21 replies to this topic

[Michael Martinez]

For what it's worth, there ARE some sites that scrape other sites and then link to the iFramed pages.

[Jill]

iFrames are definitely followed and indexed by Google. With or without links.

[piskie]

So, why not use a php include and place a Div where you want the content.
Just as much control. but because it is inserted server side, it never exists in its own right to get separately indexed.

[Michael Martinez]

I have yet to see clear proof that iFrames are followed and indexed but that should be easily tested. I'll set up something and track it this week. I'd rather find out I'm wrong if I'm wrong than be in doubt.

[Jill]

Look for ratoutyourcompetitor on google and you'll see it.

[piskie]

Trying to vindicate Iframes to me is the wrong approach.
A Div inserted as a php include will be served up as part of the containing page. It therefore becomes part of the stored text that is retrieved. Thereby helping SEO rather than being treated as a completely self contained page that If retrieved at all will be treated as a stand alone orphan that may in some circumstances get independently indexed.

So I reckon that makes the does it or doesn't it discussion pretty much redundant.

[Michael Martinez]

Trying to vindicate Iframes to me is the wrong approach.

I'm not trying to vindicate iframes -- I just want to see if people who feel they are crawled (from the iframe SRC link) are correct. I've been telling people for years not to be concerned about seeing their iframes crawled if they don't link normally to the framed pages. I need to stop saying that if it's no longer true.

The problem with proving/disproving such statements is that no test is infallible. For example, the sites that republish content they gleaned through iframes can screw up any test. I think I have picked a site that hasn't yet been exploited for my test but I cannot be 100% sure.

A Div inserted as a php include will be served up as part of the containing page. It therefore becomes part of the stored text that is retrieved. Thereby helping SEO rather than being treated as a completely self contained page that If retrieved at all will be treated as a stand alone orphan that may in some circumstances get independently indexed.

Including text on the page MAY help search optimization, but sometimes you DON'T want to include text on a page. There are not many ways to prevent a major search engine from associating cloudy text with a page (such as a tag cloud). You cannot rely on Javascript because they crawl and index a lot (but not all) Javascript. iFrames have never been guaranteed full exclusion from search indexes but historically they were indexed separately from the pages that were framing them.

If I see that iFramed text is now being crawled and indexed, that will leave only a couple of undesirable methods for embedding text on a page that you don't want indexed.

I really wish Google and Bing had adopted Yahoo!'s block-level NoIndex tag.