Bad Website Ideas: Splash Intro Page, Music, and Websites Done Entirely in Flash

A Splash Intro Page is a specially designed welcome page, meant to be the first page a person sees before entering a website. They often have a Flash Animation or some other type of visually stunning graphics that welcome the visitor and and include a link to "Skip Intro" or "Click here to enter site." Although most people agree they are beautiful to look at, professional web designers and search engine optimizers universally agree Splash Intro pages are a BAD IDEA. Here's why:

• They Annoy Visitors - Visitors to your website want to get to the content of your website as quickly as possible. Splash Intro Pages waste your visitor's time by forcing the visitor to take unnecessary steps to get at the content of your website. The main goal of a website is to provide easily accessible information to visitors and Splash Intro Pages stand in their way.
  
  
• Lower Search Engine Ranking - Two of the most important things Search Engines look for are text-based content and text-based hyperlinks, neither of which is available on a splash intro page. The other goal of a website is to be found by Search Engines, and Splash Intro Pages make this difficult.

Read what other professional website designers say about Splash Intro Pages: Matthew Inman, Derek K. Miller, and John Luxford

The only exception would be websites created for musicians, entertainers, or multimedia-based sites. Background music was popular a few years back, but now it's the sure mark of an amateur. If you're still not convinced, here a few legitimate reasons not to have music on your site:

• Copyright Infringement - Unless you own the rights to the music, you run risk of being sued for copyright infringement.
  
  
• Slower Download Time - Music files are large and they cannot be compressed. They make your pages load slower and use up valuable bandwidth.
  
  
• People Have Different Tastes - What sounds good to you may annoy or offend someone else. Your website should be geared toward a wide viewing audience.

Read what other professional website designers say about music on websites:
Matthew Inman and Alcan Gulez

We'll be the first to admit, Flash is amazing. We love Flash. Unfortunately, Flash has its drawbacks. If Flash is going to be used on a website, it needs to be used sparingly. The majority of your site should be HTML-based with a few Flash elements to create visual interest. Here's why:

• Search Engine Optimization Nightmare - Websites made entirely in Flash are practically invisible to search engines. This means, even with specialized SEO, your website may not show up in Google, Yahoo, MSN, or any other search engine's results.
  
  
• Flash Lowers Usability - It requires the viewer to download software in order to view it. Although most people have Flash Player installed on their computers, if your site needs to reach a broad audience, the pros and cons of using Flash must be carefully weighed.
  
  
• Slower Download Time - Flash pages load slower than straight-up XHTML, which can turn viewers away from your site.

Read what other professional website designers say about the overuse of Flash:
Havard Peterson and Peter Chng