I work on a hyperlocal news site http://therapidian.org, and since our content is generated 100% by the community, sometimes I get nervous about how much comes in – especially when you’re drawing from a smaller community – which can range from 6-30 pieces of original content per week. I recently got feedback from a few people that, to my surprise, liked that they didn’t feel like they were always playing the catchup that comes with an inundation of content (think how quickly some niche news sites rack up numbers in Google Reader, for example).

I wonder how much readers get overwhelmed by what’s “above-the-fold” and don’t bother to scroll down.

As a tech Neanderthal I don’t have the faintest idea of what to say other than that …

And that the new age of media has turned topsy turvy. Writers and editors used to be king/queen in the print era, with the designers, copy editors and tech support a notch below. Now the techies rule and the content from writers and editors is subservient …

Not complaining, just saying it …

A store front’s design success is not only measured by the number of passers-by, but by those that actually stop and look in the window. However, what really helps you move your business forward is data pertaining to the people walking in the door.

In terms of measuring the performance of web design, placement strategy, or headline copy, there is a similar quality difference between scroll downs and clicks. You definitely want to measure clicks, which is the desired action on a web site, (using the analogy, this is similar to getting them to walk into your door).

You already have the data of those that passed by your page (i.e., that actually stop at the store’s window), but the InPage-Analytics helps you analyze the actions your visitors take. This type of measurement only makes sense on front page or specifically promoted landing pages. What you learn from specific features on single article/product pages is link placement performance in terms of interlinking of pages, related articles promotion or sidebar items, and, of course, “buy now” buttons.

Birgit Pauli-Haack runs Pauli Systems, LC and writes on the company’s blog: Above The Noise

Eyetracking studies, which were pretty much pioneered as research tools by Poynter Institute for online newspapers and by MarketingSherpa for online marketing pages, can tell you A LOT more about what typical users “see” or not on a page. For example, if a photo is cut in half by your fold, many people will scroll to see the rest of it.

The fold is a changing target – depending on the size monitor visitors are looking at when they view your page and what resolution their computers are set at. You can guess at the first based on demographic. You can get the resolution data from your analytics reports under “visitor” stats.

Overall, tell your designer you may have ~590 pixels from the top of your page to the fold for many visitors. Do the best job you can with them!

Lastly, lots of marketers have a/b tested shorter and longer pages. We have a library of those tests (samples and data) available for free at WhichTestWon.com – we’re page optimization journalists, so it’s all we cover.

Good luck!