Why your hero section isn't working
The fold is real. The hero is the part of the page that does the heaviest work. Three failures we see weekly.
The hero section is the part of a page that does the heaviest work. It convinces the visitor to stay. Most heroes fail in the same three ways.
Failure 1: speaking about yourself
"We're a design-led product studio crafting human-centered experiences." Visitor leaves. The hero should answer the visitor's question, not the founder's.
Fix: replace the corporate sentence with the visitor's outcome. "Get a working website in three weeks." "Cut your customer support ticket count in half."
Failure 2: too many calls to action
Three buttons of equal weight. The visitor has to decide. Decisions cost attention. A weak primary CTA + a clear secondary outperforms three competing primaries every time.
Failure 3: no proof
Claims without evidence. "Trusted by leading brands" with nothing showing those brands. A single specific testimonial with a real photo and a real outcome beats a logo wall of unfamiliar names.
What works
Concrete promise + one clear next step + a piece of proof. Three things. One above the fold. The rest of the page can be everything else.
The hero isn't supposed to convert by itself. It's supposed to earn the scroll.