PR Flow through an iFrame

noindex, follow

[jk3210]

I'm making a user interface enhancement to a home page and I'm trying to control the PR/link love flow in this situation.

The Home page has an iframe which contains page [iframe-filler.htm]. [iframe-filler.htm] includes a link to [target.htm]

So the PR flow is....

Home => iframe-filler.htm => target.htm. Right?

But, I want target.htm to receive all PR/link love, and I want iframe-filler.htm to receive none. (it's only there to hold the link to target.htm)

What if iframe-filler.htm has a [noindex,follow]? Will PR flow bypass iframe-filler.htm and flow directly from home page to target.htm, or will no PR flow from home page at all?

[RonnieG]

Interesting question.

I have always assumed that G totally ignored the contents of an IFrame, with no PR flow, and no insertion into G's index as a result of an IFrame reference. The following experience and testing seems to confirm my assumptions.

I have a web site where the home page is indexed, but the rest of the site is nothing but a repository of scripting pages that have to reside there because the web server on the template site I use as my main site does not support the particular scripting I need to do. The scripts do produce otherwise indexable results. There is no navigation or links of any kind to the script pages except the IFrame references, but also no "noindex" on the script pages to prevent them from being indexed. According to a site: query on the repository site, the pages with the scripting code that are referenced only in the IFrame of the main site are not indexed by G anywhere, main or supplemental, and have no PR of their own.

[MHes]

Hi

Could you link directly to the page and add the code:

<script type="text/javascript">

<!--

if (self == self.parent) {

document.write('<a href="frameset.htm">This site uses frames, click here to load the frameset</a>')

}

//-->

</script>

....which will call the frameset?

[jk3210]

The entire purpose of the iFrame is to give the appearance of using "tabs".

The iFrame is only there to hold a "tabs" graphic plus a text snippet and a link to the "target.htm" page. When you click on another tab within the iFrame, another page populates the iFrame with a different text snippet and link to target2.htm.

This iFrame set-up only accounts for maybe 10% of the Home page.

All that stuff works fine now, I just need to funnel the PR to the target page and by-pass the iFrame page.

I read a discussion from last year on whether or not a [noindex,follow] passes PR, but there didn't seem to be a definitive answer.

[Patrick Taylor]

I have always assumed that G totally ignored the contents of an IFrame, with no PR flow, and no insertion into G's index as a result of an IFrame reference.

Me too. If there is no hyperlink anywhere to iframe-filler.htm then it shouldn't be indexed, and neither should any page only linked to from iframe-filler.htm.

[edited by: Patrick_Taylor at 10:04 pm (utc) on Dec. 24, 2006]

[jk3210]

Good point. I'd forgotten that...

<iframe src="iframe-filler.htm" name="foo">

...didn't count as a link, so there's no point in doing [noindex,follow].

This is going to be a bigger hassle than I thought.

[bumpski]

I use IFrames quite a bit.

My top border on all pages on some sites is an IFrame using the same inserted html page. I have a link (absolute) in this IFrame'd page I have pointed to several different pages on this particular site. Google Sitemaps, (sorry Webmaster Tools), tells me these pages that I have pointed this link to are the highest PR pages on my site. Change the link, new highest PR page. (Takes a couple months!)

Anymore Google does not index the "content" of an IFrame but it does look at links it can understand and appears to follow them. And if you can trust Webmaster Tools, PR is passed through the link.

I do mark these pages as "robots=noindex" and typically I don't actually link to the IFrame'd page itself at all. The framed page is only referenced through the "src=example.html" attribute of the IFrame invocation. I used to block these IFrame'd pages in robots.txt, which now I think is a mistake. I also think PR would not be passed if the IFramed page is blocked by robots.txt. Obviously you're telling Google don't look at all in this case versus, just not indexing the page.

So I can't guarantee it, but I do think PR will be passed through. Again, just don't link to the IFrame'd page.

[bumpski]

Just a follow up.

In all my cases the ultimate target page does have some other navigation, or links, to it.

I believe PR will follow through an IFrame but I'm not at all sure whether Google would actually index the ultimate target page if there were no other link to it. Also all my "src=" attributes are absolute paths having the full domain name and path to the IFrame'd html page. This could make a big difference.

Sounds weird but I think that's the way it works.

Also, Google used to index the IFramed page itself at times if you did not use noindex in the IFrame'd page. This characteristic seems to have changed time and time again. Certainly today 12/24/06 Google is doing a GREAT job of not indexing the "content" of the IFrame, but I don't believe Google is ignoring it completely!

[jk3210]

This Home page is a #1 ranked money page that pays 90% of the bills here, so I guess I need to decide exactly how much I'm willing to risk just to have a snazzy "tabs" interface.

Maybe boring old straight links aren't so bad after all... :)

Thanks much for the help, guys.

[bumpski]

What's neat about an IFrame, in most cases, is once you've got it set up you can change the content all you want and not impact the page invoking the IFrame.

I have some very highly ranked pages that I just about have to obsolete in the near future. I'm just going to put an IFrame near the top to steer visitors to the new page eaving the highly ranked content virtually unchanged. I, like you, want to change these pages as little as possible.

Good luck!