IFrames and Search Engines/Robots

7-7-04, 07:10 AM

I created my webpage (http://www.chearrings.com) with IFrames, because i like the clean and pulled together look they made (and also because somehow i found them simple to do). But now i'm starting to think that this sucks, because it looks as if the search engines and robots can't read my body text (my whole body is in the iframe ufcourse) and i feel that they don't get all the keywords they could. My google ranking is 0/10 and only if you type chearrings.com in the search, then it shows up. otherwise it's like i'm not on the net at all!!!! I designed my index page and all my links pages with tables and removed the iframes. It doesn't look as good but at least now people know i'm linking to them.

Am i seeing this right? search engines can't see inside iframes???
and how can i make my page look exactly the same without them????

Please, take a look at my site. I really suck with tables, just check out my script for my index page and you'll see how messy it is.
And when is google gonna start ranking me according to my keywords??

thanx for help!
Olga

(jj) · 7-7-04, 08:41 AM

Beyond the use of iframes and getting Google to index your site, you have some coding problems that need to be looked after.

1. You do not have a Doc Type Declaration for your index page (that is the only page I've looked at).

2. Your link line that calls your css stylesheet needs to be inserted Before the closing </head> tag.

3. Your <body> tag should be immediately after the closing </head> tag, not down your page after you've coded tables, divs and forms.

You really should look at your site with Netscape or FireFox, and test it at an 800x600 resolution. It does not look as good in those browsers as it does in IE or at a 1024 resolution.

As far as I can see, the only iframe that you have on the index page is loading a Flash file, so that should not affect how Google or any search engine would see your site.

The best thing to help get a better ranking is to get your site linked from other sites that have something in common with yours.

tacimala · 7-7-04, 10:36 AM

With proper code, search engines have no problems crawling iframe'd pages.

7-7-04, 01:59 PM

What do u guys think if i change all the <iframe>'s with SSI.
I actually put in a proper code for <iframe>....
<IFRAME src= "http://www.chearrings.com/commentstext.html" FRAMEBORDER="0" HEIGHT="380" WIDTH="875" NAME="LEFT">If you can read this it means you don't have iframe support, please click <a href="http://www.chearrings.com/commentstext.html">here</a> to read the content</IFRAME>

... but i know that if a search engine picks it up a viewer will be led only to the html page and not the whole page where the <iframe> actually lies.

So, now i'm trying to work with SSI, but ...well, nothing works.
I tried already the following:

changing the something.php to something.shtml
and inserting in the something.shtml:




Nothing worked.
I receive a blank screen and this message: [an error occurred while processing this directive]

thank you for your help!!

(jj) · 7-7-04, 03:34 PM

Try using



or



The something.html can be .txt .shtml .htm

The page that you put the SSI code into, has to be named with the extension of .shtml

7-16-04, 03:56 PM

i am also having a similar problem. I recently redesigned my site using iframes and since then, I have stopped receiving any hits from google or search engines, which is really frustrating. any ideas?
Here's the page

dirtysouthrapco · 7-17-04, 05:28 PM

Bad thing about iframes, is the search engines will sometimes link directly to the iframes content... thus not showing your design, content, etc... You'd never have problems with SSI since its all parsed.

7-18-04, 03:08 PM

I have that problem covered actually. i put a script in every page with a frame that will automatically snap the user back to the main page, for example, try going to this link. Therefore, I WISH search engines would link directly to the iframe content but they wont even do that. any suggestions on how to even get the iframes to come up on google?

rainbore · 7-19-04, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiderjerusalem

... Therefore, I WISH search engines would link directly to the iframe content but they wont even do that. any suggestions on how to even get the iframes to come up on google?

Search engines will index any file that is referenced by a link with an 'href' attribute as long as the filetype is one it recognizes. I use <iframe>s to impliment a simple banner system, but since I also link to the banners on a site map page, I'm not certain if any search engine actually picks up the links in the 'src' attribute of the <iframe> tag. My point is only that if you want to make sure that search engines see the documents you are including via <iframe>s, you should post a standard HTML link to those documents somewhere online.

Good luck!

7-19-04, 11:15 PM

so, if i'm reading you correctly, what you're saying is that since the links on my page are all only included in iframes, search engines are not picking up on them? possibly a good idea then would be to make a standard html page that lists all the links on my site? perhaps with an auto-redirect to my homepage?

(jj) · 7-20-04, 12:20 AM

It's always a good idea to have a single page site map that contains textual links to all of your pages.

rainbore · 7-20-04, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiderjerusalem

so, if i'm reading you correctly, what you're saying is that since the links on my page are all only included in iframes, search engines are not picking up on them? possibly a good idea then would be to make a standard html page that lists all the links on my site? perhaps with an auto-redirect to my homepage?

I only checked in Google for your site's status and its impossible to tell if they aren't indexing more of your site because all of your internal navigation links are in <iframe>s or if its just because your PageRank score is too low to justify deeper crawling. My best instinct is that Google will not pick up pages referenced only in an <iframe> tag and that you need to create conventional <a>nchor tag links. The simplest and most effective way of doing this is to create a site map page that contains direct links to all of your internal pages and then post a link to the site map page on your site's main page.

Good luck!

7-20-04, 10:20 AM

great, i'll give that a try. thanks a lot.

8-3-04, 07:27 PM

JJ, your help in these forums is very evident!
I am trying to communicate to a co-worker that the Iframes offer many problems in the search engines. However, I need to be more specific.

Could you site the problems that are on this site like you have done for other users--particulerly the I-frames.

Thanks!

www.ellisonresearch.com/demo

The demo site is the one that will be going live soon.

(jj) · 8-3-04, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crwhite

JJ, your help in these forums is very evident!
I am trying to communicate to a co-worker that the Iframes offer many problems in the search engines. However, I need to be more specific.

Could you site the problems that are on this site like you have done for other users--particulerly the I-frames.

Thanks!

www.ellisonresearch.com/demo

The demo site is the one that will be going live soon.

I answered your PM concerning this

7-7-04, 07:10 AM	#1
olgica Guest Posts: n/a	IFrames and Search Engines/Robots I created my webpage (http://www.chearrings.com) with IFrames, because i like the clean and pulled together look they made (and also because somehow i found them simple to do). But now i'm starting to think that this sucks, because it looks as if the search engines and robots can't read my body text (my whole body is in the iframe ufcourse) and i feel that they don't get all the keywords they could. My google ranking is 0/10 and only if you type chearrings.com in the search, then it shows up. otherwise it's like i'm not on the net at all!!!! I designed my index page and all my links pages with tables and removed the iframes. It doesn't look as good but at least now people know i'm linking to them. Am i seeing this right? search engines can't see inside iframes??? and how can i make my page look exactly the same without them???? Please, take a look at my site. I really suck with tables, just check out my script for my index page and you'll see how messy it is. And when is google gonna start ranking me according to my keywords?? thanx for help! Olga

7-7-04, 08:41 AM	#2
(jj) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: n/a Posts: 7,294 Reputation: 224	Beyond the use of iframes and getting Google to index your site, you have some coding problems that need to be looked after. 1. You do not have a Doc Type Declaration for your index page (that is the only page I've looked at). 2. Your link line that calls your css stylesheet needs to be inserted Before the closing </head> tag. 3. Your <body> tag should be immediately after the closing </head> tag, not down your page after you've coded tables, divs and forms. You really should look at your site with Netscape or FireFox, and test it at an 800x600 resolution. It does not look as good in those browsers as it does in IE or at a 1024 resolution. As far as I can see, the only iframe that you have on the index page is loading a Flash file, so that should not affect how Google or any search engine would see your site. The best thing to help get a better ranking is to get your site linked from other sites that have something in common with yours. __________________ If silence is golden, then I must be worth million$ (jj) Jack (jj)'s Playground

7-7-04, 10:36 AM	#3
tacimala SEO For Hire! Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 694 Reputation: 61	With proper code, search engines have no problems crawling iframe'd pages. __________________ SEO for Hire - Kalamazoo Business Directory

7-7-04, 01:59 PM	#4
olgica Guest Posts: n/a	SSI instead of <iframe> What do u guys think if i change all the <iframe>'s with SSI. I actually put in a proper code for <iframe>.... <IFRAME src= "http://www.chearrings.com/commentstext.html" FRAMEBORDER="0" HEIGHT="380" WIDTH="875" NAME="LEFT">If you can read this it means you don't have iframe support, please click <a href="http://www.chearrings.com/commentstext.html">here</a> to read the content</IFRAME> ... but i know that if a search engine picks it up a viewer will be led only to the html page and not the whole page where the <iframe> actually lies. So, now i'm trying to work with SSI, but ...well, nothing works. I tried already the following: changing the something.php to something.shtml and inserting in the something.shtml: <!--#include file="http://www.chearrings.com/something.html--> <!--#include file="http://www.chearrings.com/something.shtml--> <!--#include file="http://www.chearrings.com/something.txt--> Nothing worked. I receive a blank screen and this message: [an error occurred while processing this directive] thank you for your help!!

7-7-04, 03:34 PM	#5
(jj) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: n/a Posts: 7,294 Reputation: 224	Try using <!--#include virtual="/something.html" --> or <!--#include virtual="/somefolder/something.html --> The something.html can be .txt .shtml .htm The page that you put the SSI code into, has to be named with the extension of .shtml __________________ If silence is golden, then I must be worth million$ (jj) Jack (jj)'s Playground

7-16-04, 03:56 PM	#6
spiderjerusalem Guest Posts: n/a	i am also having a similar problem. I recently redesigned my site using iframes and since then, I have stopped receiving any hits from google or search engines, which is really frustrating. any ideas? Here's the page

7-17-04, 05:28 PM	#7
dirtysouthrapco Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Fort Walton, FLA Posts: 79 Reputation: 5	Bad thing about iframes, is the search engines will sometimes link directly to the iframes content... thus not showing your design, content, etc... You'd never have problems with SSI since its all parsed.

7-18-04, 03:08 PM	#8
spiderjerusalem Guest Posts: n/a	I have that problem covered actually. i put a script in every page with a frame that will automatically snap the user back to the main page, for example, try going to this link. Therefore, I WISH search engines would link directly to the iframe content but they wont even do that. any suggestions on how to even get the iframes to come up on google?

7-19-04, 11:15 PM	#10
spiderjerusalem Guest Posts: n/a	so, if i'm reading you correctly, what you're saying is that since the links on my page are all only included in iframes, search engines are not picking up on them? possibly a good idea then would be to make a standard html page that lists all the links on my site? perhaps with an auto-redirect to my homepage?

7-20-04, 12:20 AM	#11
(jj) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: n/a Posts: 7,294 Reputation: 224	It's always a good idea to have a single page site map that contains textual links to all of your pages. __________________ If silence is golden, then I must be worth million$ (jj) Jack (jj)'s Playground

7-20-04, 10:20 AM	#13
spiderjerusalem Guest Posts: n/a	great, i'll give that a try. thanks a lot.

8-3-04, 07:27 PM	#14
crwhite Guest Posts: n/a	Help please JJ, your help in these forums is very evident! I am trying to communicate to a co-worker that the Iframes offer many problems in the search engines. However, I need to be more specific. Could you site the problems that are on this site like you have done for other users--particulerly the I-frames. Thanks! www.ellisonresearch.com/demo The demo site is the one that will be going live soon.