Mwandishi: Neil Lock

What you put in the top of your front page has a huge impact on the success or failure of your website. Put the wrong thing in, and you’ll probably see your visitors quickly navigating away from your site. Put the right content there and you may see your sales go up.

This article isn’t an all-in-one guide for creating above the fold content, nor is about an all-encompassing rule on what you should put in. Rather, I will give you a few tips, recommendations and a little bit of helpful research about this topic.

Kabla ya kuanza mara moja, ni vizuri kujua kwanza sehemu ya juu ya ukurasa wako wa mbele inaitwaje. Kuna jina zuri zaidi kuliko sehemu-ya-juu-ya-tovuti-yako.

“Above the Fold” (Sehemu ya Juu Inayoonekana Mara Moja)

Inaitwa “Above the Fold”. Kwa nini? Kwa sababu hapo zamani wakati wanadamu walikuwa na vitu hivi vilivyoitwa magazeti, kwa kawaida yalikuwa yakikunjwa katikati ili sehemu ya juu pekee ndiyo ionekane mara moja. Sehemu hiyo ya juu au “above the fold” ilikuwa na vichwa vikuu vya habari muhimu zaidi vya siku hiyo, kisha unapolikunjua unaona vichwa vingine vya habari visivyo muhimu sana. Vile vile kwenye tovuti, sehemu ya juu ya tovuti yako ndicho kitu cha kwanza ambacho watu hukiona, kisha unaposhuka chini unaona sehemu iliyobaki ya tovuti, sawa na kukunja gazeti.

Tukiendelea na mfano wa gazeti, tuseme kwamba ulikuwa unatembea barabarani na ukaona muuzaji wa magazeti. Unapoliona gazeti na ikiwa kichwa cha habari kinavutia, basi unaweza tu kulinunua gazeti hilo ili kuona sehemu iliyobaki. Hii kimsingi ni sawa na tovuti, ikiwa wageni wangepita kwenye tovuti yako na kupata maudhui yako ya sehemu ya juu yanavutia, basi wanaweza kukubaliana nayo na kuteremka chini au kutazama sehemu iliyobaki ya tovuti yako ili kuona zaidi.

Utafiti wa Nielsen

Earlier I said that your above the fold content may make or break your site. Nielsen Normal Group has written a few research articles about this across the years. I’ll quote the summary of their article The Fold Manifesto: Why the Page Fold Still Matters

The average difference in how users treat info above vs. below the fold is 84%.

If you just got confused about the wording of the quote, I did too at the start. Let me clarify: That study doesn’t mean that 84% of people do not scroll down, on the other hand I’ve seen other research say that most people do scroll down to the bottom of the page. It also doesn’t mean that the lower part isn’t important. Instead it means that the behavior of your visitors in your site is largely impacted by your content above the fold.

Hii inaeleweka kwani eneo la juu la tovuti ndilo jambo la kwanza unaloliona.

Kwa hivyo ukijua jinsi maudhui yako ya juu ya ukurasa wa mbele yalivyo muhimu, unapaswa kuweka nini sehemu ya juu ya tovuti yako?

Nenda Moja kwa Moja Kwenye Mada

Weka mara moja tovuti yako inahusu nini hasa. Ukurasa wako wa mbele na eneo la juu ndio uhai wa tovuti yako yote. Ikiwa wageni wako watahisi kupotea, basi wataondoka haraka na kufunga kichupo. Ikiwa wewe ni mwandishi mpya wa vitabu, andika kwamba wewe ni mwandishi na uonyeshe kitabu chako cha hivi karibuni. Ikiwa wewe ni mwandaaji wa harusi, andika kwamba wewe ni mwandaaji wa harusi ambaye utampa mgeni wako harusi ya kukumbukwa zaidi ambayo amewahi kuwa nayo. Au ikiwa unatengeneza tovuti kwa ajili ya hoteli yako ndogo, basi andika kwamba wewe ndiye sehemu bora zaidi ya kulala na kifungua kinywa mjini. (Nitatumia mifano hii zaidi hapa chini.)

Wageni wako hawapaswi kubahatisha tovuti inahusu nini. Wanapaswa kuelewa mara moja, hapo ndipo watakaposhuka chini ili kuona maelezo zaidi.

Shirikisha wageni wako kwa makusudi

Kisha unapaswa kufikiria kuhusu madhumuni halisi ya tovuti yako. Ni nini sababu ya kuanzisha tovuti yako kwanza kabisa? Sababu yoyote ile iwayo, lazima pia uweke hiyo sehemu ya juu.

Hebu tuchukue mifano michache niliyotaja hapo juu. Kwa mwandishi mpya wa vitabu, labda utataka kuonekana zaidi. Ikiwa una ebook ya bure, basi unaweza kuweka kitufe cha wageni wako kuipakua. Kwa mwandaaji wa harusi, utataka watu wawasiliane nawe kuhusu huduma zako, weka nambari yako ya simu au fomu ya mawasiliano. Au kwa hoteli ndogo, weka fomu ya kuweka nafasi pamoja na nambari yako ya simu.

Kwa Page Builder Sandwich, ninataka watu wafahamu programu-jalizi hiyo zaidi, na hatimaye wawe wateja. Kwa hivyo nina kitufe hapo kinachoruhusu wageni kujaribu onyesho mara moja, na kitufe kingine cha kununua programu-jalizi hiyo.

Kubuni sehemu ya juu (above the fold)

Sasa kwa kuwa tunajua cha kuweka, sasa ni wakati wa kuamua kuhusu muundo. Binafsi, napendelea maudhui safi yaliyogawanywa katika sehemu, ndiyo sababu kuna mandharinyuma thabiti kwenye ukurasa wetu wa mbele. Lakini pia ni wazo zuri kuambatanisha maudhui yako ya sehemu ya juu na picha au video ili kuifanya iwe hai zaidi.

Here’re a few examples of what you can do about your front page.

Add a background image. A large background image behind your large statement is a great eye-catcher and can further encourage visitor engagement. For new book author, maybe adding a background image illustrating the setting of his free ebook would entice people more.

Add an introduction video. Admit it, people can be lazy, especially when it comes to reading. So if your site is a bit complicated, it might be a good idea to add a short video that introduces your site/product quickly. For the wedding organizer, then this can be a video of their latest wedding. Or for our site for example, we can add in a quick intro about the features of our plugin.

Add a video background. This is a bit of a trend nowadays, but I find it appealing at times. If this suits your taste, then this might be a good idea.. I know PayPal had a video background before in their site. For the small hotel, you can put in a stationary video of a scenic area of your hotel as the backdrop.

Hitimisho

Kuunda maudhui ya sehemu ya juu kwa ajili ya ukurasa wako wa mbele si vigumu, lakini inachukua kufikiri na kujaribu ili kufanya vizuri. Ikiwa tayari una tovuti na umekamilisha hilo, lakini una kiwango cha juu cha wageni wanaoondoka haraka (bounce rate) kwenye Google Analytics yako, basi ninakuhimiza ujaribu na ufikirie upya maudhui yako ya sehemu ya juu kwa kutumia vidokezo vilivyo hapo juu.

If you have tips on creating above the fold content, kindly share them in the comments!

Page Builder Sandwich can Help You Design Your Front Page & Above The Fold Content

Page Builder Sandwich is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create any design you want without writing any piece of code.

Jifunze Zaidi Kuhusu Page Builder Sandwich

There may be times where you want to add supporting videos from YouTube or Vimeo into your site. Or maybe you want to add Tweets from Twitter, or content from other websites like Flickr and Instagram. You can embed these content easily in your WordPress site.

To do this, all you need to do is find the permalink for the content. In some sites like YouTube, the permalink is simply the current URL. For other sites like Reddit or Vimeo, you’ll have to find the “permalink”, “share” or “embed” button to get the URL. In some sites like Facebook, you’ll have to click the date of the status or post in order to get the permalink.

Viungo vya kudumu vina maumbo na mitindo mingi, lakini kwa kawaida huonekana kama hii hapa chini. Hii inatoka YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ​

Unaweza kubandika URL hizi katika kihariri maudhui ili kupachika maudhui. Ikiwa inaweza kupachikwa, utaona kwamba URL itabadilishwa kuwa video au maudhui halisi. Ikiwa haibadiliki, basi hiyo inamaanisha kuwa huwezi kuingiza maudhui kutoka kwenye tovuti hiyo.

Je, Ni Tovuti Gani Ninazoweza Kupachika kwenye Tovuti Yangu?

Not all sites can be embedded into your WordPress site. The WordPress Codex has a list of sites which you can embed: https://codex.wordpress.org/Embeds

Kusakinisha Programu-jalizi Kunaweza Kuongeza Tovuti Zaidi Zinazoweza Kupachikwa

If the content you want to embed isn’t in the list in the WordPress Codex, there is another way. Installing plugins can add more embeddable sites. For example, installing Jetpack allows you to embed wall posts from Facebook.

There are plenty more out there that add more sites, do a search for “oEmbed provider” in the WordPress.org plugin repository to find more. Here’s a link to the plugin repo for your convenience: https://wordpress.org/plugins/search.php?type=term&q=oembed+provider

Njia Nyingine ya Kuongeza Maudhui – Misimbo ya Kupachika ya Iframe

Ikiwa kubandika URL pekee hakufanyi kazi, kuna njia nyingine tena ya kupachika maudhui. Jaribu na uangalie machaguo ya kushiriki ya tovuti unayotaka kujumuisha, mbali na kiungo cha kudumu, unaweza pia kupewa kipande kidogo cha “msimbo wa kupachika”. Misimbo ya kupachika huonekana hivi:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>​

Copy that then in your WordPress content editor, click on the text tab on the top of the editor and paste that in. After you’ve pasted that in, head back to the visual tab, you’ll see if it works when the embed code now looks like the actual content that will get embedded. You can’t do this in the visual tab, pasting it from there would just show the pasted code in your site, it won’t get converted into the content.

Tumia Page Builder Sandwich Kuongeza Maudhui kutoka Tovuti Nyingine kupitia Upande wa Mbele

While adding content from other sites seem easy, doing things in the administration side of WordPress is a bit of a hassle. You have to know whether to add it in the visual tab or text tab, and you’ll have to preview your page or post in order to see how it would look like when viewed by your site’s visitors.

Page Builder Sandwich hurahisisha mambo kwa kukuruhusu kuhariri tovuti yako halisi yote kutoka upande wa mbele. Unapotumia Page Builder Sandwich, unaandika na kuhariri maudhui ya tovuti yako kwa urahisi. Kupachika maudhui kutoka tovuti nyingine pia kunakuwa rahisi zaidi.

Ukiwa na Page Builder Sandwich, bandika tu kiungo cha kudumu au msimbo wa kupachika wa iframe popote mbele ya tovuti yako na utabadilishwa mara moja kuwa maudhui yaliyopachikwa, hakuna haja tena ya kujua kichupo gani unachohitaji kubandika mambo ndani yake.

Pata Page Builder Sandwich sasa.