Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to a blog article titled, "How to convince a client they don't need a splash page". I encourage ANYONE who has a spash page or think they want a splash page to read this article. Here are some of my comments:

The SEO (search engine optimization) reason:
Getting your site to rank in the top 10 results of a keyword search is tough. You have to do everything you can to get search engine to recognize your website is relevant and important. When search engines spider the web to index websites, they are looking for content. Since your homepage is the first page of your website and considered by search engines weigh the content on this page more heavily than the others, you want to be sure that you have all the important text, content and keyphrases on this page. If your only text on your homepage (splash page) is "skip intro" or "click to enter", search engines like google will not know what your site is about. Try this: do a Google search for "click to enter". You will see over 7 million results for websites with splash pages. Notice how the title and/or description of these pages is "click to enter". That can't be good for helping people find your site. Additionally, if your splash page is done in flash, search engines will be entirely unable to read your content and may not even index the inner pages of your website.

The end-user experience:
Web browsers hate splash screens. Almost everyone clicks "skip intro". As the article referenced above points out:

Newfangled did some digging into their access logs and had this to say about their findings:
The number one reason for getting rid of our splash page was that it turned away at least 25% of our site visitors, sometimes more. This percentage has actually been researched and it turns out that at least 25% of site visitors will immediately leave a site as soon as they see a "loading" message for a Flash splash screen (even if there’s a "skip intro" link). Our access logs confirmed this for us and this over all the other reasons caused us to get rid of it. The opportunity to "prove our creativity" was not worth the loss of such a high percentage of visitors.

Other reasons visitors hate the splash page include:
- increased download time. No one wants to wait for the site to load. Especially if they have a slower connection.
- Why make someone "click to enter"? Visitors have already made the effort to got to your url. They don't need to agree to enter a second time.
- Ease of navigation. The fewer clicks a visitor needs to make to get the information or products they are seeking, the more likely they are to stay on your website or make a purchase. If you own a bricks and mortar store, you don't put your most popular products in the back of the store behind an attractive curtain. The same rule applies for your website.

Still convinced you want your beautiful animation? Well, there are ways to incorporate the flashy animation into your homepage without compromising the content or usability of your website. Several of our own clients have implemented this technique. Here are some examples:
Zocalo New York
Les Halles Brasserie
Keynote Connections
American Summits
Hass Avocados