Making a Splash

A splash page or splash screen is a page or image that appears as the introductory page/ pre-home page to a website, or an image that appears while a program is loading up. A splash screen will typically have some kind of visually appealing graphics or animation. Splash pages have a variety of purposes. Some site developers instate them to impress their visitors with their graphics and to allow them to choose the site technology that works best for them. Other companies use them to let the user know that the content is in the process of loading.

Unfortunately most users and search engines don't have positive feelings towards these pages. Many times splash pages causes people to leave the site before the home page even loads up; it increases loading time and it confuses the search engines. Because most splash pages employ the use of flash there isn't much content for the search engine to crawl through. This gives you the unlikelihood of ever achieving top placement. It's also difficult for the search engine to navigate effectively through it. And even if a search engine is successful in its navigation, its hard to place a word value on the pictures shown. Additionally readers who are not newcomers to your site and have seen your animations already, really don't want to view them again, but if there is no skip option then they are forced to. This can discourage visitors from returning to your site.

If you must use flash like for someone running an artistic site , build your page with caution. Install the "skipping feature" so that people have the option of bypassing your splash page. Place relevant text on the page so that you have a chance of being indexed, because having only words like 'skip intro' really won't get you anywhere in rankings. Create a linking campaign to bring in inbound links with your main homepage words. Additionally, create a static site map to link your splash page to the site map on the home page.

When deciding between a splash page or just immediate redirection to the homepage it may be in your best interest to seriously reconsider discarding the splash idea altogether. A home page unifies the site and displays useful, relevant information that the browser is looking for. Good content can encourage people to explore the rest of the site. A splash page often has redirects which search engines do not value too much because they wants to help people get the information they're looking for. A home page will most probably provide that information while a splash page will not. And again, many users when faced with a splash screen will just click off the site rather than wait until it's finished.