How important is it to describe the website in a splash page format for the home page? Are there any guidelines or special points to be aware of? Thanks.
You shouldn't need one to be honest, unless it's a portfolio or unless the site isn't done. It makes a lot of people leave the page from what I know.
I should have been more clear. I wasn't thinking a completely full out splash but rather one similar to squidoo.com , vox.com, shareapic.net where there is some explanation of the service on the front page. Sorry for the ambiguity.
In terms of usability and textbook website design, there shouldn't be any sort of splash page - it makes users click one more time to get to the content - you want to limit the clicks as much as possible.