Why Google and Your Visitors Hate Flash Splash/Intro Pages
September 15, 2008 | Barry Wise | Search Engine Optimization, Web Design
21 Comments
We’ve all seen them before, although they are becoming a bit more rare these days. You visit a website looking for actual information (really?) and instead you find a big, bloated fanciful flash intro with zooming text and Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra blaring (yes, it’s now better known as the 2001 Space Odyssey Theme, but I will always remember it as the opening to the Elvis Aloha in Hawaii concert).
Apparently someone felt their website was so awe-inspiring and awesome that it needed a monumental fanfare to announce it before your mere mortal eyes were allowed to actually view it. That, or someone’s nephew just bought Flash and did a really cool job zooming a logo in and out.
I don’t want to limit my distaste to just Flash home page intros; make no mistake, any kind of intro graphic or non-text landing page is a bad idea. I can assure you that your visitors don’t appreciate your logo as much as you do, and don’t want to have to click past it just to get to your web content. And if you’re selling something, forget it. There’s a good chance someone has already left your page rather than stay and figure out where the “skip intro” link is located. According to these guys who did some research on it 25% of your site visitors will leave once they see an intro page.
But it’s not only a bad idea for your visitors; Google hates them also. Take a look at the following screen shot from a website with a Flash intro which had been indexed by Google:
Google offers searchers a "Skip Intro" link when it finds a Flash splash or intro page.
I’ve changed the URL and description to protect the site owner from mass ridicule and scorn, but you can clearly see Google has recognized the fact that the home page flash element was just a worthless piece of introductory fluff. In a service to search visitors, Google has created a direct link to skip the intro content and get right to the main website. Why would Google want to circumvent your nifty Flash intro? Because it annoys users, plain and simple. So if you don’t want to take my word for it, listen to Google. Or you can take this SEO’s word for it.
Hold on, you say, I went to brandx.com (insert top national name brand here) and their entire site is a big flash intro. So if they’re doing it, why can’t I? If you’ve got a well-known brand name with massive marketing dollars behind you then you can put up whatever you want; you’re not going to rely on organic traffic as much.
But if you’re one of us small to medium-sized business owners, you’re better off focusing on increasing your organic search potential with actual keyword text and information on your website rather than trying to wow 3 visitors a day with an expensively designed flash site. Not that Google can’t index Flash, it can, but with sometimes mixed results. So why make it harder on Google to find you?
Tags: flash, google, google results, Search Engine Optimization, search engines, seo, Web Design
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Comments
21 Responses to “Why Google and Your Visitors Hate Flash Splash/Intro Pages”
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I agree 100% with this. I used to know assembly-line web developers that would actually sell a flash intro to an e-commerce website owner for more money than they already paid for the site, using the sales pitch that more people would think the site was professional because of some spinning logo. This is a horrible idea, not to mention the SEO damage it can do.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love flash and its results, but it has no place as a welcome screen in e-commerce. Are there any further details into the news that Google could now click the links in Flash like a user and index the information easier than before?
Kris Themstrup
ieplexus.com/blog
According to the Google Webmaster blog, as of July 1 Google will do exactly that; view a flash file like a human and click buttons, follow links, etc. You can read more about it here:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html
Whilst I agree that the vast majority of web design companies create splash pages that are completely annoying and uncalled for, there are some exceptions to this rule. If the splash page genuinely manages to convey something useful about your company and manages to make an emotional connection with the visitor, that’s likely to increase the overall effectiveness of your website and thus lead to more sales.
What is the purpose of the creation of your website? To promote it to existing clients via namecards or to promote your business via natural results where new visitors find you via search engines? You can have a great beautiful flash site but still it does not bring in higher conversion.
Rif Chia
I hate them as well. They take centuries to load and they have no lasting value. I only think content is the only king of the internet world. Flash fails to please me. Especially insane background music.
We never use flash intros in any of our projects, in fact we regularly have to drop them! doing a job right now in fact for a client that has a flash intro right on the front of there ecommerce store – hmmmm.
Personally i don’t like the flash intros, intros in general so i agree with you, doesn’t matter if you are small webmaster or not in my opinion, just no to flash intros.
Well as flash developers I would have to agree that Flash Splash pages are NOT effective for SEO purposes. You must find out what your priority is.
If your focus is to wow and search is not a priority, then flash it up. If you need to be found via search engine…stay away from Flash
- Coming from Flash developers.
I agree, I never use and will never use flash intro pages GoogleBot and all other bots don’t like them and it does nothing for your visitors who just want what they are looking for content searched not a flashy page!
Thanks for your comments.
I’ve been programming since the 1980’s; when javascript came along (and failed miserably), I made server-side programming my specialty.
I enjoyed life for about 10 years, until Flash came along and the idiot masses jumped on the bandwagon of death!
I’m currently contemplating suicide.
Gun throught the mouth (leaves an awful mess for my family to clean up); pills? (slightly less messy); drive the car off a cliff in a distant state?
LOL! In a fit of frustration, I googled the phrase “I hate flash” and this blog post turned up (along with many others).
Whew. So, I’m not alone.
Flash-Haters of the World, unite! You have nothing to lose but your load time.
szise, I agree! Doesn’t matter what size you are. Our brands are huge household names, but that doesn’t make our flash intros one whit less annoying. It’s fine for a branding site, but for an e-commerce site — your visitors do NOT want a “rich experience” (if I hear that phrase one more time, I’ll gag). They want a fast, easy, quick, efficient (and did I mention fast?) experience.
I have to say that its been a while since I have actully seen a flash into page, maybe as they dont rank?
Now I understand why my websites languishe in page rankings. Thanks, am going to sort this out and try simple things instead. May be that would work.
Splash pages of any sort are generally a bad idea, unless they serve as some kind of disclaimer for the content to follow are a precursor to a rich media experience (like a microsite promoting a movie or video game).
That aside, from the standpoint of search engine visibility, the example you use in the google results is also highlighting the wrong way to embed flash in the first place. A properly embedded flash app should avoid the result you provided and instead make alternate content viewable to the spiders. That is kind of off point though, because the overall point you are making is correct.
Flash like any other rich media vehicle, is not in itself good or bad. But uninformed decisions and implementations of it can make a site worthless. For video, advertisements,games, and ‘experience’ sites it is has few peers. In most other areas it seems out of place.
+1 from me in the flash-haters category
Intro pages are cool from an artists point of view, but I am not that patient, I’d rather watch paint dry than wait for one to end when I just want to find some information. I certainly wouldn’t stick around, shame but true
I agree flash intros are generally a no-no. The one exception to this is if a site is genuinely caching and there is an obvious need to show something while a user waits.
Now before you jump in an say ‘a user should never have to wait for anything’ you should really think more about the monetization aspects of why Flash is so popular as a rich media platform. While good ol’ HTML and Javascript have seen some improvements in the last few years they aren’t even close to scratching the surface of what the Flash platform offers.
Very informative post i just wish more people would follow this advice unfortunately allot of newbies will spend good money on web designers or ready made flash templates to get a “professional” look when it is content they should be working on
what can a web designer do though, when a client asks for such things?
Do you stick to your principles and refuse to do the work or do you give in and do what pleases the client, although it is wrong.
I completely agree. It amazes me how so many marketing related companies us splash pages. You sit there watching a silly presentation, looking for the ’skip’ button. And about 25% of the time they don’t work.