Optimizing Frames
If your site uses frames,
you've got problems - as far as the search engines are concerned anyway!
The problem is that search
engines do not index framed sites very well. In fact, the search engines
do such a poor job of indexing frames that we recommend redesigning your
site without them if you want to get good listings in the search engines.
Now, if your site must use
frames there are some tips we recommend you implement to make sure that
you get the best listings you can even with frames.
The problem:
A frame is exactly what
the name conveys - they are an HTML page that "frames" other HTML pages.
Now, the problem arises when you go to submit. In most cases a framed site
will only have one page you can submit, the home page. Since your site
uses frames the home page actually has nothing that the search engine can
use to determine how to list your site. Why? Because your home page is
actually a frameset which does not have any real content. Here's
an example that should help you see what we mean. Keep in mind this code
is what the search engines see:
| Example
Code of a Site Using Frames |
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Example Framed Site</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET cols="150,*">
<FRAME name="contents" target="main">
<FRAME name="main">
</FRAMESET>
</HTML> |
We can't explain everything
about frames here, but you should easily be able to see in the above example
that their is no real content for the search engine to use to determine
how to list your site. All that is there is HTML code. The result is a
framed site will often not get listed at all, and if it does it will usually
be listed very poorly.
The solution:
Not really a "solution"
(the solution would be to get rid of the frames!).
Tag tips:
-
Place optimized content within
the <body> tags that you see above within the <noframes> tag. An
easy way to do this is to create a new regular (not framed) home page for
your site that describes your site, products & services. Often the
content can be taken directly from one of your existing framed pages. Once
you have the page created view the HTML of the page and copy everything
from within the <body> and </body> tags. Then paste the new content
within the <body> and </body> tags found within the <noframes>
tags of your frameset. A complete page (including all the HTML) can be
placed within the body tags.
-
Search engines like simple
HTML pages, so since it is very unlikely anyone will ever see this <noframes>
content we recommend keeping it very simple and text based for best results.
-
Make sure all your <noframes>
content is optimized following all our tips. If it is not optimized, it
is not going to help you very much.
-
Include links in the <noframes>
content to all of the other important pages on your site so that the search
engine will crawl and index them too.
-
Implement the best title tag,
and meta tags that you can on the frameset page.
|
