Splash Screen = Good Or Bad? Splash Gone for good, why?

[eXtreme 0]

Hey!

Probably you already notice that the splash pages are dying. Lots of people decided to shut it down because mainly of the bad results in search engines.

And why does that happen?

The first page google crawls is your index page (it's your main page, the one before all the /info/2info/). So when they first crawl your page is important that your main INDEX page has good writen content, lots of related keywords and a good desciption.

Well splash pages didn't deliver that. They just provided a cool image or flash animation where they presented your name and then you had to click "Enter" to get to your information.

To make things worse, some people would make flash animations without a "Skip" button so every time someone would want to acess the site, he had to see the whole movie over and over again.

Now search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN search for good quality content. Something that they didn't find with the splash screens. So the google ranks were bad.

So thatÂs why even I shuted down the splash.

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This article was first writed by me for my website: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and is available there. Some small changes were made for this Xisto forum version.

Thanks,

Dan

[Furor 0]

Probably search engines should write down a script which would enable the "crawlers" to recognise any page as a splash page (probably the person who creates the website should add a sort of something which would make it recognisable for crawlers). That way when the crawler access the page they would be redirected to where the actual content of the website is stored. That would certainly enhance the quality of the searches. I don't think it's very difficult too.

[rvalkass 5]

I hate splash pages, they never give out any useful information. I never understood the point of clicking to enter a site. Didn't I already do that by typing an address or clicking a link? Anyway, getting crawlers to recognise splash pages is a good idea, and would get some good sites ranked higher in the search engines.

[shigajet 0]

In my opinion, splash pages are a waste of web space. Very rarely have I have I seen a splash page put to good use. Why would I have to click just to enter a site when the index page will do? I agree about the crawler script, by the way.

[melkonianarg 0]

yeh, this is true, in fact alot of people actually include a splash-like image on their website through a link saying !presentation! or something like that so that three old splashes do not go unnoticed or unused, otherwise it isemms a waste of time...google is indeed funny about splash pages unless there is good meta underneath...

[Saint_Michael 3]

well why do you think people are using flash for their splash pages yeah its a cheap way to keep people from going int oa site well theres that skip button but most websites that use splash pages are movie sites unless you have some good stuff i would do it but if its just welcome to my fan page then screw it

[cse-icons 0]

yeah, I too hate splash screens.. unless the flash is extremely good and in context... it is a waste of time for the visitor. and most of them do click on the skip button to go through to the main page.I do not see the advantage of having such a page in the first place when it does not add any value to your website. If it is a website for animation or creative graphics, then showcasing them initially through a flash animation would be a good idea, you see in that case you have an audience who is interested in seeing your talents and would therefore prefer to watch the whole thing before proceeding further.Cheers.