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Frames
and Search Engines
By Sumantra Roy
When
it comes to framed sites and the effect that
the use of frames by a site has on its search
engine ranking, there are two schools of thought.
Some people say that framed sites, if done
properly, have no problems in getting good
rankings in the search engines. Others claim
that if search engine optimization is important
to you, never use frames.
In
my opinion, the truth lies somewhere in between.
Yes, the use of frames does throw up a few
issues when it comes to getting good rankings
in the search engines which don't understand
frames. Hence, when you are designing a new
site, I would recommend that you avoid using
frames, unless you have a specific reason
for doing so. However, if you already have
a site which uses frames, all is not lost.
You can still get good rankings in the search
engines even though you have used frames.
Furthermore, using frames also has its own
advantages when it comes to search engine
placement, as we shall later on. This article
assumes that you have a working knowledge
of frames. For more information on frames,
go to http://www.webreference.com/dev/frames/
In
case your site uses frames, the key to getting
good rankings lies in using the NOFRAMES tag.
The NOFRAMES tag is intended to help framed
web sites display some content for those people
who are using browsers which don't understand
frames. The search engines which don't understand
frames also look at the NOFRAMES tag. Hence,
if you are using frames, you need to add content
to the NOFRAMES tag.
What
you should do is to add a complete web page
within the NOFRAMES tag. Ensure that this
page repeats the important keywords for your
site a number of times. Also, in order to
ensure that the content within the NOFRAMES
tag is as prominent as possible to the search
engines, you should put the NOFRAMES tag right
after the FRAMESET tag. However, don't put
the NOFRAMES before the FRAMESET tag. If you
do that, Internet Explorer will display your
site correctly but Netscape will display the
content present in the NOFRAMES tag, rather
than the content present within the frames.
Furthermore, you should also place a link
to the page containing your navigation links
in the NOFRAMES tag. This ensures that the
search engines are able to spider the internal
pages in your site.
Here's
what the source code of your page might look
like:
One
problem that occurs when you use frames is
that the search engines may often display
one of the internal pages in your site in
response to a query. If this internal page
does not contain a link to the home page of
your site, the user will be unable to navigate
through your entire site. The solution, of
course, is to add a link to the home page
from that internal page. When the visitor
clicks on that link, she is brought within
the context of the frames.
However,
simply adding a link to the home page presents
yet another problem. If the visitor had already
been viewing that page within the context
of the frames and then clicks on the link
to the home page, a new set of frames will
be created in addition to the frames already
being used. In order to solve this problem,
you have to use the TARGET = "_top" command
in the link, i.e. the HTML code for the link
would be something like
Go to our home page
Wrapping
things up:
As
I mentioned earlier, there is also an advantage
to using frames. Since most Internet users
are now using frames enabled browsers, it
means that not many people are going to know
what's present in your NOFRAMES tag. This
allows you the repeat your keywords a few
more times in the NOFRAMES than what you could
have done if you were writing a page which
humans would also see (of course, don't repeat
the keywords too many times - that can cause
your web site to be penalized for spamming).
You can also avoid using tables, graphics
etc. which you would otherwise need to use
if humans would also view that page. However,
it is debatable whether this small advantage
is sufficient to justify using frames.
Article by Sumantra
Roy. Sumantra is one of the most respected
search engine positioning specialists on the
Internet. To have Sumantra's company place
your site at the top of the search engines,
go to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3761
For more advice on how you can take your web
site to the top of the search engines, subscribe
to his FREE newsletter by going to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3761&newsletter.htm
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