Frames problem with search results

help sought because search engine index just one of a pair of frames

[farthing]

I am fairly new here and apologise if this matter has been answered before but I have a problem related to frames. I have been promoting a framed site (simple design, narrow left hand frame with the navagition and wider right hand frame with the content) it has performed well in the search engines. However when the results come up only the right hand frame appears. Is there a way of making the whole page appear, but in such a manner that that we are not penalised by the engines for doing something we should not?

[piskie]

Hello Farthing, welcome to webmasterWorld.
I used a script from a post by Tedster and it works a treat.
[webmasterworld.com...]

[gsx]

There is some useful information on that page.

One thing you can change to improve, is to use document.location.relplace("<page>"); instead of document.location="<page>"; or document.location.href="<page>";

Replace does not store the current page in the browser's history list, so it does not disable the back button. Otherwise the user will click the backbutton, will get sent to your non-framed version, which will forward them into your framed version immediately. This behaviour is not usually detected by spiders, but would likely be banned if it were to be detected - Google AdWord, Overture and ESpotting do not allow listings if they have this behaviour.

[aspdaddy]

Hi farthing,

I worked on a site with a similar problem - I redisigned the right hand pane as a product page/doorway page and included a buy button, related products & home-page link on each.

This was fairly easy to do as the majority of pages were a template & content created from a database.

Theres only a couple of frames ( top, left & default right) that I used script on, and these are never promoted. I just used:

if (frmRight == self) self.location.href = "default.htm";

[gypsychild]

That's an excellent tip gsx. About a year ago, when I was initially doing my site, I hunted high and low for a solution to boot up the whole frameset without disabling the back button, but couldn't find one.

I'd really like to switch to this new script - before I change everything though, are there any downsides to it?

[farthing]

Thanks for all the useful advice. The problem is currently being addressed by use of a Javascript redirect. The question is will the search engines complain about picking up the Javascript 'location' parameter?

[gypsychild]

I was so excited when I read this post that I didn't think to search WebmasterWorld before asking my question - I have since and of course, I've found the answer! Yours also farthing - from what I can see, I don't think anybody really knows for sure - maybe best to read some of the earlier posts and see what you think.