Search Engines And Frames

Note: This tutorial assumes you are familiar with frames. If not, there are links below to general frames information.

Most search engines don't understand frames. They will not follow the frame links established in a frameset tag. In fact, they will ignore all information inside either frame or frameset tags. So, if you are going to use frames, start using the noframes tag to provide an alternative for these engines. Furthermore, consider creating a non-frames section of your site, so that engines can properly catalog what's inside.

Let's take a common situation, and see how frames can interfere with indexing your site. Then we'll examine some solutions.

Say More Than Sorry To Search Engines

Many sites use frames for navigation. A small window lists key links for the site, allowing visitors to click on an item and see what appears in the "main" window.

In our example, we'll have three windows: one for navigation, one for the ever-present title of the site and one as the main text window. Please note this isn't a design recommendation. I'm using all these windows just to help make the point. View the example, then return to this page (use your back button or click on the big, ugly link that says "BACK TO THE TUTORIAL."

Now, a search engine is just like someone with an old browser. They see the world with gray background, broken tables and no images. Remember those days? Just like someone with an old browser, they ignore the frames tags and instead see only information placed in a noframes tag. (Actually, they'll see anything not in the frames tag, but you're technically supposed to use the noframes tag for non-framed information).

So what do our frame-challenged search engines see?

"Sorry! You need a frames-browser to view this site."

That's the only text that a search engine will catalog for your site. There are no links for it to follow and no other text to index. Your beautiful, hundred-page site that's packed with information is basically hidden from the engines.

Your Friend, The NOFRAMES Tag

One solution is to pop some meta tags on the page. You can read more about them on the Meta Tag page in this site. It's only a partial solution, because not all the search engines support meta tags. It also doesn't help human beings that want to view your site but lack frames capability. We can help them both. Take a look at the next example, then come back:

It looks just like our original page, unless you are a search engine or using an old browser. They can see the following text placed between the NOFRAMES tags:

"Many people consider stamp collection to be a hobby, but it can be more than that. Stamp collecting can be a business, an art form or even a topic of conversation. Stamp history is absolutely fascinating. It's just one of the many topics you'll find in this site - click here to continue."

Excellent. Now we have some descriptive text that any search engine can read, not just those that support meta tags. Furthermore, we've created a way for them (and humans) to get inside the site with the hypertext link.

What appears is the information normally placed in the navigation window.  From here, the search engine can crawl through the rest of the site. It doesn't care that the pretty frames won't be displayed. All it knows is that there is good, descriptive text that it can read and index.

The contents page should have a title!  Titles are the most important things that a search engine indexes, so you want your pages to have them.

Re-establishing The Frame Context

We're almost finished.  There's only one downside to the work we've done.  Now that the individual frame pages will be indexed, frames-capable people will find them via search engines and enter the site without ever having the proper frames created.  Time for one last fix.

Let's assume someone went directly to one of the sub-framed pages in the site.  If all went well, you got an unframed page just as someone might who found it via the search engine.  By following the only link present, they are brought back to the home page, where the frames can be drawn.

If you do this, make sure the link is created using the magic _top target, such as:

<a href="index.htm" TARGET = "_top">Home</a>

This is because the link will be seen by those who enter your site the normal way.  Without the special target, those clicking on it will get a new set of three frames drawn within the main window.

Naturally, the tips above may not be for everyone.  However, with a little trial and error, you can make your frame sites accessible to both search engines and non-frame visitors. Moreover, the above example required a bare minimum of work and no additional pages to essentially create a frame and non-frame site.

Additional Frame Design Notes

The noframes information can go immediately below the first frameset tag, if you want the text to be as high as possible on the page.  It cannot come before the first frameset tag, however.  This will disable the frame information in Netscape Navigator, although Internet Explorer is unaffected and will display the frames correctly.

Enclosing noframes tags with body tags works with either browser.   It's incorrect code, but it's a nice way to ensure that the body tags exist for any browser or search engine that might require them.