I have just encountered an interesting way that might make iframes or page frames more search engine friendly. Previously SEO specialist have avoided frames like the plague but I have a client who couldn’t get rid of the frames in time for the launch date so he created a Javascript code that once the iframe page itself is accessed by a user it automatically reloads the page with the iframe placed inside the parent frame. Yes, I said he created the code… I will take all the Javascript coding help I can get. What this does is allow the actual iframe to be optimized in terms of Page Titles, keywords, and other SEO tactics. When a search engine spider views the page it will index the information or keyword rich copy in the frame.

Now begs the obvious question… “How will these iframe pages rank well?” To answer that question we shift our attention and SEO efforts from the parent pages down to the iframe pages. If those are the pages that need to have the credibility we must tie those pages into the navigation. In your entire navigation switch the link from going to the “parent” frame page and have it link directly to the iframe insertion page. Don’t worry, when your visitors follow your navigation they won’t go to a page that is just a part of the overall page. Remember you have inserted the Javascript that displays the full page, with both frames.

Now that all the links including the sitemap have been adjusted to point to the iframe page instead of the parent pages that holds the navigation, footer, and other graphics those pages will get the brunt of the Page Rank distribution allowing for the credibility necessary to rank well.

My clients new site will be launching within the next couple of days so we will be able to see how well this works. I will keep you guys posted and let you know my findings. If you have any previous experience with this or have accomplished another method of making iframes SEO friendly please let us know because we would love to have that information.

Thanks, Brad Henry – SEO Analyst.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 9:50 am and is filed under Brad Henry's Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.