Can You Use An IFRAME To Hide Content From Google?

[Planet13]

Hi there, Everyone:

Can I "hide" content from google by using an iframe? And if so, are there any negative ramifications?

I have some article pages that rank well, get lots of traffic, but don't convert any sales.

I would like to put some products and a buy now button on them.

However, I don't want google to de-rank those pages now that they will have products on them. Nor do I want google to de-rank the actual product pages (which are on a separate file).

Is an iframe the best way to do this?

Thanks in advance.

[Robert Charlton]

Planet13 - I think you've asked a slightly different question in this thread, but with more or less the same answers....

Iframe Links: Do They Pass Page Rank?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4282550.htm [webmasterworld.com]

I'd look again at what Matt Cutts said in his discussion with Eric Enge [stonetemple.com...] which I mention in that thread....

In my experience, we typically want our bots to be seen on the same pages and basically traveling in the same direction as search engine users.

Additionally, Google is now paying a lot of attention to the user experience, and I suspect that hidden product content and buy buttons, if not now, then before too long, will hurt you more than they will help.

Why not link both to additional related articles and to some related product pages? If searchers didn't come to buy, at least you won't be sending them to the back button... and perhaps also you can also incorporate useful content that's worth reading on your product pages.

[deadsea]

Yes. One of my sites put the entire footer boiler plate into an iframe at one point. The iframe was in robots.txt. When you searched for the text in the footer on Google, our site could not be found.

I'm not convinced that hiding content from Googlebot will ever hurt you. Ads are a type of content that Google *wants* you to hide from Googlebot. Google gives us many tools to hide portions of the site from Googlebot (robots.txt, noindex, nofollow). Using these judicously seems like fair play to me.

[PayMePerClick]

A lot of prominent SEO blogs, and sites, and instructors use iframes on their site. For instance, one of the best SEOs whose name rhymes with Spruce Day. Just sayin.

[goodroi]

Iframes can hide content from googlebot but it does not guarantee your content is hidden from Google. When googlebot visits a page with an iframe it does notice that there is a white space it can't access. This could lead to Google having a manual reviewer visit your site and seeing the content.

Since you are looking to hide product links, iframes may only partially work. Why do I think partially work? That is because Google has many ways to gather data online besides googlebot. For example Google toolbar users & Chrome users visiting your site and clicking the hidden iframe product link will let Google know those pages are connected.

[map1]

what are you talking about any negative ramifications? ? if you put a Google map on a page the code is in iframe if you embed a youtube video is in iframe. If you put affiliate links with nofollow is OK, IMHO, of course if you put something illegal on iframe soon they will get you, if not Google, your own users, my 2 cents.

[deadsea]

There was a case in which a Google employee stated in a forum that a site wasn't ranking well because Googlebot thought it had too much white space. It actually had iframe content in those places. I'd be careful about using lots of iframes above the fold, but other than than one particular case, I've never heard of iframes causing problems.

[deadsea]

There is another reason that Google might penalize for iframes. A site hacker might frame or iframe their malware on legit sites.

Here is a thread where Google's John Mu confirms this:
[google.com...]

A large iframe above the fold pointed to a bad neighborhood is likely to get your site identified as "hacked".

[jimbeetle]

Did John Mu confirm that Google might penalize for iframes, or simply that hackers might use them in attacks?

A large iframe above the fold pointed to a bad neighborhood is likely to get your site identified as "hacked".

Source?

[kellyman]

Can I "hide" content from google by using an iframe? And if so, are there any negative ramifications?

I have some article pages that rank well, get lots of traffic, but don't convert any sales.

I have a few pages like this, and what i did was move the text down and added products above the fold, the pages 2 years on still rank and i sell from those pages too

If you think about what your asking, you will see that in a way its not right, i think you may get away with it for a while , but eventually im sure you will lose that page if caught or reported

[dstiles]

I am looking at changing a site based heavily on iframes to offer alternative non-iFrame pages. At the moment all frames are visible to google and data from one iFrame (about 1300 products) is submitted to google base (aka froogle).

My problem with the site is that anyone using Firefox+NoScript may not see the iFrames content at all, just blank squares with the NoScript "worm" symbol. It is easy enough in NoScript (and possibly other browsers) to block iFrames and many people do, if they are security concious. As deadsea says, iFrames are a potential source of bad karma.

[tangor]

I suspect that iframes are more problematical than frames. One of my sites has been on conventional HTML frames since 1996 and no problems.