What Are Splash Pages?
Splash Pages (a.k.a. splash screens) are pages that appear when a visitor first enters a website. Splash pages usually consist of an image, company slogan, Adobe flash, or other content that welcome the visitor to the site and/or entice the visitor to continue into the main website. Some splash pages automatically redirect the visitor into the main website after a set period of time, or may require the visitor to take some action such as clicking in order to proceed.
Types of Splash Pages
Today, there exist two main forms of splash pages. The first, the “personalization splash page” is simply a screen that appears allowing a visitor to choose his or her language, age, or geographical location. This information is then used to customize the browsing experience of the visitor or redirect the visitor to the website were content appropriate for his or her language or geographical region. The second type of splash page is the “welcoming splash page” which simply exists to welcome the visitor to the website and serves no other legitimate purpose.
Welcoming splash pages were popular in the mid-90’s to early 2000’s, but since then have largely fallen out of use. However, some web designers still continue to produce splash pages to this day.
Why Splash Pages Are Bad For SEO
Since “welcoming splash pages” usually consist of little more than a graphic and a few words, they can easily wreck havoc on a website search engine optimization. Because it is the first page that appears when you type in your website address, your homepage is the most important page on your website when it comes to search engines. Search engines need to be able to find all of the other pages on your site and are looking for unique content. Displaying a page with little more than a graphic and a few words does not satisfy the appetite of the search engine robot. As a result you may lower your placement within the search engine results. It is for this reason that splash pages for the purposes of a welcoming visitors to your website are strongly discouraged.
