|
Splash intro pages are usually a Flash animation that (1) makes you wait for it to download and (2) holds you captive for 10, 20 or more seconds before you are invited into the website to find the information that you were initially interested in.
I continually read different articles and usability studies that rate Splash pages as a major annoyance to web visitors. A recent article from Silicon Cloud called 12 ways to Irritate Your Visitors lists Splash pages as their #8 annoyance.
But I still get prospects coming to my web development business requesting a Splash intro page for their site. Why is this? Do they think it's cool? Do they think it's part of the corporate branding process? Do they have too much money to spend?
When I ask the prospect when they are the surfer, do they wait and watch the animation or do they head for the Skip Intro link. More times than not, they click the link.
Here are 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 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.
Mark Beck is Vice President and Partner of The Boulevard Group, a full service internet services company specializing in web design, web development and internet marketing. The Boulevard Group serves a broad customer base and provides services that include dynamic content management systems, database-driven ecommerce catalogs and shopping carts, and traditional brochure-style web sites. Mark formerly provided content to the Duct Tape Marketing blog where he covered topics relating to web design and internet marketing. He may be contacted at
Mark@theblvdgroup.com or by calling 908-876-3707. |
