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April 12, 2006
How a Splash Page May Hurt Your Website
In my previous post I talked about the disconnect between most web visitors perception of a Splash Page and some website owners insistence upon having one.
Today I want to touch on some reasons why a Splash Page may hurt your website:
Your Web Visitors Don't Care
A web visitor will usually come to your site for some information or hopefully to make a purchase. By having the Home Page of a website be a intro Splash Page, you are hindering the visitors experience. This is a kin to walking into a major department store and being forced to stop and watch a 10-20 second video before you can enter the store.
Your Home Page is the most important page on your website. In my opinion, having a Splash Page gives a visitor a bad first impression of your site. This page screams ME, ME, ME instead of focusing the attention on the visitors needs.
Fortunately most Splash Pages come with a Skip Intro link so you can bypass the video. But why do you want to spend the money on creating a Splash Page when most visitors will become annoyed and click the Skip Intro link as fast as they can?
Reduction In Search Engine Rankings
Search Engines (SE) place an increased emphasis on the Home Page of a website. By having a Splash Page be the official Home Page this in effect reduces the importance of your true Home Page.
A good Home Page will act as sort of a table of contents for your site containing most of your main keyword phrases. The Slash Page is in essence a big graphic advertisement with virtually no text for the SE to index.
Most external links to a website will be to the Home Page. It makes no sense from a linking strategy point of view to waste these valuable links to a Splash Page. Links from external websites will be more effective if they point to the real content and not to an advertisement.
Site Performance Problems
There are still a good percentage of people who access the Internet with a dial-up service. Admittedly this is becoming less of an issue, but downloading a large Splash Page can really affect a visitor's experience when using a low bandwidth connection. You will experience a larger than normal bailout from a website among these visitors.
In conclusion, I don't want to trash all Splash Pages, but for the majority of small to medium business owners, a Splash Page is an unnecessary expense and will cause unwanted visitor frustrations.
Posted by Mark Beck on April 12, 2006 | Permalink
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Comments
I hate splash pages. I'm not sure when they made their comeback because for the longest people were saying that Flash and the like is just wasting time for people who want to get at the information. I always click on the skip intro. I want to get at the goods and not get stuck waiting around for some ridiculous movie or graphics. f more broadband usage webmasters feel it's OK to use them
Posted by: Bob | Apr 19, 2006 9:13:39 AM
I completely agree. It amazes me how so many marketing related companies us splash pages. You sit there watching a silly presentation, looking for the 'skip' button. And about 25% of the time they don't work.
Posted by: Jonathan Trenn | Apr 25, 2006 8:45:53 AM
Thank you for this post. I plan on sending this to one of my clients who HAD to have an all flash web site, with an intro page. He refused to listen to sound advice against it, and I do believe it is hurting him now. This is the kind of resource that is so valuable and people need to see. Thank you so much!
Jeremy Mansfield
Creative Director
Brand Aid Design Co., LLC
Charlotte, NC
http://www.brandaiddesignco.com
Posted by: Jeremy Mansfield | Apr 28, 2006 9:38:04 AM
I could not agree more regarding the over-use of splash pages. I believe it is indicative of a web designer who is just trying to show his/her Macromedia Flash skills regardless of how off-putting it is to the acutal user. Whenever I encounter one, I quickly seek out the "skip intro" button and idly wonder who the heck is running the show...
Posted by: Linda | May 8, 2006 7:35:01 PM
I completely agree with you. I hate splash pages and think they ruin my experience at that particular website. I especially hate when they have sound with them because it usually scares me half to death!
Posted by: WebtrafficJunkie | Aug 29, 2006 5:41:55 PM
ok
Posted by: penis enlargement pills | Oct 3, 2006 12:59:32 PM
I work for a company planning to release a splash page not to show off graphic design capability but to provide fast navigation for four different customer segments with very different need. No Flash file is planned whatsoever. In fact, the inspiration for the design for this page is the simplicity of Google. Given that, would you still recommend against splash pages? And would this kind of a splash page suppress our search engine rankings?
Thanks.
Posted by: Pat | Nov 8, 2006 8:55:28 PM
You are absolutely correct. In fact, it actually goes a step further than that. When indexing, search engines see most Flash websites as only one indexable page. So you better hope that whatever gets indexed is relevant your business or else you have wasted your time and marketability. Whereas if the programming of the site allows for every single scrap of content to be indexed on your page including the address and file name of the page, your site will be like a porter house steak for Google or whomever else you want page ranking from.
Thanks for the post. Knowledge is power.. So is being #1 on Google. =)
Nick Albert
Sales Director
www.w3marketingsolutions.com
-Nick
Posted by: Nick Albert | Feb 4, 2007 2:30:17 AM
Posted by: Zmajreh | Jun 2, 2007 11:55:34 AM
Hola faretaste
mekodinosad
Posted by: AnferTuto | Jul 28, 2007 3:00:04 PM
Interesting article!
Where can I find more on this theme?
Posted by: MalkEvange | Aug 6, 2007 2:56:58 PM
