Web Design and SEO Blog

SEO Tip: Avoid Splash Pages

Even in 2011 some new website owners are still insisting on having a splash page for their website. 

Splash pages are the large graphics or animations that "greet" you when you visit a website.  They had their day, several years ago, but for the most part splash pages should be avoided.  Why? The two main reasons for avoiding splash pages are they annoy human visitors and they can prevent search engines from indexing your website.

A splash page might be interesting to someone the first time they visit a website but even if that happens to be the case it won't be true on repeat visits.  Think how you would react if you ran to the grocery store to purchase some milk and someone jumped out in front of you when you tried to enter the store and proceeded to present a 1 to 2 minute presentation on the store. Or worse yet, held up a large poster of the store's logo and twirled it around in front of you.  You probably wouldn't be thrilled.  What would happen if you got home and realized you forgot to buy some bread (probably because you were so agitated at the presentation)?  You return to the store and it happens all over again - same presentation - same delay. How would you feel about the store and would you return again?

Now that you've chased away the visitors who knew about your website, you'll need to find new visitors who are looking for your products or services.  Here's where the SEO problem comes in.  Google expects the first page of your website to contain the most important content and uses that content to rank the website in the search engine results. If the first page of your website is just a large graphic, animation or movie then there won't be any text for Google to index.  If the splash page uses javascript to redirect visitors into the website then there's also the chance that Google will not be able to reach the other pages of your website.

If you must have some type of Flash movie included on your website then consider including it as part of your home page with the important content still included in text form on the page. Let the visitors, both human and search engine, into your website and give them access to the content that describes your business, products and services.

James
Spidle Webs Web Design - Website design, development, search engine optimization and pay-per-click campaigns.