Dynamic Content & Iframes, Do SE's see content within iFrames?? Options

[siringo]

Hello,
I'm looking for a way in which I can add altering (dynamic) content to a static page.

I've found a neat little script that can display a different html page each day of the month within an iFrame within a web page. It looks really nifty and is pretty easy to use, but I'm not sure if SE's can read content within an iframe?

I did a quick test of a test page I knocked up using the script on one of those SE simulator things like Lynx Viewer but it didn't display the content within the iframe.

If SE's can't read content within an iframe, can anyone suggest an alternative method??

All I'm wanting to achieve is have my home page appear as though it is updated regularly.

Many thanks,
Matt.

[chrishirst]

SEs can index the page referenced in the src attribute of the IFrame, but it is indexed as a seperate page not as part of the page the iframe is on.

If SE's can't read content within an iframe, can anyone suggest an alternative method??

You'll need to use a server-side scripting method

All I'm wanting to achieve is have my home page appear as though it is updated regularly.

And the point of this being ??

[siringo]

Well the main point is to have the site appear to be updated on a regular basis to my visitors as well as also trying to give search engines the impression that th site is regularly updated and maybe they will visit more often??

> SEs can index the page referenced in the src attribute of the IFrame, but it is indexed as a seperate page not as part of the page the iframe is on

Ah huh, so dynamically adding content to a page by way of an iframe wont do the trick for me.

> You'll need to use a server-side scripting method
? Can you shine a bit mre lght on this? I'm not exactly sure what you mean?

Many thanks.

[Jill]

lso trying to give search engines the impression that th site is regularly updated and maybe they will visit more often??

But if the site really doesn't get updated often, then why do you need the engines to visit more often?

Them visiting doesn't help your rankings, if that's what you were thinking.

[Offline]

siringo,

I use a script rss2html which allows me to get RSS feeds on the front page of one of my websites... Free rotating content. Its php but the search engines have no problem reading it.

Jill,

Im supprised at that answer, everything I have ever read says that you need to have updating content on your pages to have search engines reindex you, are you saying this does not help a bit with rankings?

[chrishirst]

having updates does help. but changing content randomly without actually updating does no real good at all

[qwerty]

...everything I have ever read says that you need to have updating content on your pages to have search engines reindex you, are you saying this does not help a bit with rankings?

Reindexing isn't really about ranking. If you're changing the content of your page, you may well be changing its relevance to a given keyword phrase.

One of my sites has a directory, and on the home page I list recently added sites. Because of that, the home page got a referral from a search engine last night for a three-word query that included the word "jewellery" (the UK spelling). But as soon as the page gets crawled again (and because it's updated 4 or 5 times a week it gets crawled a lot), I'm going to lose that ranking, because I've already removed the word.

[Randy]

Jill,

Im supprised at that answer, everything I have ever read says that you need to have updating content on your pages to have search engines reindex you,  are you saying this does not help a bit with rankings?

I'm not Jill, but I'll say it.

I have pages that have not been updated in years that still rank #1. Re-indexing has no effect on ranking if your page is already performing the way you want it to for the terms you want it to attract. The only time you need re-indexing is if your content actually changes and you want to attract visitors for the terms that are included in the new content.

[Jill]

Right! What those fake Jill's said! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The reason why one would care if their pages were indexed often, is if they make changes often and they want to make sure the engines get the latest. So it all works just as it should. Pages that do change often, get indexed often, and the new changes get indexed.

But again, this has nothing to do with rankings, just indexing. Just like resubmitting your pages never actually got them to rank higher, reindexing a page that hasn't changed its focus, won't get it to rank higher.

Like Randy, I have sites from the 90's that haven't been touched for years and they still rank highly for the keyword phrases they were optimized for. I don't know, nor do I care if the search spiders have come today, last month or 3 years ago. I only care that they are doing well in the engines and bringing in relevant traffic and making sales!

The "real" Jill (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[siringo]

Okay, it seems a little clearer now. There is no point in having a page re-spidered if it's content hasn't changed, you have nothing to gain.

Well in that case it doesn't matter if the engines can't read inside iframes as I was concerned about. And that is good coz I can then use that script I found. It will still alter the content on the page and make it look as though the site is updated from time to time. This is good as it may make humans come back more often and they are the ones with the money!

Thanks folks! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Can anyone tell me why Jill has "say NO to site submitting" (or smilar) in her signtaure? Is that no good anymore?

Thanks.

[Randy]

Can anyone tell me why Jill has "say NO to site submitting" (or smilar) in her signtaure? Is that no good anymore?

There's a thread about Jill's signature here.

The long and short of it is that Jill is on a crusade to make the point that submitting to the spidering engines is a waste of your precious time. As is the Meta Keywords tag for ranking purposes.

[Offline]

Okay, it seems a little clearer now. There is no point in having a page re-spidered if it's content hasn't changed, you have nothing to gain.

Well in that case it doesn't matter if the engines can't read inside iframes as I was concerned about. And that is good coz I can then use that script I found. It will still alter the content on the page and make it look as though the site is updated from time to time. This is good as it may make humans come back more often and they are the ones with the money!

Before you go crazy on this thought that rotating content doesn't matter you might want to reconsider, the future of google will be upon you soon and you may have to redo your site, read this article on the new google patent...

www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-News/What-the-Google-Patent-Filing-Means-to-YOU/

This post has been edited by Jill: Jun 28 2005, 07:31 AM

[Jill]

Can anyone tell me why Jill has "say NO to site submitting" (or smilar) in her signtaure? Is that no good anymore?

Submitting hasn't been necessary for at lest 4 or 5 years if not a whole lot more. I was late to the bandwagon about 4 years ago, but I suspect it wasn't necessary even 8 or 9 years ago either. It just made us feel good.

Before you go crazy on this thought that rotating content doesn't matter you might want to reconsider, the future of google will be upon you soon and you may have to redo your site, read this article on the new google patent...

Actually, I would suggest reading the actual patent as opposed to that article. It appears that people take little things from the patent and blow them up into big things. I read the entire patent, and it doesn't say that rotating content will help your rankings.

[Offline]

Ugg, your right, but who can trudge thru a patent? Scrap all of my argument. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[siringo]

Thanks for the words of advice etc, but I don't think I will spend my time reading the Google patent. I don't spend enough time reading to my kids... I'm sure you know what I mean.

I plan on making sites that will stand on their own and appeal to humans, as I mentioned, they're the ones with the money.

Good content, useful services, worthwhile advice, up to date stories and reliable product recommendations are what I will hopefully be presenting on my site. I hope with a menu such as this (plus some common sense SEO) my site will gradually rise up on the SERP's.

This plus the help of ol' Father time will hopefully see me having some success in my chosen niche.

With regards to rotating content, I think I'll just use the script I'm looking at to rotate a bunch of product recommendations, sort of like upmarket banner ads if you like. I think this could be very useful.

Thanks again.