Websites with Frames - In general, the Search Engines do not like frames at all. The problem is that Search Engines cannot index framed sites very well. In fact, the Search Engines do such a poor job of indexing frames that many experts recommend redesigning your websites to not use frames at all. There is simply no way around it, using frames in a traditionally optimized website environment will result in poor Search Engine listings.

The problem with Frames

The frame definition page is typically the home or portal page that is submitted to the Search Engines. Unfortunately, this page does not actually contain any of your sites content. The Search Engine does not get enough information from the typical frame home page. If your website design has to include frames, then the following tips will allow you to get the best possible Search Engine listings that you can with frames.

Solution 1 (for already running websites): The proper solution is to remove frames, but the next best thing you can do to improve your results is to use the tag within your frameset. The tag was originally used for displaying content to older browsers that did not support viewing frames. All modern browsers support frames but the tag can still be used for content that will help your framed website in being listed by search engine crawlers. You can also include title and META tags on a frame definition page, and this is always a good idea.

Solution 2 (for new website designs) – There are cases, when it is essential to use frames to properly display contents to solve required purpose. In that case, you have to use a scrolling mechanism like frames. However, this problem can be solved by using DIV element of HTML. While designing your website use DIV element to divide the display area of a webpage, and make a little modification in your websites CSS. Use a special property for DIV elements overflow:scroll. For more help on using DIV element, review HTML handbook or CSS handbook.

div#header {width:100%; height:20%; border:1px solid black; padding:0px; margin:0px}

div#left {width:25%; height:80%; display:inline; border:1px solid black;

padding:15px; margin:0px}

div#contents {width:75%; height:80%; display:inline; border:1px solid black;

padding:0px; margin:0px; overflow:scroll}

Flash Content – Flash itself is not the real issue. It is all about how Flash is typically used. The problems caused by Flash can be like:

"Splash" pages: Many home pages use a Flash "Splash" to grab the attention of users. Search Engines cannot "see" inside a Flash show. Any content, keywords, titles, product names, etc. contained in the Flash are NOT indexed by the Search Engines.

Hyperlinks: Typically, a Search Engine will follow all HTML Hyperlinks (links) on each page, indexing each new page it finds. Thus, a search engine can start with your home page and follow ("spider") the rest of your site automatically. Hyperlinks in a Flash presentation cannot be "spidered" by the Search Engines.

Solution – When creating Flash pages, include as much additional text content on the page as possible. The Search Engines will index the text, and you users can enjoy the Flash. If you have links within your Flash presentation, include copies of the links on the page in a standard HTML link ("").