iFrames and SEO

Is there a way to block iframes?

[SEOold]

I would like to put some external content onto my sites pages using iframes. The page will have unique content overall, but I would like to put the affiliate content around an iFrame. I've noticed that the content within and iframe may be indexable. Is there a way that I can block the iframe content from the bots so its does not get indexed.

I know that content within an iframe is not part of the URL, it is part of another URL.

Can content be blocked within the iframe? Or do I need to take the user to a different URL which displays the content via iframe and then block that page via robots.txt

[Gshaughn]

Iframes can be used to display content that you DO NOT want indexed. Use robots.txt to block the iframe url. I have used iframes to display redundant content such as Terms of Service that appear on every page and I do not want indexed with success.

These sites are able to attain high rankings, but interestingly, whenever I run a page through some type of SEO checker tool it dings me for the iframe. I always just assumed that the tool was built on the foundation of frames=bad, and didn't pay much attention. Iframes are not 'typical' frames that are bad for SEO - they have a variety of uses and applications that actually encourage clean coding and make it easy to swap out sections of sites.

Anyone have experience or an opinion on iframe usage as it pertains to SEO?

Ciao,
Greg