Small Business Q & A: Does Your Website Induce Seizures?

Q: We promote our web site in all our ad campaigns, but according
to my website statistics program, we are getting very few visitors
who click past the first page. The site has a cool Flash intro
page that the designer said would impress visitors, but it doesn’t
seem to be working. What can we do to get people to spend more
time on the site?
— Christopher O.

A: The first thing you should do, Christopher, is find that https://Charlie-Day.com
https://SkinSaps.com
https://TopShoesGuide.com
https://HausaCinema.com
https://WhatCamCorders.com
https://CoffeeBaze.com
https://TrueTechJournal.com
https://GamerOfficials.com
https://PetAnimalScare.com
https://CelebMastery.com
https://FallsViewsCasino.com
designer
and beat the living Flash out of him. It won’t increase the time
visitors spend on your website, but it will make you feel better
after you’ve read this column.

What your designer thought would appeal to visitors is probably
the very thing that is driving them away. A Flash introduction
page (Macromedia Flash is a software program used to create
animations for Web pages) may seem “cool” to you, but from a
website visitor’s point of view, they can be about as appealing
as sitting in the front row of a Pokemon movie with four hundred
screaming six year olds (and here comes the segue, folks).

In December, 1997, during an episode of Pokemon, the popular
Japanese TV cartoon that has spawned everything from movies to
action figures to lunch boxes, a scene featured a rocket explosion
that flashed red and blue lights in rapid succession. After the
episode, over 600 children were taken to hospitals complaining of
seizures, blurred vision, headaches, dizziness, and nausea. Any
adult who has ever been exposed to Pokemon for more than two
seconds can understand the nausea, but the seizures at first
baffled doctors. Scientists ulti