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Most search engine spiders will only see the "master" or "frameset"
page. If there's nothing in the <noframes> tag except a useless
statement like, "This site requires a browser which supports frames, such
as Netscape Navigator 3.0 or higher, or Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher." they won't properly index your site.
There are ways to get the search engines to index your framed site
however.
First - Add description and keyword Meta tags to your "master" page.
This will help but is not the whole answer and won't help people with
browsers that aren't frames capable, nor search engines that don't read
frames.
You can help both search engines and people with some smart Web Design.
Use the <noframes> tag to add useful information to your site
that the search engines can index and people with older browsers and text
readers can access too.
The <noframes> tag goes after the first <frameset> tag. You
should include readable text containing your most important search terms
and have links to the rest of the pages in your site. Be sure to include
text links on all of your pages to the rest of your site so visitors and
search engines don't run into a dead end when they enter your site this
way.
Include <body> tags with the text in your <noframes> tag.
It won't effect how Netscape or Explorer display your site but it will be
available for browsers and search engines that require them.
Include proper <title> tags in all of your pages. They won't show
up when your pages are shown in frames but they need to be available for
the search engines. Title tags are an important part of being indexed
properly in many search engines.
Even if you ignore everything above you need to include a link to your
home page in every page of your site. People will enter your site without
going through the home page since search engines like AltaVista will index
your site. When that happens inexperienced visitors will be trapped and
won't be able to access the rest of your site.
If you do this, make sure the link is created using the target _top
command, such as:
<a href="index.html" TARGET = "_top">Home</a>
Without this command visitors who enter your site the normal way and
click on the home page link will get a new set of frames within the main
content frame.
Another method is to use JavaScript. Here's one example of how to do
that (there are others).
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--if (top == self)
self.location.href = "FRAMESET PAGE NAME
HERE"; // -->
</SCRIPT>
You need to replace the "FRAMESET PAGE NAME HERE" with the name of the
master page that has your frame set information. For most sites that will
be "index.html". So your JavaScript would look like this:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<! --if (top == self)
self.location.href = "index.html";
// -->
</SCRIPT>
The examples above require a minimum of effort to make your pages
accessible to search engines and visitors without frames capable browsers.
You don't have to create any new pages or invest a great deal of work for
your site to have frames and still be accessible to search engines and
*all* of your visitors.
Prepare your site - WebPosition Gold
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