My website is shown as having Frames but I dont use them!

[HenryB]

I have a small Website (http://henry-bar.net/) for a holiday villa in the Caribbean – St Barts. I do not use frames but if you check the “source” you will see that frames are used. I am using a web hosting service called "Le Relais Internet" which is a subsidary of France Telecom which I do not consider is a cheap hosting service.

I am told that “Frames” are not good for spiders so my question is twofold; 1. Is that true and 2. If it is, how can I change the way the HTML of my webpages is shown?

[activeco]

What do you mean you don't use frames? Who made your site?

[HenryB]

I wrote it myself using Dreamweaver. The webpages on my computer, before uploading them, show the complete HTML and I do not use frames. I do use tables to "hold" photos etc. but no frames at all, at all!! When I look at the source of any of my webpages that are on the Internet they show as having frames and the rest of the HTML is not shown.

[speed]

The frame is being added because of the way your domain name is configured.

Your site is really at http://henry.barnett.free.fr/index.htm therefore the domain name has been setup to do web forwarding via frames. What this means is that the registrar hosts a small amount of HTML, the top frame, which then puts your site into the main frame.

To correct this you need to have the site hosted properly, that is you should update the nameserver records of the domain name to point to your hosts nameservers, ask them how to do this.

If your host isn't able to support this then change hosts because the current situation isn't going to be doing you any favours with search engines.

[HenryB]

Many thanks for that speedy reply. I think I now understand what's happening and I'll get on to it straight away. Henry

[HenryB]

Spoke to the hosting company and it was fixed in 10 seconds. Thanks again.

[speed]

It's not what I would call fixed, although it's got a better chance of being indexed now, as you say you are paying for this hosting service then I would expect them to host your site properly.

Your domain is http://henry-bar.net, however when I enter that URL into my address bar I'm redirected to http://henry.barnett.free.fr/index.htm as I navigate about your site I see pages within the domain http://henry.barnett.free.fr/ and not your domain http://henry-bar.net/

As it is it is almost not worth bothering with the domain name as search engines are going to index the pages on the henry-barnett.free.fr domain and completely ignore your domain.

What should happen is that the host should create an account for you, your files are uploaded to this account and the account is set to respond to the domain henry-bar.net. You edit the nameserver fields for your domain name to set them to the nameservers supplied by the host (sounds worse than it is).

Once this has all been done the request for pages will all be handled by the host under your domain name not the subdomain of free.fr you currently have. Search engines should then index pages within your domain.

[HenryB]

I shall digest that and then discuss it with them. I'm not sure whether it is important if the Googles of this world list henry-bar.net or henry.barnett.free.fr as the idea is that it shows up on a search for the St Barts and holiday keywords etc. It should only matter if I change from free to another ISP methinks.

Again thanks for this valuable input.

[alhefner]

Here is the deal. Your site is being hosted as a sub-domain and not it's own domain. If you paid for a domain name, it should have it's own server space and stand as a separate entity on the web.

In short, you are providing content for "free.fr" not for your own domain. Get better hosting is my heart felt advice.

[activeco]

What this means is that the registrar hosts a small amount of HTML, the top frame, which then puts your site into the main frame.

Indeed such things happen when you have a registrar also as a hosting provider. They have the full control of everything and make life just easier to them.

[HenryB]

I'm beginning to see whats happening. Problem is I've paid for a few years in advance!!! What I might do is get another domain name that's more relevant to the website and this time set it up properly. Henry

[HenryB]

PS can anyone recommend a good hosting company?

[speed]

What I might do is get another domain name that's more relevant to the website and this time set it up properly.
If you do that then make sure you take down the old site or have different content on each as you don't want to risk getting penalised for having the same content on both.

PS can anyone recommend a good hosting company?
Do you have a preference as to provider/server location?

[webwoman]

I have been using hostgator.com for years. Their minimal account will work well for you, under $10 per month and lots of bells and whistles. No frames and direct hosting of your site.

[jannmirch]

Webwoman beat me to the punch. I also use hostgator and have been very happy both with the price and the service.

[HenryB]

I now realize what I have done. I obtained my domain name Henry-bar.net (which is my name but with 2 't's at the end!) and used my ISP Free.fr to host the site as it is included in the fee. What I should have done is spend a bit more and let lerelaisinternet host my site. I can of course still do that.

Now before I do that the NEXT QUESTION for you all is: What is the value of the actual domain name? For instance what is the value if I could have "villastbarths" or "villa-stbarths" or "hellodolly" .com or other? Or is the value in the site name or the keywords or all or both.

Just a thought! Henry