How to Make Frames Search Engine Friendly

**Anilrgowda** · 22-Dec-2006, 01:55 AM

What is the most important thing search engine robots are looking for? Words. They "read" from top to bottom, left to right, looking for clues on what your website is about. Your job is to provide those clues, but if you lead off your website with frameset tags your website may not be indexed by search engines.
Why? Frameset tags are essentially road signs pointing the way to your pages with instructions on how to display them properly. There's no content! This means an engine can't figure out what your page is about and therefore it can't be considered for any search results.
Despite what you may have heard about frames making it difficult for search engine robots to index a website, there ARE work-arounds. Here are step by step instructions.
Inside the page header:

Start off with a title tag that's no more than 60 characters long and contains your top keyword(s). (Example: Help for making framed websites ready for search engines.)
Next, place a meta description tag with keywords in it. (Example: <META NAME="description" CONTENT="How to make frames and javascript friendly to search engine robots in simple, easy steps.">)
Place a meta tag for keywords. (Example: <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="help how-to frames, robots robot easysteps">)
(Optional) Place a meta tag for keyphrases. (Example: <META NAME="keyphrases" CONTENT="search engines search engine help frame tags frames and search engines steps on how to prepare for search engines how to do frames">)
Place misc. meta tags for no indexing, refresh, etc. next, depending on your site's needs.

End header section. Next, add your frameset tags:

Your filenames can contain keywords but be creative. Use variations on a theme. For example, if your site is a teaching site, use words like "instruct", "tutor", "faq", "lesson", etc. in your file names. These can be important clues for robots.
At this point, most webmasters stop. There's no content after their frameset tags since it's contained inside the files the frames call for. This is the number one mistake and cause for failure in search engines.
Continue by offering information within your non-frames tags. One way is to reproduce (copy and paste) the file's content onto this page (Note: This means that everytime you make changes to the page the frameset tag calls for, you must amend this area also. They need to be mirrored.) For example:
<!-- THIS AREA FOR NON-FRAME BROWSERS OR TEXT ONLY USE -- >
<NOFRAMES>
<BODY>
<bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

(Note: Always provide a white background color, so your viewer doesn't have to read against the gray default.)

This site uses frames. If you are seeing this message, your web browser does not support frames. You can still see what we have to offer, although without the navigation advantages of frames. By reading the text below, or by using this link, you will have the most up to date content:
<a href="main.html">Homepage</a>

(Note: Link them directly to the file your frame is targeting, that contains your content AND copy and paste the HTML code below, so it will display for them like a regular page. They will see your note above, as well as your webpage, minus navigation frames. And, the robots have a text link to follow that takes them to a page with content.) Some webmasters put in several links here for robots to follow.

<table width = "600"> <tr>
<td width = 100% valign=top> <img src="images/tutor.gif" alt="How to handle frames" width="200" height="150" align="left">
<br>
<center><h2>This site is a tutorial about frames and search engines</h2></center>
<p><font face="arial" size="2">
This is where you place the code for the page your frame tag is targeting.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</NO FRAMES>

(Note: I led off the content with a sentence inside a headline tag. Some search engine robots look for words contained inside headline tags first. Again, make sure yours has keywords in it.)

End your page with your closing body and HTML tag, and you're finished!
The content inside non-frame tags is found by robots, browsers that don't handle frames, and software used by Special Needs users that turn off graphics, frames, scripts, etc. By going the extra mile, you're not only helping search engine robots, but showing consideration for the needs of your visitors. Do this routine for each framed page. With the added effort of feeding robots clues to your content, you'll increase your chances of being indexed by search engines, regardless of building a site in frames.

22-Dec-2006, 01:55 AM	#1 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,715 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	How to Make Frames Search Engine Friendly What is the most important thing search engine robots are looking for? Words. They "read" from top to bottom, left to right, looking for clues on what your website is about. Your job is to provide those clues, but if you lead off your website with frameset tags your website may not be indexed by search engines. Why? Frameset tags are essentially road signs pointing the way to your pages with instructions on how to display them properly. There's no content! This means an engine can't figure out what your page is about and therefore it can't be considered for any search results. Despite what you may have heard about frames making it difficult for search engine robots to index a website, there ARE work-arounds. Here are step by step instructions. Inside the page header: Start off with a title tag that's no more than 60 characters long and contains your top keyword(s). (Example: Help for making framed websites ready for search engines.) Next, place a meta description tag with keywords in it. (Example: <META NAME="description" CONTENT="How to make frames and javascript friendly to search engine robots in simple, easy steps.">) Place a meta tag for keywords. (Example: <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="help how-to frames, robots robot easysteps">) (Optional) Place a meta tag for keyphrases. (Example: <META NAME="keyphrases" CONTENT="search engines search engine help frame tags frames and search engines steps on how to prepare for search engines how to do frames">) Place misc. meta tags for no indexing, refresh, etc. next, depending on your site's needs. End header section. Next, add your frameset tags: Your filenames can contain keywords but be creative. Use variations on a theme. For example, if your site is a teaching site, use words like "instruct", "tutor", "faq", "lesson", etc. in your file names. These can be important clues for robots. At this point, most webmasters stop. There's no content after their frameset tags since it's contained inside the files the frames call for. This is the number one mistake and cause for failure in search engines. Continue by offering information within your non-frames tags. One way is to reproduce (copy and paste) the file's content onto this page (Note: This means that everytime you make changes to the page the frameset tag calls for, you must amend this area also. They need to be mirrored.) For example: <!-- THIS AREA FOR NON-FRAME BROWSERS OR TEXT ONLY USE -- > <NOFRAMES> <BODY> <bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> (Note: Always provide a white background color, so your viewer doesn't have to read against the gray default.) This site uses frames. If you are seeing this message, your web browser does not support frames. You can still see what we have to offer, although without the navigation advantages of frames. By reading the text below, or by using this link, you will have the most up to date content: <a href="main.html">Homepage</a> (Note: Link them directly to the file your frame is targeting, that contains your content AND copy and paste the HTML code below, so it will display for them like a regular page. They will see your note above, as well as your webpage, minus navigation frames. And, the robots have a text link to follow that takes them to a page with content.) Some webmasters put in several links here for robots to follow. <table width = "600"> <tr> <td width = 100% valign=top> <img src="images/tutor.gif" alt="How to handle frames" width="200" height="150" align="left"> <br> <center><h2>This site is a tutorial about frames and search engines</h2></center> <p><font face="arial" size="2"> This is where you place the code for the page your frame tag is targeting.</td> </tr> </table> </NO FRAMES> (Note: I led off the content with a sentence inside a headline tag. Some search engine robots look for words contained inside headline tags first. Again, make sure yours has keywords in it.) End your page with your closing body and HTML tag, and you're finished! The content inside non-frame tags is found by robots, browsers that don't handle frames, and software used by Special Needs users that turn off graphics, frames, scripts, etc. By going the extra mile, you're not only helping search engine robots, but showing consideration for the needs of your visitors. Do this routine for each framed page. With the added effort of feeding robots clues to your content, you'll increase your chances of being indexed by search engines, regardless of building a site in frames.

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