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Search Engine Optimization and Frames
Introduction
A frames site is one where more than one html page is shown at any one time. Usually there will be a left hand menu frame and a content frame on the right, or a top frame for a menu and a bottom frame for content etc.
Frames are bad news for search engine optimization, as search engines often cannot easily or logically navigate through them and index all of your content. There are many drawbacks when using frames to build a web site. This article is going to explain how you can still optimize your site for the search engines whilst using a frames design...
So you've already built your web site, and you used frames because it seemed like the right thing to do, yeah? If you have the budget, have your site redeveloped. But, I'm not here to lecture you on why you shouldn't have used frames, I'm here to tell you how to rectify the situation.
There are a number of things that you can do to make your framed site search engine friendly, they are discussed below:
1) Use the NOFRAMES tag.
There is a HTML tag specifically designed for frames site, it is called <noframes>. This tag was originally developed so that you could enclose content to be displayed by browsers that do not support frames. The other benefit of this tag is that search engines can and will read its content. For every frameset page you have, always make sure you use the <noframes> tag comprehensively to explain the content of the site. The following is an example of using the NOFRAMES tag:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Title Here</TITLE>
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Meta description here.">
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="Meta keywords here, separated by commas">
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET>
<FRAME SRC="menu.html" NAME="menu">
<FRAME SRC="content.html" NAME="content">
<NOFRAMES>
You should put all the content from content.html in between these noframes tags. Be sure to also include links to every page on your site, so that search engines have a chance to crawl to your other pages.
</NOFRAMES>
</FRAMESET>
</HTML>
2) Use a sensible linking strategy.
Links are what search engines use to find new content. If a web page has no links on it, the search engine spider will see that page as a dead end and stop crawling. When using a framed web site design, it is imperative that you include links to all your inner pages from one another. On all of your inner pages, make sure you have a mini text based menu down the bottom that includes a link to your home page, as well as links to all of your other pages - this will ensure that your visitors will always be able to find their way around your site when visiting from a search engine.
3) Use javascript to make sure your visitors always see your site the way you want them to.
This is a method that is not widely used on the internet, but we have used it several times and it works very well. Basically, when someone visits an inner page from your frames site via a search engine, they won't have a menu to guide them to other pages of your web site. This tactic involves placing some javascript code in your pages so that when a search engine visitor arrives, the page refreshes to a fully framed frameset page (which displays both the menu and the content frames).
The code to use to employ this method is:
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function escape() {
if(parent.frames.length==0)
window.top.location.href="/index2.html";
}
// -->
</script>
This will open a frameset page called index2.html, which you will need to create. To do this, just copy your index.html page and rename it to index2.html. Instead of having content.html displayed from the new frameset page, have content2.html or whichever page you want displayed, so your visitors always see the content they wanted to see.
In Closing
While it's not advisable to ever use frames for web design in today's day and age, if you already have a site built using frames and don't have the budget to have it redesigned, there are still ways to get your site ranking high in the search engines. We've worked on frames sites which were absolutely lost in the search engines beforehand, that are now ranking at the top of the search engines - so it certainly is possible!
If you need more help or advice with your frames web site, please don't hesitate to contact us.
About the Author
WCR Internet Marketing gets results for under-performing websites. Increase your visibility in the Search Engines, make your site rank high for your chosen keywords, run online advertising campaigns to bring in new PRE-qualified prospects & clients. For more information & a free site analysis, visit http://www.wcr-internet-marketing.com.au