Forum Moderators: open
I have a framed site that I finally got into top rankings on Google, but now some of my framed pages are being presented as search results... (When visitors come in through through the frameless page, they usually just bail, apparently thinking "Nice broken site, dumba$$")
I've read around and found that automatic redirection from one page (frame page) on your site, to another (the frameset page) can cause Google to think that this is a spam redirect and you'll be penalized for that...
So, my question is: "If I just use some javascript to detect if the page is not in its frameset, and then provide a manual link to that frameset if it's not, will Googlebot penalize me for that, or will it even notice???"...
Thanks!
James...
No one really knows, how Google will actually behave now or in the future. I don't like frame sites maybe you can get rid of the frameset the next time you update your site.
Google don't like 'sneaky' or 'deceptive' redirects. As luma writes, no one seems to know what that really means.
Since Google doesn't like forced redirects, that's why I figured that it may be safe to include a manual link with an explanation for why the page that is being viewed doesn't look complete... The page in question is actually a navigation frame, but for some reason, people won't click anything to get back into the frameset... They just give up when they see only a part of a page...
So I included this at the tail end of the page:
<script language="javascript"><!--
if (self.location.href == top.window.location.href)
{ document.write("This document is part of a frameset, but is currently being displayed outside of that frameset... To view this page correctly, please click <a href='index.htm'>here</a>...</font>"); }
//--></script>
Hopefully this helps the user get back into the frameset, without being seen by Google as sneaky...
I'll be certain to let people know if this approach makes me lose any of my #1 rankings, or my entire Google listing :)...
They've done well with an automatic javascript that puts the exact frame into the frameset. Not just a manual link, but actually reloading the whole frameset, which is much friendlier for the user.
I've always been wary of the more common solution - refreshing to the "top level" state of the frameset - because the searched for document doesn't display when the Google user clicks through. But Google seems to be kindly disposed to the solution we are using. After all, it isn't deceptive in any way, it's helpful! The user actually sees the document that was in the search results.
The code we use is similar to message 21 on the Generic Javascript [webmasterworld.com] thread.
A manual link seems to me to be entirely safe, but it runs the risk of the visitor not seeing it - and getting frustrated with the site's apparent lack of navigation. For that reason, we went to the full redirect solution. Wherever possible I place human visitors before spiders. After all, Google never bought anything from any of my sites!
I will immediately let people know if the automatic redirect we are using causes any trouble, but it surely hasn't over a two year period.
<script language="javascript"><!--
if (self.location.href == top.window.location.href)
{ top.window.location.href = "frameset.html" }
//--></script>
or is this what I want to avoid???
Thanks!
James...
Thanks!
