Splash Pages

Article Details

URL:	http://www.intelliserve.co.nz/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=157
Article ID:	157
Created On:	29 Jan 2010 10:42 AM

Answer

Do you have multiple sections to your site. For instance, a photographer might have a portfolio, a store, and a blog all on the same page. They then assume that it is a good idea to make their first page a place where the user chooses where they want to be, the Blog, Portfolio, or Store. It sounds like it makes sense, but it is not the best idea and here is why.

They kill your SEO (search engine optimization).
Search engines, especially google, have very complicated algorithms to calculate which website in their directory is the most relevant to the terms entered in the search box. One of the things that search engines give a lot of weight to is the content on your first landing page. They assume that you will put the most relevant and important content on your first page because that is where most people will end up. They also use the main page to spider through your website, the more links to the rest of your website that is on your main page, the better it is for the search engines

So now that you know this, when you think about a splash page, it goes against everything that search engines want to see in a website. A splash page is usually ONE picture (or flash item) and ONE link into the website. This gives the search engine almost nothing as far as the most important content on your site. You want your main page to be a plethora of information about your website.


It annoys and confuses customers.
Especially flash or video splash pages or intros. Most people who are browsing the net are people who like things instant. This is about 98% of society. People who search the internet are there for instant gratification. The goal of all web designers is to create as few clicks to get the customer from one page to where they WANT to be. When you have a splash page, you are already adding one click just to SEE the content which they will then have to click another time to get to the category or page they want to be in.

Also, there is no way that you can fully summarize your website and all of it's content with one image and an enter here link. When a customer finds your website somewhere on the net, (via search engine, link in someone else's site, etc) they don't really know what you are all about and they really can not learn that from your main page. That makes your first impression very poor, or almost non-existent.

When a regular user comes to your site, they already know what they want and where they want to be. It will be quite annoying to see that same page over and over again that they know contains not one thing that they want to read about.

Oh yea, and did I mention, if you have a flash intro it's even worse. Then you have to sit there while you wait for the darn thing to load, and if you have a slow internet connection, it is going to really drive you nuts. If you are a new visitor, at this point you would think to yourself,

"This is not worth it, I can probably get the same thing/information somewhere else on the net"


Now you have read this. It's time to ditch the Splash Page and get a nice, user friendly home page that includes navigation to all main sections of your website.