SEO Optimization and Website Fussy Frames
Some web-site designs require the use of frames. Frames are sections of a web site, with each section a separate entity from the other portions of the page. Because the frames on a site represent separate URLS, they often create display issues for users whose browsers don’t support frames, and for search crawlers, which encounter the frames and can’t index the site where the frame is the navigational
structure.
You have a couple of alternatives when frames are essential to the design of your web site. The first is to include an alternative to the framed site. This requires the use of the noframes tag. The tag directs the user’s browser to display the site without the framed navigational system. Users may see a stripped- down version of your site, but at least they can still see it. When a search crawler encounters a site made with frames, the noframes tag allows it to index the alternative site. It’s important to realize, however, that when you use the noframes tag, you should load the code for an entire web page between the opening tag and closing tag.
CAUTION
When you’re creating a noframes tag for a framed site, the content of the noframes tags should be exactly identical to the frame set. If it’s not, a search crawler could consider it spam, and then your site would be penalized or even delisted.
Another problem with frames is that search engines often display an internal page on your site in response to a search query. If this internal page does not contain a link to your home page or some form of navigation menu, the user is stuck on that page and is unable to navigate through your site. That means the search crawler is also stuck in that same spot. As a result, the crawler might not index your site.
The solution is to place a link on the page that leads to your home page. In this link, include the attribute TARGET=”_top”. This prevents your site from becoming nested within your own frames, which locks the user on the page they landed on from the search results. It also makes it possible for crawlers to efficiently crawl your site without getting stuck.
That link back to your home page will probably look
something like this:
<a href=”index.html”
TARGET=”_top”>Return to Home Page</a>
Frames are difficult to get around when you’re putting SEO
strategies into place, but doing so is not entirely impossible. It’s a good
idea to avoid frames, but they won’t keep you completely out of search engine
rankings. You just have to use a different approach to reaching the rankings
that you desire.
