Problems With Using Frames
While frames make Web site design and navigation a bit easier,
they wreak havoc on your Web site's ranking in the search engines
for two reasons:
1. Half of the search engines cannot read the content contained
in frames.
2. Frames increase the file size and the number of total words that
make up the Web site, and thereby can decrease keyword weight.
Non-frames-capable search engines view the Web site just as if
you were viewing your site with an outdated browser. This is evidenced
by the large number of search engines that return listings like
this:
Used-PCs. com
is your webstore for Used PCs and PC parts. This web page uses
frames; You'll need Netscape or IE 2.0 or better to view them.
98% http:// www. used-pcs. com/ (Size 1.3K)
What happened here?! This is how this terrific company that
sells used Pentiums at reasonable prices and operates a great Web
site is listed in a particular search engine. Why? The search engine's
spider couldn't read frames. Therefore, it only read the contents
of the <NOFRAMES> tag. This information is returned to browsers
that are not frames-capable instead of just a jumbled page. Unfortunately,
the text in the <NOFRAMES> tag is often instructions to the
reader that they need a frames-capable browser to view the site
properly.
Note: This company has corrected their site and designed a new
site that does not employ frames. Check out the new site. They always
have some great bargains there!
So, how do you overcome this problem? First, if at all possible,
do not design your Web site with frames. In our opinion, only very
large, complex sites with many menu options and levels truly need
frames.
If you insist on using frames, take measures to ensure that the
major search engines' spiders can index your page. You can accomplish
this by carefully using the <NOFRAMES> tag. Also, don't forget
effective site titles and META tags. Just because you're using frames
doesn't mean you should leave out the META tags.
It's really quite simple. You must create an alternate Web page
within the <NOFRAMES> tag so that search engines have something
to index. Compose a complete HTML Web page between the <NOFRAMES>
tag and its end tag </ NOFRAMES>. Make sure that you include
the <NOFRAMES> tag immediately below the very first frameset
tag, because, as always, you want the keyword rich text to appear
as close to the top of the page as possible like so:
<FRAMESET COLS=" 125,*" border=" 0"> <NOFRAMES>
<BODY>
<H1> I'll start the content in my NOFRAMES tag with a
header tag that I'll fill with keywords</ H1>
<P> In the copy you can include all the text and HTML that
would otherwise make up your Web site. Here's a link to another
page, maybe one that would make up another
frame:</ P>
<A HREF=" http:// www. yourcompany. com/ otherpage. htm">
Click to link to another page</ A>
<P> And here's some more text for the search engines to
index </ P> </ BODY>
</ NOFRAMES>
<FRAME SRC=" html/ lftmenu. htm" NAME=" frame517420" MARGINWIDTH=
3 SCROLLING= NO NORESIZE>
<FRAME SRC=" html/ main. html" NAME=" main" SCROLLING= YES>
</ FRAMESET>
The preferred method is to include all the information from the
other framed pages on this new, separate page contained in the <NOFRAMES>
tag. When you design this new Web page within the <NOFRAMES>
tag, make sure you include links to other pages in your site so
that the search engine can spider to those pages and index them
as well.
Make sure <NOFRAMES> follows the <FRAMESET> tag. Moving
it up higher in the page such as in the <HEAD> section could
make your wording more prominent to the search engine but would
be incompatible with some browsers.
Since the extra tags to set up frames may dilute the density of
keywords versus other words on the page, you should definitely consider
creating doorway pages. These pages would not use frames at all,
but would serve as pointers to your main site that uses frames.
This solution can provide the best of both worlds. | 
