Should Visitors Always Land at the Top of My Web Page? | Marketing Q&A

This is an interesting question because it touches on some evolving tech in how search engines and AI tools and LLMs interact with your website.

First, let’s clarify what’s happening here. 

When someone searches on Google or asks an AI assistant (like Google’s AI Overviews or ChatGPT plugins) for an answer, sometimes the search result links not just to your homepage or the top of a relevant page, but directly to a relevant section inside that page. These are called fragment URLs or scroll-to-text fragments, sometimes also called fraggles.

Google and modern browsers support this because it improves user experience; it takes the visitor right to the exact piece of information they want instead of making them scroll and search through your entire page.

Your developer wants to disable this behavior by likely using HTTP headers to force everyone to always land at the top of the page. They might be thinking it’s cleaner or more secure. While sometimes it can slightly increase security, but likely not in your use, in reality, this is usually a bad idea for three reasons:

1. It breaks what Google and AI assistants are trying to do. AI models match the user’s query with the most relevant snippet of your page and link directly to that spot. If you force visitors to start at the top, they might have to dig around to find the answer — which defeats the purpose of AI-driven search and hurts user satisfaction. Google has LOTS AND LOTS OF DATA about how their results improve UX … I doubt either you or your developer have access to that same level of data.

2. There’s no Google documentation recommending disabling scroll-to-text fragments. In fact, Google explicitly states that AI Overviews and Featured Snippets may link to specific points on a page — anchors or text fragments — when the answer is there. This is intentional to improve search quality. See Google’s official page here: Google Search Central: Featured Snippets and Google on Scroll-to-Text Fragments.

3. It can hurt your SEO and reduce eligibility for special search features. Forcing full-page loads disregards modern user behavior and browser standards. It may confuse search engines, or reduce your chances of appearing in AI-driven answers and snippets — both major traffic drivers today. Worse, it may confuse your users because it’s going directly against the behavior that your audience has grown to expect.

What you should do instead:

• Encourage your developer to use clear, smart section headers and anchor links within your pages. This helps both users and search engines find and link to the exact info that matters.

• Use styled jump links or in-content anchors that make mid-page landing feel intentional and user-friendly.

• Avoid hacks or HTTP header tricks that “block” or override scroll-to-text functionality.

In short: Let visitors land where AI and Google think is best — at the precise spot with the answer they searched for. Forcing all visitors to start at the top is like making someone read a whole book just to find one paragraph — frustrating and outdated.

If your developer insists this is better for “security” or browser support, ask them to show official documentation. The reality is, scroll-to-text fragments are widely supported across modern browsers and designed to improve user experience, not hurt it.

Vicky