On a regular basis, someone will ask me about using a flash page as an introduction to a website and my only answer is, "No, you don't want to do that."!  This is often not the answer that the person wants to hear.  A flash page is the page you find that shows a movie or animation that then provides a 'click here' or 'enter site' button for the user to get to the actual website they want.  There are quite a few reasons for not having a flash introduction page and of course, each set of website users is different so the reasons not to use a flash page will differ.  Here are a few:

• A good percentage of users will immediately leave a website when they see a flash page
• It is difficult to optimise a flash page for search engines
• Most users immediately click on 'skip intro' or 'enter site' without hangning around to even see the flash animation / movie / picture / sound / etc.
• Users with slow internet connections will find a flash page takes a long time to load creating frustration and a high rate of impatience and ultimately leaving before they even got there...!

This blog post was initiated from reading this excellent article on SEOmoz and its something I would like to share with my world of users too: