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Promotion Tip:
Splash Pages May Drown Your Site
Close your eyes and imagine using a design technique
for your Web site that increases page load time, encourages people
to leave the site, confuses search engines, and discourages repeat
visitors. Did you imagine a splash page? You should have.
Digital Book Covers
A splash page is basically a digital version of
a traditional book cover. Its purpose is to set a mood for the rest
of the site or reinforce a brand; it usually consists of an eye-catching
graphic and little or no actual content. Like a book cover, the
splash page is designed to intrigue visitors and entice them to
enter the site and learn more.
It doesn't always work that way. Some sites that
have tried splash pages found that more than 25% of their visitors
left the site immediately. These statistics have lead many organizations
to ban them. For instance, the Web site guidelines on the PBS Online
page advise the following:
"In most cases, PBS Online discourages
the use of splash pages, because our users complain of unnecessary
download time. Producers who have created splash pages, often
end up taking them down at the request of their audiences."
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Visitors Want Information Quickly
Audience preference is important: visitors to your
Web site want information to be served up quickly and in an understandable
format. First-time visitors have to wait for the splash page to
load, click to enter the actual site, and then wait again to view
the home page - that's quite a time commitment since they can't
tell if your content is valuable to them until the second page loads.
Repeat visitors get even more frustrated. That
dazzling graphic on the splash page may have been entertaining at
first, but its appeal drops sharply on subsequent visits. Web-savvy
visitors may bookmark your internal pages to avoid the splash page,
but why take the chance?
Slam The Door On Search Engines
You may also have problems achieving a high search
engine rank. Most search engine algorithms rank pages based on a
combination of HTML code elements, page content, and link popularity.
Splash pages - deficient in all three areas - often turn away spiders
as efficiently as they turn away visitors. META tags with keywords
and descriptions help spiders index splash pages, but the absence
of links and content hurts the page's overall search engine ranking.
Furthermore, a splash page adds another level to
your site. Many search engine spiders only crawl through the first
three levels of a site when they index and rank pages. A splash
page hides some of your content from search engines by adding another
level without adding much value to the site.
When To Use A Splash Page
Some Web sites do get value from splash pages -
in specific circumstances.
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Intentionally Turn Away Visitors:
Yes, some sites actually want to make it harder to view
their content. The most common examples are adult-oriented
sites that post warnings to turn away minors and anyone
who visits by mistake. Other sites that operate on a subscription-only
basis or contain private information may also use a splash
page and require a password before visitors go deeper
into the site.
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Redirect Visitors: Sites that
use plug-ins (like Flash and Shockwave) sometimes use
a splash page that tests for plug-ins on the visitor's
browser and routes the visitor accordingly. Other sites
offer visitors the option of viewing the site with or
without the plug-ins. Consider though, whether you want
to spend time designing pages that require special plug-ins
if you expect to attract a sizeable audience who may not
have them installed.
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Sell Creativity: Companies (like
Web design firms and advertising agencies) that sell creativity
instead of tangible products usually benefit from well-designed
splash pages. Here, the pages help set a mood for the
entire site by showing off the company's design skills
and creativity level. People visit these sites expecting
to be dazzled and don't mind waiting for the effects to
load.
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How To Improve Your Splash Pages
If your site has a legitimate reason to use a splash
page (other than "it looks so cool!"), then you can take steps to
make the page friendlier to human visitors and search engines.
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Redirect Repeat Visitors: Instead
of relying on repeat visitors to bookmark your site's
internal pages, set a cookie on the user's computer that
indicates the user has already seen the splash page. Then,
include a script on the splash page; have it check for
the cookie and direct the visitor immediately to the home
page if a cookie
is present.
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"Click To Enter" link: Always
use a "Click To Enter" link on the page. Visitors new
to the Internet may not understand that they're supposed
to click on the graphic to enter the site; a text link
removes any question. It also gives visitors the opportunity
to click past the splash page instead of waiting for the
image to load completely.
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Use A One-page Frameset: This
is one of the few cases where a frame will help you with
search engines! Place your splash page in a frame page
that utilizes only one frame. Use the NOFRAMES tag to
include keyword-rich content that describes your site
and links that the spider can follow to the rest of your
site. Your visitors will see the splash page and search
engine spiders will use the information in the NOFRAMES
tag to index and rank your pages.
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Optimize Graphics: While your
visitors may expect a splash page to load relatively slowly,
do everything you can to decrease their wait. Optimize
your graphics for load time by using NetMechanic's GIFBot,
our free tool that reduces image file size by up to 90%.
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Anything that makes it harder for visitors to get
into your site is generally a bad idea. Carefully consider the purpose
of your site, your target audience, and the possible impact on site
traffic before using a splash page.
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