Communicationstag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008-03-11:/comm//62008-08-05T18:38:40ZTips for Effective Local Church CommunicationsMovable Type 4.1Annoying Website Design (Part 1)tag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.492008-05-01T08:45:16Z2008-08-05T18:38:40ZWeb design no-no's. Part 1 of 3. | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Steve Dennie
Splash screen. You type in a domain name, but instead of reaching the home page, you land on a page with a fancy Flash animation and nothing of benefit to you. That's a splash screen. A splash screen wastes the time of visitors, and adds no benefits to your site. Any even semi-competent web designer knows to avoid splash screens.
Autoplay music. It's disconcerting to arrive at a page and suddenly hear music blaring at you. If someone accesses your site from an office, a library, or even a coffeeshop, chances are they'll click out of the page upon hearing music. That's what I do. Including with ebay ads that use music.
Embedded music files make pages load slower, and they get old to repeat visitors. If you want to use music, give visitors the option to turn it on. Don't make "on" the default. In fact, avoid anything that makes sound automatically.
Under Construction Pages. Don't send visitors to an empty page. It annoys them. If the page isn't ready, don't link to it. And certainly don't use one of those obnoxious "Under Construction" animations. (Note: websites should be continually "under construction," with new things being added all the time.)
Counters. Page counters, visitor counters, and hit counters add no value to your site. There is only a downside--showing visitors that your site doesn't much action. Visitors don't need to know whatever a counter counts.
Animations. Anything that automatically flashes, scrolls, or otherwise moves draws attention to itself. Let your visitors find what they're looking for without being distracted by moving elements crying out for their attention. If it's important, they'll find it. Many animations, especially blinking text, brand you as an amateur enamored with cheesy gimmicks.
Background patterns. These were hugely popular in the 1990s. They add clutter, make text difficult to read, and mark you as a beginner. Any backgrounds should be either plain colors or very, very subtle patterns. Even better: restrict them to the area around the content (like this site does).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3]]>
Annoying Website Design (Part 2)tag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.482008-05-01T08:44:06Z2008-08-05T18:39:15ZWeb design no-no's. Part 2 of 3. | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Steve Dennie
Inconsistent Design. This can include the look and placement of a navigation bar, use of fonts, headlines, graphics, and anything else that contributes to the site's look and feel. By keeping a consistent design from page to page, you instill a sense of familiarity to visitors. With each new page, they don't need to relearn how your site works or how to find things.
Violating Web Standards. Creativity is fine. But certain things are standard practice on the web, and users come to expect them. Like navigations bars along the top or side. Like identifying links with blue underlined text. Like buttons: if it's a button, it should look like a button, and if it looks like a button, it should act like a button
Don't invent your own unique way for a website to work. Your site shouldn't present a learning curve to visitors. Web visitors won't take the time to learn your unique take on web design. They'll just give up in frustration and head elsewhere.
Popups. Don't use popups when people hover over a link. People scan pages quickly, moving the mouse around without thinking about it. It's annoying when a popup appears because your cursor accidentally crossed the link. Everything grinds to a halt until you close the popup.
Such popups are useful on Netflix, but probably don't belong on your church website. Don't force anything on visitors, whether it's reading a popup or opening a window they didn't choose to open. Instead of putting content into a popup window, design it into the page itself.
Specialty plugins. Avoid web technologies that require visitors to download plugins. Most won't bother. (The Flash plugin is now standard on most browsers, so that one's okay.)
Frames. This is a design technique which, basically, involves combining two or three web pages to make a single web page (one for the header, one for the side navigation bar, one for the content--like the three panes common in email programs). Frames were common in the 1990s. But they present many problems today--problems for search engines, for browsers, for bookmarking, for printing. Don't use them.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3]]>
Annoying Website Design (Part 3)tag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.472008-05-01T08:43:03Z2008-08-05T18:39:43ZWeb design no-no's. Part 3 of 3. | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Steve Dennie
Slow websites. The more stuff you cram onto a page--graphics, animations, music--the slower it'll load. Your homepage, in particular, needs to be lean and mean. This is your first impression. If the visitor likes what he sees, he'll stick around and be more tolerant of other pages which may not load as quickly.
Long blocks of text. People don't like reading big blocks of text. Use shorter paragraphs, break up text with headings, use bullets--anything but long paragraphs. On the web, people don't read--they scan. That doesn't work with text blocks.
Broken links. Make sure you links work--not only links within your site, but links to pages on other sites. Everybody hates being taken to a dead end. Broken links communicate carelessness to visitors.
Out-dated content. If you post information about upcoming events, make sure it's still an upcoming event and not something that happened a month ago. Out-dated content tells visitors, "This website isn't a priority with us. Don't put to much confidence in what you read here."
Browser-specific design. Design for all web browsers. Many sites says, "Best viewed with Internet Explorer." That annoys the Firefox, Opera, OmniWeb, and Safari users. They won't switch just to read your site. Rather, they'll go elsewhere.
Multiple Fonts. Stick to one or two fonts. And make sure they are among the fonts commonly found on most computers (Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Times, Georgia, Trebuchet, Impact).
Unnecessary Content. Yes, you can include the current weather on your site. Yes, you can include a "Verse of the Day" or a famous quote. Yes, you can tell visitors when your site was last updated. But...why? Stick to what your site is about.
Misspellings. Check your spelling. This applies to everything you print--bulletins, emails, Powerpoint, flyers, blogs, and websites.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3]]>
Working with Printerstag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.562008-04-13T01:55:36Z2008-04-13T01:58:20ZQuotes, digital media, proofs, and delivery.Steve Dennie
Getting Quotes When you need something printed, get a quote from three different commercial printers. Here is the information they'll need to know to give you a quote.
The quantity you need.
Page size.
Total number of pages.
Any folding or stapling they'll need to do.
The number of colors of ink. Four-color means, basically, color--every color. Printers often refer to that as CMYK printing, which means they mix four color--cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (I don't know why black is K) to cover the entire color spectrum.
Paper stock. Printers can provide paper samples and make suggestions.
Will you give them "camera ready" copy, which means it's ready to print? Or will they need to add photos, artwork, headlines, or do anything else themselves? When you design something on a computer (in Publisher, InDesign, Photoshop, or some other program) and deliver it to the printer ready to print--well, that's the new "camera-ready."
How soon do you need it? Give them a firm date; otherwise they (like building contractors) might dawdle.
If you're submitting the job on a computer disk, what type of software did you use (InDesign, Pagemaker, Quark, Word, MS Publisher, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.).
Giving the Printer a Computer Disk If you design something on a computer, most commercial printers can use it straight from a computer disk. The best choice (and cheapest) would be a CD that you burn, though some burners don't produce CDs that are compatible with all computers. Another option would be a flash drive. Or, depending on how big the file is, you could email it. Some printers provide an FTP site, or an FTP function built into their regular website, for transferring files.
If you submit digital print jobs, you'll also need to include the fonts you use. Just copy the fonts onto the disk you give to the printer. It's preferred that these be Postscript fonts, rather than Truetype fonts. Ask the printer what they need.
Check with the printer to make sure your computer and the programs you use are compatible with what they have. Most printers will be able to use files created by the high-end desktop publishing programs, Quark Express, and InDesign, plus Microsoft Publisher (because so many people use it).
Checking Proofs Insist on seeing a proof. This might be a print-out they provide, which you can mark on. Or it might be a PDF file sent over the internet. You then need to describe to them in any email or through an online form any corrections or changes.
Printers typically correct their own mistakes for free. But any corrections which were your fault will cost you extra. This includes any misspellings you didn't catch before sending the job to the printer, or something you decide to change after the printer has already invested time in preparing the job for printing.
Accepting Delivery When you accept delivery, spot-check the materials in different places to make sure the printing is consistent. Presses can get a bit off-kilter as the job runs. If the pressman lets the press run while he goes to get a cup of coffee, a number of pieces may come off that aren't very good--the ink is lighter and faded, or perhaps two colors don't line up as well as they should. ]]>
Commercial Printingtag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.552008-04-13T01:53:10Z2008-04-13T01:55:21ZQuality, Price, Speed: You can have only two of them.Steve Dennie
Quality and price. If you want good quality but don't want to pay very much, a commercial printer will work it into the production schedule when he can. That means you may not get it very fast.
Quality and speed. If you want good quality and you want it done quickly--you're going to pay for it. That's what the quick-print places, like Pip and Kinko, offer--good quality and speed, but at a steeper price than you'll pay elsewhere.
Speed and good price. If you want something done quickly and cheaply, you'll sacrifice quality. This is where a photocopier fits.
Internet Printing Companies The internet has enabled many commercial printers to go national. You use their website to send them the job you want printed--a business card, brochure, or whatever.
I've used several internet printers. My favorite is a place in Montana called PrintingforLess.com, and have been very happy with them. Excellent service. I'm sure there are other companies just as good or better, but that's the one I stumbled across. Montana is not a place with lots of traffic, but on the web, that doesn't matter. People can find you on the web, no matter how remote your physical location.
The internet printers come close to combining quality, price, and speed. I can send a job to Montana and get the same quality, speed, and often a better price, than I could get locally. But the quicker you want it, the higher the cost. And then there's shipping. That's the big elephant you need to factor in.
Quick Print Shops Quick-print places, like Pip Printing and Kinkos, are like the foodmart at the gas station--convenient, but more expensive. However, many churches and businesses use these places for nearly all of their printing needs. And they're paying for it.
One of the big advantages of places like Kinkos is that they can do small quantities. With a commercial printer, you probably don't want to think about a press run of less than 1000. But if you need 50 notebooks put together, Kinkos is your place.
Some quick-print places have a central printing plant where they do offset printing. Others farm-out higher-quality printing jobs to commercial printers. You could probably save money by going directly to them.
Quick-print shops are a valuable resource for a variety of printing needs. They can especially provide some good options with their expensive photocopiers, including the use of color. And they can do business cards quickly and cheaply. ]]>
Church Website Templatestag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.542008-04-13T01:11:30Z2008-04-13T01:15:45ZDesign a couple templates, which all pages on your church website will use.Steve Dennie
Homepage. The homepage should look different from the other pages. Even totally different.
Landing page. These are "section" pages, which serve as directories to that section. In this website, each of the links in the blue navigation bar leads to a landing page. Often, a Google search will bring someone to a landing page.
Interior page. These pages are workhorse pages, designed to hold information. If a person wants to know the church's history, he might start at the home page, go to the "About Us" landing page, and from there click on the "History" link.
Most sites, from what I've observed, are designed with just two templates: the homepage, and interior pages. That works fine. You can even design a website using a single template. For a very small site, that may be the way to go.
The UB.org website The UB.org website, our official denominational website, uses just two page designs--one for the homepage, another for all other pages. The landing pages are just a version of the general interior page.
Healthy Ministry Resources website This website uses the following:
A homepage template, in which the graphic is 300 pixels tall.
A landing page template, in which the graphic is 200 pixels tall.
An interior page, which doesn't use a banner graphic or the tagline (like this page).
In some cases, the landing page template is used for content which could just as easily go on interior pages. ]]>
Structure of Church Websitestag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.532008-04-13T01:03:28Z2008-04-13T01:08:17ZGood and bad ways to structure your church's websiteSteve Dennie There are two common website structure which are bad--which aren't designed with the end-user in mind.
Administrative structure. Some websites are designed around the church administrative structure. That's certainly been true of denominational websites, which too often include a tab for each department of the national headquarters. But sites need to be designed for users--for persons who have no clue about your political structure.
Purpose statement. I've also noticed that "purpose-driven" churches love to organize their website around a purpose statement (or mission statement, or vision statement, or whatever you want to call it). That way, they can claim, "Everything we do fits into our purpose." Well, good for you.
The thing is, a web surfer shouldn't need to know your purpose statement to find what he's looking for. Besides, the elements of a purpose statement may seem obscure or meaningless to an outsider, especially a person not savvy with church lingo.
For example, suppose you fit every page of your site into these four tabs: Win, Build, Equip, Send. A web visitor is left wondering, "Which tab tells me if they have a nursery on Sunday morning?" A purpose-driven structure is designed with church leadership in mind, not potential visitors (even most typical regular attenders would be confused).
So how should you organize your site?
In developing templates for the AtMyChurch.com service, I visited and studied scores of church websites, including those on the lists for the Largest Churches, Most Innovative Churches, and Fastest-Growing Churches in the country. Nearly all used a standard navigation bar, and these are the most common links I observed:
About Us
Contact Us
Ministries
Staff
Directions
If You're New (lots of variations on that theme)
What happens on Sunday
If I were looking for a new church, links like those would be most helpful to me. Despite a lifetime in the church, I get confused by sites built around a mission statement. They make me think too much, and for no good reason.
My own church's website When I designed the site for Anchor Community Church--a fairly new church of about 120 people--I used these sections:
About Us (with five pages: FAQ, Our Story, Doctrinal Beliefs, Denomination, Staff)
What We Do (Sundays, Big Events, Other Stuff)
Directions
Photos (I have lots of photos from church events)
Contact Us
To summarize: keep it simple, and organize for the user. ]]>
Church Brochurestag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.512008-04-13T00:13:54Z2008-04-13T21:31:52ZTips for church brochures. See also Flagship BrochureSteve Dennie
flagship brochure. In addition, you could print brochures about other specific aspects of your church.
Men's and women's ministries
How you handle finances
Your missions involvement
Children's programs
Doctrinal positions
Information on the pastoral staff
Opportunities for ministry
Your denominational affiliation
Bible study groups
Avoid brochures that look like this:
The cover features a photo of the church building, but no people anywhere in sight
Titles are in Old English type.
The brochure lists all of the colleges the pastor attended, his degrees, and the title of his Masters thesis.
A photo shows the pastor sitting behind his desk before an open Bible, with a serious expression on his face.
It consists of a seven-point doctrinal statement written in heavy-duty theological language.
The brochure lists a schedule of weekly meetings, with no explanation of what those meetings are about ("Aglow Fellowship, 7 p.m. Thursday").
Sunday school classes are listed, with names like "Discovery Class" and "Galilean Class." Outsiders are given no clues as to who class is for (and may not even know what Sunday school is for).
Pictures show no room for more people--filled rooms, filled parking lot, filled pews. People need to know there is room for them.
Pre-printed Brochures
You can buy brochure templates with nice color designs already printed on them. You run the brochure through a photocopier to add your information in black, and it looks like a brochure printed in three or four colors. Various companies sell these brochures.
A major advantage is that you can do only as many brochures as you need--maybe just ten of them to put in the information rack. There is no minimum press run.
Don't photocopy photos. They look poor. If you want to use photos, print using a laser printer. It just doesn't work to use a photocopier on photos.
]]>
The Flagship Brochuretag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.502008-04-13T00:11:20Z2008-04-13T00:13:43ZEvery church needs one very nice brochure.Steve Dennie You may also print brochures about various programs and other matters, but this one brochure requires the highest quality you can afford, since it will often be in a position to make a first impression of your church.
The flagship brochure can be used in different ways:
Send it to first-time visitors.
Include it in mass mailings to the community.
Send it to anyone inquiring about the church.
Distribute it door-to-door.
Put it in a rack on an information table.
Tips for Flagship Brochures
This brochure should be simple, clear, and attractive. Put some money into it.
Don't try to cover everything your church does. Just hit some highlights.
Two years is a good lifespan for a church brochure. Especially if it contains photos of people; hairstyles and clothes will appear dated, and some people in those photos may no longer attend.
To extend the brochure's life, avoid information that might change. This might include service times, when specific groups meet, and the names of staff members. As soon as you mention that the youth group meets on Sunday night, they'll switch to Friday.
Brochures can be designed as self-mailers. That is, you leave room so that, when folded, one side can be used to attach an address label and postage.
The most common format is the tri-fold: 8.5-by-11 inches, folded twice. That way, it fits in an envelope (or even a shirt pocket).
Information You Might Include in a Flagship Brochure
Children's programs (parents will want to know what you offer their kids).
Community and social programs the church participates in.
Directions to the church (preferably a map).
Where do I park? Which door do I enter through?
The office phone number.
Any denominational affiliation.
Summary of church doctrine (don't print a complete statement of faith)
A brief historical sketch of your church.
A church mission statement summary.
Those are just ideas. If you hit all of those areas, you're trying to say too much. Include enough to answer their initial questions, but not flood them with information.
]]>
Web Navigation Barstag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.462008-04-12T21:11:18Z2008-04-12T21:28:53ZTips for designing a navigation bar. Every church site needs one.Steve Dennie
A familiar place. Put the navigation bar where people expect to fine one--at the top or along the side. That's what you find on most websites. You can get clever and try an arrangement along the bottom or even down the middle between two columns, but you'll confuse people. You're going against the recognizable standard. Don't confuse people in the name of creativity.
A consistent place. Put the navigation bar in the same place on each page. Don't put it at the top of one page, and down the side on another. I prefer designing with the main navigation bar across the top.
Look at the navigation bars for the biggest sites and biggest companies: Apple, Microsoft, CNN, Yahoo, IBM, you-name-it. These companies could spend untold thousands of dollars implementing any kind of navigation bar they want. But what do they end up with? A navigation bar along the top or side. That's what web surfers find most familiar, so that's what they use. Do what makes users comfortable.
Put a link to your home page on every page. If the person gets lost in your site, they can always find their way "home."
It would also be good if they can always get to the "Contact" page. Many websites include a few links in the upper right, and you might find the Contact link there. That's the case with this website.
Textual Links Vs. Image Links
When designing a navigation bar, give preference to textual links, as opposed to image links (if you can select the text with your cursor, it's a text link). Some people disable images in their browsers to make pages load faster, in which case they can't even see an image-based navigation bar.
Text links help search engines index your site. (The UB.org website uses image links in the navigation bar. This site uses text links.)
If you use images in your main navigation bar, you'll want to use textual links at the bottom of the page. If those images don't load, the textual links provide a sure-fire backup.
Submenus in Navigation Many navigation bars have submenus. Sometimes, it seems like the designer tries to fit every page on the site into a submenu. A drop-down submenu item may itself have a submenu which pops out to the side (like this shot from the IBM site).
Sometimes these submenus work well. But other times, they cause frustration. You try to navigate through the submenus, your cursor gets off-track...and it all disappears. You're forced to start over.
Look at the menu for the Apple site (above). The navigation bar across the top of the page has seven items. None sports a submenu. The navigation bar aspire to be a complete sitemap. Instead, it just gets you to a section of the website which is closer to what you're looking for. There, you'll find further links, the kind which could have gone into submenus. Yes, it means going through an extra page. But at least it works!
That's what I prefer. And that's how this site is designed. The navigation bar works as a general directory, pointing you to a section of the website. ]]>
Web Text: Choosing Fontstag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.452008-04-12T20:49:47Z2008-04-12T20:54:10ZLimit your use of fonts to just a few widely-used ones.Steve Dennie You
can check out a thousand websites, and only find maybe a dozen fonts
being used. Web designer's hard drive may contain scores of fonts (mine
contains hundreds). But on the web, it does no good unless that font is
on the user's hard drive, too. Otherwise, some generic font will be
substituted.
Fortunately, there are a number of fonts which
you'll find on most computers. There is nothing fancy about them--just
ordinary text fonts, for the most part. But you need to use them when
designing your site. The short list is:
Arial
Comic Sans
Courier
Georgia
Helvetica
Impact
Tahoma
Times
Trebuchet
Verdana
The list is growing, and I could mention some others. But if you stick to the fonts listed above (as I do), you'll do fine.
At the most, use two fonts Like the Healthy Ministry Resources website. Here, I use:
Georgia (a serif font--serifs are those flags on the letters) for most body text (except on the blogs).
Verdana (a sans serif font--no flags on the letters), for sidebars, captions, the blogs, and miscellaneous other text.
If you use just one font Make it a sans serif font, like Verdana, Arial, or Helvetica. Those are the most readable on screen.
I
like Verdana, because it was designed specifically for viewing on
computer screens. Arial and Helvetica, on the other hand, started in
the print world. I've designed several websites (like ub.org) using nothing but Verdana.
For everything. I add variety by using bold and italics, and changing
the type size and color, but it's still a single font.
In general:
sans serif fonts are easier to read on a computer screen.
serif fonts are easier to read in printed materials.
]]>
Web Text: White on Blacktag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.442008-04-12T20:39:35Z2008-04-12T20:53:34ZUsed white text on a dark background.Steve Dennie
In general, don't design with white type on a dark background. That's for sites intended to be read only online, never printed out. With a church site, you'll want people to print off pages--info about you, directions, contact info, etc. A dark background looks artsy, youthy, but there are major disadvantages.
It's difficult to read long passages of text on a dark background. Have you ever seen a mass-market book using all reversed text?
Always make reversed text a sans serif font, like Verdana. Serif fonts (Times, Georgia) don't work well on solid backgrounds.
Use reversed text sparingly--for sidebars, blurbs, and other little things.
If you do use reversed text, you'll probably need to make all of the content bold. The regular font works okay with black text on white, but you need the bold version for it to show up well in a white-text-on-black context.
Printing pages with solid backgrounds uses up a lot of ink or toner. Don't be surprised if someone sends you a bill for all the ink they use filling up the whole page. Even a faint pattern uses up printer ink and processing power.
For a church site, people come looking for information they might want to print out--directions, services times, your doctrinal statement, etc. Ease their pain by designing dark type on a light (or white) background. If the background is white, it's sure a lot easier to print.
]]>
Web Text: Miscellaneous Tipstag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.432008-04-12T20:19:21Z2008-04-12T21:53:30ZSome general tips about using fonts on the web.Steve Dennie
Make your main text at least 12 points in size. That's good for most adults.
Limit the use of italics. It's hard to read on screen.
Don't use long lines of text. The wider the line, the more difficult it is to read. If your window is 700 pixels wide, you might make the text area 500 pixels, with a sidebar of 200 pixels. Or something like that. Windows that expand to fill the entire screen can be especially problematic if text then stretches across the whole screen.
Keep a lot of contrast between the text and the background. Black and white, the ends of the color spectrum, give the greatest contrast. As you come inward--say, blue text on yellow background--you lost some contrast. Red on purple, or blue on black, provide practically no contrast and, therefore, are pretty much unreadable.
Don't use small serif fonts. Serif fonts are okay on screen, but not at small sizes, where the flags get lost in the low-resolution environment.
Don't use ALL-CAPS. Everybody should know that by now. It's the online version of shouting.
Don't put large pieces of text in image format (gifs or jpegs). They take more time to load, and Google is unable to index the words. You certainly don't want to embed your service times or location (city and state) in an image, because that crucial info will be useless to Google.
Text Alignment
It's best to use left-alignment on the web.
Don't center everything on web pages. It's harder to read. Imagine reading a book in which the text is centered on every page. Yikes.
Avoid justified text, too (straight edges on both sides of the column). On the web, you'll end up with unequal spacing between words. The narrower the column, the worse this gets. Use left alignment, and this won't be an issue (because the computer doesn't try to make the right-hand edge straight).
]]>
Splash Pages: Reasons They are Badtag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.422008-04-12T19:48:28Z2008-04-12T19:58:23ZSplash pages have no redeeming qualities. Don't use them. Here's why.Steve Dennie
Studies show that 20% of surfers, upon encountering a splash page, go somewhere else. They never even enter the site. So if your church erects a website to attract potential visitors, but you include a splash page, one out of five people who come across your site will not get past the splash page.
Splash pages take longer to load than regular pages. Web users are notoriously impatient. If your page takes too long to load, they are a billion other pages they can surf to.
If the splash page doesn't include really important information, something which justifies the wait, you risk annoying the person before he even gets to your homepage to learn about your church. Don't risk it.
The homepage, the URL people type to get to your site--www.firstchurch.com--is the most important page on your site. Why waste it on a fancy animation?
On the web, people's attention span is measured in seconds. Don't do anything to waste their time. That's the only thing Splash pages do--they waste your time.
Splash pages annoy return visitors. Even if you, incredibly, actually like someone's splash page, you will only like it once. You won't want to wait through it every time you visit the site.
Also: splash pages hurt you with search engines. The homepage URL is the most important page to search engines. Splash pages contain almost nothing that search engines can index--no text with keywords, no links except to the homepage, no H1 titles (that's HTML-speak). All information is contained in the graphic or animation, which probably can't be indexed.
When Google indexes the page, the results won't include the church name, location, services times, or much of anything else. It's just a waste. An empty room with a nice painting adorning one wall and a door at each end.
]]>
Splash Pagestag:www.healthyministryresources.com,2008:/comm//6.412008-04-12T19:45:54Z2008-04-12T19:52:50ZLots of info about something you shouldn't use.Steve Dennie Don't use splash pages. There are many reasons why splash pages are bad.
What is a Splash Page?
A home page is the page you get when you type a domain name. If you type "healthyministryresources.com," you go here. The home page is the launching pad into the rest of the site. It's like walking into a mall and seeing a directory of the stores in the mall.
A splash page, too, is what you get when you type a domain name. But with a splash page, you don't get a directory. Instead, you typically get an elaborate animation which lasts maybe 5-10 seconds and tells you...well, not much. It's more for show. You're supposed to be wowed by the splash page. Most splash pages use Flash animation. Coooool!
Movies have something similar at the beginning. The studio, the production company, the distributor--they all show an elaborate animation which, when it comes right down to it, is nothing more than an animated logo. Sitting there in the theatre, you must endure it. But on the web, people do have a choice. They can go elsewhere.
Somewhere on the splash page, usually the bottom, you'll find a "Skip Intro" button. If you click on it, you'll go directly to the site's main page without having to endure the insufferable animation. I always, always click on the "Skip Intro" button. I've never yet seen a splash page that adds anything of value to my life.
People who don't know better view a splash page as....
The cover of a book, which grabs your attention as you pace through Barnes & Noble.
A billboard, which snares the attention of passers-by.
A window display, which grabs the interest of pedestrians and convinces them to enter the store.
The thing is, if a person has typed your domain name into their browser--they're there. You don't need to lure them inside. They've already made the decision to come inside. When people come to your website, you have their attention. So expose them to your homepage right away.
If you must use a splash page.... If you must, absolutely must, use a splash page, make sure the "Skip Intro" button is prominent. That button should take them to your main page. Better yet: use the splash page as your main page. Let them enter the store directly, rather than force them to enter through an entryway lined with pictures they don't care about.
Only Use a Splash Page if....
The content of the site is inappropriate for minors or might offend someone. Hopefully, that doesn't include anything on your church website.
You have versions of the site in different languages (like English and Spanish), and you want people to choose their version.
Keep a lot of contrast between the text and the background. Black and white, the ends of the color spectrum, give the greatest contrast. As you come inward--say, blue text on yellow background--you lost some contrast. Red on purple, or blue on black, provide practically no contrast and, therefore, are pretty much unreadable.