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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
(i.e. page copy) 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:
<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!), but the best thing you can do to improve your
results is to use the <noframes> tag within your frameset.
This tag was originally used for displaying content to people using
older web browsers that did not support viewing frames. While just
about all web browsers now support frames the <noframes> tag
can still be used for content that will help your framed site get
listed. In addition, you should also implement the best title tag,
and meta tags that you can.
Where it belongs:
The <noframes> tag belongs just before the </frameset>
tag for your frameset, as you can see below in red.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Example Framed Site</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET cols="150,*">
<FRAME name="contents" target="main">
<FRAME name="main">
<NOFRAMES>
Optimized page content goes here for best results.
</NOFRAMES>
</FRAMESET>
</HTML> |
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.
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