Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

**Stewart Gordon** · Nov 10 '05, 06:15 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Sandy.Pittendri gh@gmail.com wrote:
<snip>[color=blue]
> Is that splash page related to his search engine invisibility, despite
> his lofty stature, and despite the large number of links pointing to
> his site?[/color]

Some search engines don't index pages with fewer than 100 words or so.
But I don't know what Google's threshold is - apparently smaller than
that though.

And I've a suspicion that some search engines can't follow links on a
page before it's indexed.

Stewart.

--
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/M d- s:- C++@ a->--- UB@ P+ L E@ W++@ N+++ o K-@ w++@ O? M V? PS-
PE- Y? PGP- t- 5? X? R b DI? D G e++>++++ h-- r-- !y
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

My e-mail is valid but not my primary mailbox. Please keep replies on
the 'group where everyone may benefit.

**brucie** · Nov 10 '05, 06:35 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

In post <news:113164424 4.497810.208270 @g44g2000cwa.go oglegroups.com> ,
Sandy.Pittendri gh@gmail.com said:
[color=blue]
> site does have a graphical splash page[/color]

splash pages are useless, annoying and keep the visitor away from the
content, get rid of it.

--
l i t t l e v o i c e s

**mbstevens** · Nov 10 '05, 06:45 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Sandy.Pittendri gh@gmail.com wrote:
[color=blue]
>
> Is that splash page related to his search engine invisibility, despite
> his lofty stature, and despite the large number of links pointing to
> his site?
>[/color]
Kill the splash, add articles about fly fishing, fly rods, etc.
A good article will automatically have lots of related terms, which will
help.

**Andy Dingley** · Nov 10 '05, 08:05 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

On 10 Nov 2005 09:37:24 -0800, "Sandy.Pittendr igh@gmail.com"
<Sandy.Pittendr igh@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Here's a question I don't know the answer to:[/color]

Neither do we - tell us the URL and we might have a clue
[color=blue]
>His site does have a graphical splash page, with only one link
>on it, that says "enter"[/color]

Dump the splash page - for all sorts of good reasons.

**Stephen Poley** · Nov 10 '05, 08:45 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

On 10 Nov 2005 09:37:24 -0800, "Sandy.Pittendr igh@gmail.com"
<Sandy.Pittendr igh@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Is that splash page related to his search engine invisibility, despite
>his lofty stature, and despite the large number of links pointing to
>his site?[/color]

A splash page per se will not destroy visibility, though it will harm
it. But some of the silly things that people do on sites, especially
those with splash pages, will destroy visibility. Without a URL we can't
say much more.

--
Stephen Poley

Web Matters - Main Page

http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/

**Sandy.Pittendrigh@gmail.com** · Nov 10 '05, 09:55 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

RE>Without a URL we can't say much more

I didn't make the webpage. It is a nice looking site.
That it isn't showing up on the search engines is a systematic bug of
sorts.

http://troutrods.com

**mbstevens** · Nov 10 '05, 10:25 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Sandy.Pittendri gh@gmail.com wrote:[color=blue]
> RE>Without a URL we can't say much more
>
> I didn't make the webpage. It is a nice looking site.
> That it isn't showing up on the search engines is a systematic bug of
> sorts.
>
> http://troutrods.com
>[/color]
Yeeek! Deprecated markup, images for text, no doctype, slow loading on
both the splash page and the opening page.
There's more to worry about than the number of hits from a search engine
right now.

Anybody click the link to the people who made it? I can't even get in.

**kchayka** · Nov 10 '05, 11:15 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Sandy.Pittendri gh@gmail.com wrote:[color=blue]
>
> That it isn't showing up on the search engines is a systematic bug of
> sorts.
>
> http://troutrods.com[/color]

I get the impression whoever built the site thought that meta keywords
had merit and would be enough. They thought wrong.

--
Reply email address is a bottomless spam bucket.
Please reply to the group so everyone can share.

**Andy Dingley** · Nov 10 '05, 11:25 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

On 10 Nov 2005 13:49:43 -0800, "Sandy.Pittendr igh@gmail.com"
<Sandy.Pittendr igh@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>http://troutrods.com[/color]
[color=blue]
>That it isn't showing up on the search engines is a systematic bug of
>sorts.[/color]

Bugs of several sorts. The fundamental one is that it was coded in the
late '90s, with the standards of the day (If this site was built any
time post 2000, then it's really a bit of a crock)

Search engines are text-based. They don't really do pictures. Give them
some text and they'll index it happily. Don't give them _TEXT_ and you
may as well not exist. A "splash" page always hurts search engines,
because they're pretty but light on text that a search engine can make
use of.

This site has effectively two splash pages. The home page is almost
content-free (as far as a search engine sees it). Now if your incoming
links are to this homepage, then Google will see them as "unimportan t"
because there's no content and it will see the real content pages as
"poorly rated" because no-one is linking to them. This all hurts your
placement.

There are two things you could do with this site. One is to re-develop
it, which will cost you money. The other (recommended) is to fix the
most obvious problems and leave the rest be. This newsgroup will
probably recommend the first and insist that you fix the "doctype" first
of all (you don't know what a doctype is. No-one ever caught more fish
by knowing what a doctype is (except maybe Blinky)).

I would suggest the following. It requires a _knowledgeable_ web spod,
but it also needs very little of their time (and so would be cheap to
do). This list isn't exhaustive (you want comprehensive reports, you can
pay me for them!)

- Dump the splash page.

- Put alt attributes on the images, _especially_ those that are used to
emulate text and most importantly on the ones that are the text links

- Put title attributes on the images too (a good web developer will use
slightly different wording on title and alt, a sloppy one is unlikely
to)

- Put title attributes on the navigation links.

- Put some text onto the homepage - even just a paragraph or two.

- Put some text around the link to the Japanese version

- Avoid using images for text, especially for the contact details. In
particular, this kills any attempts at geographical searching. Maybe all
the business is mail-order, but you'll still be searched for as "That
rod guy in Montana"

- Ditch the imagemap at the page footer and replace it with a text-based
navigation menu.

- replace the JavaScript-only links to the "enlarge the image" links
with ones that work when JavaScript is turned off too.

- Don't use "Earthtalk" as designers. They're clearly clueless about
useful web development (their own site is an abomination).

I _wouldn't_ go for more re-work than this. The next steps are obvious
(fix the invalid markup, use an up-to-date HTML version, a doctype,
avoid <table> markup, avoid <font>) however they are more work to do and
less payback for doing them.

You could even do some automated switching for Japanese / English
versions, based on the http accept header. This is easy with decent
hosting and gives the Japanese users a better initial default page.
[color=blue]
>It is a nice looking site.[/color]

That's a contentious statement hereabouts. The site suffers badly from
"Looks fine on my computer" syndrome, which is _very_ common. On one of
my desktops it's unusably small, on another it's unusably big. This sort
of problem is symptomatic of web designers who don't really understand
the web and don't appreciate that not everyone has the same settings the
original designer did.

--
Cats have nine lives, which is why they rarely post to Usenet.

**Beauregard T. Shagnasty** · Nov 10 '05, 11:35 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

mbstevens wrote:
[color=blue]
> Anybody click the link to the people who made it? I can't even get in.[/color]

Yep. Sad, isn't it? I especially loved the black-on-black text on:

Home - Oolite Media LLC

http://www.earthtalk.com/

We love creating one-of-a-kind websites and video vignettes. There is something exciting and gratifying in taking a concept such as the promotion of a new

--
-bts
-Warning: I brake for lawn deer

**mbstevens** · Nov 10 '05, 11:45 PM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
>>Anybody click the link to the people who made it? I can't even get in.[/color]
>
>
> Yep. Sad, isn't it? I especially loved the black-on-black text on:[/color]

There is this whole class of web-design books written by friends-o-flash
and/or print-graphic designers on a lark. That's about all my local
library buys (the one notable exception being Zeldman's book).

I suspect there's more money/advertising behind this kind of stuff than
behind anything actually having to do with web design. I fear we'll
never be rid of it. Perhaps, if the general prevalence of humbug ever
breaks, instead of our sinking into a new Dark Age...

**Jim Moe** · Nov 11 '05, 12:25 AM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Sandy.Pittendri gh@gmail.com wrote:[color=blue]
> RE>Without a URL we can't say much more
>
> I didn't make the webpage. It is a nice looking site.
> That it isn't showing up on the search engines is a systematic bug of
> sorts.
>[/color]
I agree: it is a beautiful site; the graphics are excellent, the layout
appealing. Too bad the fonts are so small; there is no reason for such
small fonts.

The Description and Keywords meta's are a good start. They must,
however, be reflected in the content for search engines to grant them any
weight.
There is no content until a 3rd page is visited. There is the splash
page, the "Home" page, then (at last!) some content.
I suggest dropping the Splash and Home pages, and making "the company"
page the first page people see. This gets people right to the business of
the rods, and content for search engines to index.

--
jmm (hyphen) list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

**Jim Moe** · Nov 11 '05, 12:35 AM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

mbstevens wrote:[color=blue]
>
> Anybody click the link to the people who made it? I can't even get in.
>[/color]
It is truly amazing. The only thing there is a Flash link, and it does
not work since I *only* have Flashplayer v7. It is impossible to enter the
site!
Maybe it is a pre-qualification screening for clients. If I can't get
into the site, I am not sophisticated enough for them.

--
jmm (hyphen) list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

**kchayka** · Nov 11 '05, 01:45 AM

Re: Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Andy Dingley wrote:[color=blue]
> On 10 Nov 2005 13:49:43 -0800, "Sandy.Pittendr igh@gmail.com"
> <Sandy.Pittendr igh@gmail.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
>>http://troutrods.com[/color]
>[color=green]
>> it isn't showing up on the search engines[/color]
>
> - Put alt attributes on the images, _especially_ those that are used to
> emulate text and most importantly on the ones that are the text links
> - Put title attributes on...[/color]

FWIW, this may have little affect on the rankings, if any. AIUI, some
SEs only index alt text if it is a link, others not at all. I don't
think any SEs index the title attribute.

Both alt and title, however, can be beneficial to visitors other than
SEs. That's reason enough to make use of them where appropriate.
[color=blue]
> - Avoid using images for text[/color]

This is indeed the best advice. Plain text rules. :)

--
Reply email address is a bottomless spam bucket.
Please reply to the group so everyone can share.

Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Do splash pages make you invisible to search engines

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment