Hi anyone

I know that using iframes is a NO NO as far as search engines indexing is concerned...

Whereas in dynamic, JavaScript etc. there are remedies/solutions is there really a solution when using iFrames apart of course from not USING THEM at all?

Surely there must be a transparent (not a wishy washy waffle) solution?

Many thanks in anticipation of getting real solution bearing in mind that in my case it's necessary to use iframes otherwise I wont use them in the knowledge that they are not good at all in SEO!

I know that using iframes is a NO NO as far as search engines indexing is concerned...

What makes you think they're a no-no?

They get indexed fine, but they're just not considered part of the site with the iframe because...well...because they're not part of it!

I believe the proper workaround is to use the "longdesc" attribute of the <iframe> tag to place a description of the information you want indexed. Browsers that don't support iframes should be able to read and index the information contained within that attribute.

They get indexed fine

Yes, but they usually have no inbound linking (or outbound for that matter) so they don't rank very well. I really don't care much about getting indexed if I don't get visitors out of it :)

I have not yet seen one single public website that could not be designed without using frames or iFrames so I really don' see any reason to use them

Worse, Although Google indexes and follows both href and src links, Yahoo, MSN and Teoma do not, so you have to plan href linking with frames carefully.

Most of the time, you are best off turning your frame content (especially navigation!) into a server side include, stick it on the page, and be done with it.

Ian

One solution we've worked with in the past with a site that was primarily Iframes was to use javascript to show and hide main navigation.

That way if a person landed on the iframe page outside of the frame they would be shown nav very similar to the main nav, but if the page was displayed within the frame there was no nav.

This was done more for usability than crawlers which is why the nav was in js.

Once the user clicked on the "shown" nav they were sent to the proper iframed page.

I believe the proper workaround is to use the "longdesc" attribute of the <iframe>.

I have a site that has an <iframe> ad running on a site that receives upwards of 30,000 visitors a day. The exposure we get from this placement of the <iframe> on the main index page is more than sufficient for the price we pay. My question is this; is there any kind of benefit to adding the "longdesc" attribute to the <iframe> or would adding the URI just be an exercise in futility?

Would using an iFrame for continuous music (flash) on every page negatively impact our SEO work for that site?

Thanks in advance.

No, but it would probably scare off a lot of users, such as me :)

After reading responses on this tread, your thoughts is consistent with everyone else's view :) But if done tastefully and appropriately (i.e. Disney site) it can be used effectively. Thanks for the quick reply it is appreciated!