I was thinking about creating a splash screen for my front page. A lot of site design articles I've read say that the first page is allowed to be different looking than the other pages. And there should be a brief welcome message as well as a description about what the site is about. This way I could have a larger logo, some fancy images, brief text, some quick direct links, and the page would also load faster.<br />
<br />
Is this a good/bad idea? Those of you that are familiar with search engines, will this hurt my rankings?<br />
<br />
thanks<!--content-->I don't think it will hurt your rankings. One of the reasons a lot of people don't like them is that it puts one more page between them and the information they want to get to. Especially if it's slow loading it can be very frustrating.<br />
<br />
It's a matter of preference really, but I suppose if you are planning to put links on this page and users can still get to the rest of your site quickly then that's fine.<!--content-->I think a splash screen is a good idea, especially if you'll be using Flash on your site. A lot of people avoid Flash sites, either because it loads so slowly on dial-up connections, or because they just don't like Flash (like me; if I want to watch a cartoon, I'll turn on Bugs Bunny). Your splash screen can give your visitors a choice of Flash or non-Flash versions. <br />
<br />
HTH<br />
<br />
<!--content-->Nope, no flash.<!--content-->splash pages create a nice looking intro to your site but is it what people really want to see, remember everyone is always obsessed with speed and if it takes someone longer to get to what they're looking for they're more likely to go somewhere else for it.<br />
Besides it probably won't turn up in most searches, SE's will bypass it for your main index page, google ranks pages better with more inbound links than outbound links.<br />
If you have different language versions of your site, set the index to the most used language and add a link to the other languages on that page (and all pages for that matter)<!--content-->well... I guess it all depends on the site itself -<br />
<br />
take a look - <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hawgbuster.com">www.hawgbuster.com</a><!-- w --><br />
<br />
Does the main page have too much information and clutter that might confuse first-time visitors?<!--content-->nope, that's a grand index, no need for a splash page!!<br />
<br />
you have a few errors (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hawgbuster.com%2F&doctype=HTML+4.01+Transitional&charset=iso-8859-1+%28Western+Europe%29">http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http% ... +Europe%29</a><!-- m -->) in your code, quite simple ones, always state script type and alt for images<br />
you also didn't have a doctype or enctype, i assumed it was 4.01 transitional and iso-8859-1<!--content-->looks like most of the errors are coming from javascript and cgi lines...<br />
<br />
I'll have to look into that...<br />
<br />
what does the doctype and enctype do?<!--content-->basically says what version of html your are using, ie:<br />
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><br />
<br />
it can be transitional, frames or strict (or xhtml)<br />
<br />
and the enctype is what charset you are using most commonly the wetsern european:<br />
<br />
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><!--content-->Splash pages are a waste of time. It's basically a big advertisment for the site they are already visiting.<br />
<br />
And for what? You say you want to have links and maybe some text and a big logo? Why not just layout the whole menu instead only a couple of links. And why not just have a link to your "about" page.<br />
<br />
And since your not having Flash, I wouldn't do it.<!--content-->I would agree that you do not need a splash page. I find that they are actually useless except for some very rare occasions. Your site however, looks good now, and loads quickly. I am one of those ppl who will move on elsewhere if I have to wait an excessive time for a page to load, and get frustrated when what loads is simply a splash page. <br />
<br />
A splash page, IMO, needs to be very, very interesting/entertaining to make it worth the user's time. It's too bad that most are not. In other words, I think it might actually detract from your site the way it is now. Your site looks great now, and seems easy to navigate, nice job
<!--content-->here's the deal with splash pages:<br />
<br />
they're like the plastic wrapping on a brand new CD.<br />
<br />
EXCEPT... every time you come back to the CD, no matter how many times you've played it, you STILL have to unwrap the $@%#$&.<br />
<br />
so make it GOOD. make it tasteful. make it minimal in design, and maximal in regards to linking to every SECTION (read: NOT every page!) of your site.<br />
<br />
if you use Flash, make absolutely certain that it does not go over 100-150k in size and does not have more than 5-10 seconds of animation (and ten is pushing it, IMHO).<br />
<br />
it would be a good idea to use cookies to allow return visitors to skip the damn thing altogether. they can always refuse them.<br />
<br />
here's my splash page. it's just my own personal idea of a (nearly) decent splash page that doesn't do TOO much, nor too little, and hopefully doesn't take too long to load and play (in my opinion it does play a little long): <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.transmothra.com">www.transmothra.com</a><!-- w --><br />
<br />
just remember: a lot of people HATE them, but they can make a good impression if done right and made to be useful without being overwhelming.<!--content-->
<br />
Is this a good/bad idea? Those of you that are familiar with search engines, will this hurt my rankings?<br />
<br />
thanks<!--content-->I don't think it will hurt your rankings. One of the reasons a lot of people don't like them is that it puts one more page between them and the information they want to get to. Especially if it's slow loading it can be very frustrating.<br />
<br />
It's a matter of preference really, but I suppose if you are planning to put links on this page and users can still get to the rest of your site quickly then that's fine.<!--content-->I think a splash screen is a good idea, especially if you'll be using Flash on your site. A lot of people avoid Flash sites, either because it loads so slowly on dial-up connections, or because they just don't like Flash (like me; if I want to watch a cartoon, I'll turn on Bugs Bunny). Your splash screen can give your visitors a choice of Flash or non-Flash versions. <br />
<br />
HTH<br />
<br />
<!--content-->Nope, no flash.<!--content-->splash pages create a nice looking intro to your site but is it what people really want to see, remember everyone is always obsessed with speed and if it takes someone longer to get to what they're looking for they're more likely to go somewhere else for it.<br />Besides it probably won't turn up in most searches, SE's will bypass it for your main index page, google ranks pages better with more inbound links than outbound links.<br />
If you have different language versions of your site, set the index to the most used language and add a link to the other languages on that page (and all pages for that matter)<!--content-->well... I guess it all depends on the site itself -<br />
<br />
take a look - <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hawgbuster.com">www.hawgbuster.com</a><!-- w --><br />
<br />
Does the main page have too much information and clutter that might confuse first-time visitors?<!--content-->nope, that's a grand index, no need for a splash page!!<br />
<br />
you have a few errors (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hawgbuster.com%2F&doctype=HTML+4.01+Transitional&charset=iso-8859-1+%28Western+Europe%29">http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http% ... +Europe%29</a><!-- m -->) in your code, quite simple ones, always state script type and alt for images<br />
you also didn't have a doctype or enctype, i assumed it was 4.01 transitional and iso-8859-1
<!--content-->looks like most of the errors are coming from javascript and cgi lines...<br /><br />
I'll have to look into that...<br />
<br />
what does the doctype and enctype do?<!--content-->basically says what version of html your are using, ie:<br />
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><br />
<br />
it can be transitional, frames or strict (or xhtml)<br />
<br />
and the enctype is what charset you are using most commonly the wetsern european:<br />
<br />
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><!--content-->Splash pages are a waste of time. It's basically a big advertisment for the site they are already visiting.<br />
<br />
And for what? You say you want to have links and maybe some text and a big logo? Why not just layout the whole menu instead only a couple of links. And why not just have a link to your "about" page.<br />
<br />
And since your not having Flash, I wouldn't do it.<!--content-->I would agree that you do not need a splash page. I find that they are actually useless except for some very rare occasions. Your site however, looks good now, and loads quickly. I am one of those ppl who will move on elsewhere if I have to wait an excessive time for a page to load, and get frustrated when what loads is simply a splash page. <br />
<br />
A splash page, IMO, needs to be very, very interesting/entertaining to make it worth the user's time. It's too bad that most are not. In other words, I think it might actually detract from your site the way it is now. Your site looks great now, and seems easy to navigate, nice job
<!--content-->here's the deal with splash pages:<br /><br />
they're like the plastic wrapping on a brand new CD.<br />
<br />
EXCEPT... every time you come back to the CD, no matter how many times you've played it, you STILL have to unwrap the $@%#$&.<br />
<br />
so make it GOOD. make it tasteful. make it minimal in design, and maximal in regards to linking to every SECTION (read: NOT every page!) of your site.<br />
<br />
if you use Flash, make absolutely certain that it does not go over 100-150k in size and does not have more than 5-10 seconds of animation (and ten is pushing it, IMHO).<br />
<br />
it would be a good idea to use cookies to allow return visitors to skip the damn thing altogether. they can always refuse them.<br />
<br />
here's my splash page. it's just my own personal idea of a (nearly) decent splash page that doesn't do TOO much, nor too little, and hopefully doesn't take too long to load and play (in my opinion it does play a little long): <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.transmothra.com">www.transmothra.com</a><!-- w --><br />
<br />
just remember: a lot of people HATE them, but they can make a good impression if done right and made to be useful without being overwhelming.<!--content-->