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Optimizing a framed website can be challenging, but contrary to popular belief, it isn’t terribly difficult and it certainly isn’t impossible. In order to explain how to optimize a framed website for search engines, I will provide a clear explanation of what a framed website is and why framed websites fail to get indexed. Then we will be prepared to explore the possible solutions for the thought-provoking task of optimizing a framed website taking into consideration the many different aspects of search engine technology that exist.
On a non-framed site, filenames usually appear after the URL but with a framed site the filenames usually don’t show up in the browser. A framed website generally has a navigation menu on the left side or an image, such as a logo, at the top that stays fixed while the text of the page moves up and down or from side to side.
The design of a framed website can actually hinder the ability of the crawler or spider search engines to index the site; that is no myth. But by understanding the problem, a solution can be identified. Historically, search engine optimization techniques have focused on HTML meta tags, title tags and frameset tags. HTML code is important, but its relevance as the sole tactic to search engine optimization is diminishing because the major search engines use spider technology for indexing and they are programmed to focus on indexing the actual text of the website and even to ignore certain HTML code. The problem with a framed website is that there is no body text for a spider to pick up because the text is actually located on the inner pages.
So, what’s the secret to getting a framed website indexed? It really isn’t as difficult and impossible as it sounds. Proper use of the HTML noframes tag gives the spiders all the necessary information in the form of text data to include in the index. When using the noframes tag to display important text including keywords and key phrases, the spider will actually read the title and meta tags, will see that browser is frames-incapable, and will act according which will result in a framed website being indexed to rank higher in the search engines. Every page of the site that uses frame technology must be optimized in this manner in order to achieve desirable rankings. Learn more about the noframes tag here.
There are some down-falls and extra work that developing a website in frames can create. Let's say you optimize your framed website to be found in the search engines. Now a user finds one of your inner pages in the search engine and goes to it directly. They are able to see your content but the frames are not there. Therefore on most sites there will be no way for the user to navigate your site, find your products, etc. It's almost like handing out business cards without your name and number on them. Taking the time to add a "Home" link on each inner page could solve the problem, but now your users that come to your home page will see links inside the frames which can cause confusion and look unprofessional.
In conclusion, developing a website is frames can have some benefits, and after reading this article you can achieve some success in the search engines. However, jumping through hoops and taking extra steps to develop a site with a feature many users find to be "annoying" may not be the best option. If you're starting from scratch, The PSI Website Design Company recommends that you develop your website without the use of frames and use static html pages. This way you can forget about the headaches and extra tasks associated with frames pages. However if you decide to create a framed website, please take the time to talk to a website development company like PSI about creating it right the first time and avoid the costs of having a website design company make changes.
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