"<iframe>" tag & SEO

[cburnell]

About 6-months ago I undertook a major re-write of my web site. There are extensive product pages, archived newsletter articles, lots of FAQ pages, over 300 pages total. The management of navigaton had become my biggest challenge in administering this site as any change to the naviation menu involved modifying all pages.

I knew "frames" was a dirty word to search engines, and their use did not lend themselves to SEO. I put a lot of time into investigating .php, but did not see it as a good alternative. I purchased two books on css, but could not work out the three column problems so widely discussed in this forum.

I ended up incorporating <iframe> tags with tables using a separate .html document for header, left and right navigation, and a footer. See the results here:

http://www.lubes-n-filters.com

I recently ran some pages through WebCEO and it stated that "Your page has frames! Frames are a no-go for search engines. Pages with framesets rank lower than the same pages without frames. In addition, only a few search engines can read information in the frames or do it for paid submissions only. Try to get rid of frames in any possible way."

I need help. I need to work at getting better positioning but really dread the thought of going back to having navigation control "hard-coded" into each and every page. What can I do?

I do appreciate all suggestions.

[rocky1]

Would have to argue all points there cburnell. Frames can be indexed, frames can be indexed well, and frames can rank well, see ~~>

Dakota SEO & Design

If you open source on the Frames Pages you will note there is some text buried in the frames page. There were links buried in there as well, before I opted for the Frames Free viewing option and moved them up front. As for this site being index and ranked, the site has undergone complete overhaul in the last 3 days. New name, new data, new color scheme, several new pages, same old I-Frame! Google picked it up before all revisions were complete Monday night/Tuesday morning early a.m., and picked it up again after all but one minor error, were completed last night.

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...SEO+%26+Design

The search phrase therein, hit #1 before, and in fact was the cause of the name change on the site.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...1&q=Dakota+SEO

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ota+web+design

http://www.google.com/search?q=North...&start=10&sa=N #14 - Page 2!

http://www.google.com/search?q=North...&start=10&sa=N #14 - Page 2!



Sure those are local, all less than 20,000 results returned... so lets try this one! See # 9, this one is strictly SEO & Design, thus Global, and 1.3 million results.

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...SEO+%26+Design

http://www.google.com/search?q=SEO+%...&start=10&sa=N #13 Page 2!
Global, and 1.2 million results.

Likewise if you run back-links, about 80 percent of the site has been indexed in the past, and changes made should add to that.

Further complicating things in the case of this site however, you will note up there in the address bar, top of the page at Dakota SEO & Design, this site is not only running I-Frames, it's a sub-directory within my site! Meaning it's also taking a beating on PR right off the bat.

So you cburnell... it can be made to work Dude! If you're happy with your I-Frame, I'd say run them!

[cburnell]

Thanks for your response, Rocky1. I did some other searches with some of your other key words, but did not get as good a results. Just ran "SEO Design", without the "&", and it came in 48. I'm really looking for some evidence that results are not adversely effected by frames with more generic searches, i.e.: searches performed by the regular internet user without going after detailed word strings.

I had hoped others would weigh in to this thread with some input, and especially someone more familiar with Web CEO and their claim that frames are some sort of kiss of death to SEO. I appreciate all positions and want to hear more.

Chuck B.

[DigitalDragon]

Use Server Side Includes or some kind of server side preprocessor.

You may have to check what's available to you from your ISP.

If you don't have anything availabe to you, you can do it this way: (it's a dirty method but it can work if you have no other choice)

1. Design your menu in a seperate page (removing BODY, HEAD and HTML tags).
2. Then, save it as menu.js.
3. Then, turn it into a javacript function, and have javascript print your HTML. Don't include SCRIPT tags and remember to make sure that all " are turned into ' or left out when in between the javascript (" ") or the script will break.
i.e. (I'm typing this quick so it's rough, sorry)

 function PrintMenu(){
    document.write("Home");
    document.write(" - ");
    document.write("About");
 }

4. Then, put this in between your head tags:

<script language="javascript" src="js.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

5. In each page, execute the javascript function wherever the menu is supposed to sit. i.e.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">
PrintMenu();
</script>

which outputs:

Home - About

(acting as)

Home - About

If this doesn't make any sense to you, email me and I'll send you an example.

Also, before anyone criticises this method, I am suggesting it as last resort only - it doesn't require anything special to run it, although I realise that if javascript is completely disabled in the browser it won't display. I use php. Email me at css @ digitalpsyche . com