iframes

How does Google treat them?

[kris]

I was under the impression that iframes would cause no problems with googlebot [webmasterworld.com...]

I have a site with three major product types. 2 use iframes and 1 does not. The one area that has no iframes ranks really well, while the others can't be found. All areas are relatively equal in competition.

I am going to ditch the iframes and see what happens. So how exactly does google treat an iframe? Is there a size that is too big? Is it now considered poor man's cloaking?

[edited by: NFFC at 6:04 pm (utc) on Nov. 12, 2002]

[edited by: kris at 6:10 pm (utc) on Nov. 12, 2002]

[andreasfriedrich]

The ability to integrate a different resource within another one is the big advantage of iframes/objects. It is their weakness when it comes to spiders. While they seem to be integrated to the user, they are two resources after all. You will encounter the same problems with iframes/objects as with frames.

Andreas

[pageoneresults]

andreasfriedrich is correct. Iframes act the same as regular frames do. The content within the iframe window cannot be read. To work around this, you need to include content in your <iframe>Content Here</iframe> tags. Its the same as if you were working with <noframes></noframes>. Also keep in mind that users whose browsers do not support frames cannot see the content in that <iframe>. They get a blank space where the <iframe> is unless of course you've included content within the <iframe></iframe> tags.

[kris]

I realize that the bots can't read what is in the iframe. What we have placed in the iframe is a third party site which handles our shopping cart. I don't mind, infact I prefer that the bots can't read that information.

What I am wondering is, do they simply ingnore the iframe, or do the penalize for it?

Until recently I thought they ignored it. Now, according to my rankings the iframe seems to hinder my placement. My pages with no iframe are on the first page, pages with an iframe not in first 20 pages!

[pageoneresults]

> Until recently I thought they ignored it. Now, according to my rankings the iframe seems to hinder my placement. My pages with no iframe are on the first page, pages with an iframe not in first 20 pages!

kris, the <iframe> tag is ignored. Your pages without the <iframe> are doing better most likely because there is content for an indexing spider to grab. How are you getting your third party information on the pages that don't have the <iframe>?