top of the page (all things being equal).