IFRAMES - How does Google crawl and index them?

[chiesa]

I want to use Iframes in my site.
If I meta tage the page that loads inside the 'frameset' will the search engines automatically match the page to its frameset? Or would the page load by itself without its frame? Could I use upto 50 pages with the same frameset with different content and keywords inside?
In this case would i also meta tag the frameset?

[nicebloke]

from my experience with Google just the framed page gets indexed and loads independently.

[TeofenGL]

this is the case for both frames and iframes, i think - yes, you should meta up each relevant content frame, yes, they may end up in results without the parent frameset, and yes, you should have a simple recontextualizing js or .htaccess+[php, asp, whatnot] script to redirect users if it is important for the content to show up in the specified frameset.
also note that if your fsets are dynamically generated, it's nice to throw in ample <noframes> content for the bots, linking to the full set of content frames

[Roscoe]

chiesa,

One of my site uses iframes - remember to include a sitemap to these pages since googlebot dosen't follow the iframe href. - <noframes> is also a good one to get those keywords in.

Also, include a bit of script to force the iframe or frame back in it's frameset, unless u want orphan pages showing in google.

[ciml]

I thought Googlebot would follow FRAME src but not IFRAME src?

[Brett_Tabke]

>follow

Not sure about that Ciml. I've not watched a crawl on iframes close enough, but that target iframe page will get indexed as stand alone at some point.

You'd need js on the target frame to reconstitute it if someone comes in on that page.

[Robert Charlton]

Here's a bunch of earlier iframes threads I'd saved that touch on some of these questions....

iframes and frames
[webmasterworld.com...]

Getting iframed content to reconstitute with the framing page
Any way to do this?
[webmasterworld.com...]

linking into an iframe
[webmasterworld.com...]

How about an <iframe> Tutorial
[webmasterworld.com...]

Need <ilayer> help quick!
[webmasterworld.com...]

IFrames ...!
[webmasterworld.com...]

[nicebloke]

Ciml, did your research turn up anything?

[nell]

You might get some content picked up within <noframes> tags if you include them on the page with the iframe.

Page within iframe will get indexed (unless you prevent so with robots.txt). By putting this in the header of the page that's in the iframe it will force it where it belongs if a visitor clicks on it.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--
if (top == self) self.location.href = 'X.html' target='Y';
// -->
</SCRIPT>

X is the iframe page to redirect to (if one enters site on a individual page out of the iframe) and Y is the name of the iframe.

I'd put the above script into an external .js file so those pages won't be picked up as just spam page redirects.

[rogue]

nell has it exactly right. Also, just don't spam the page out of the iframe and you have no problems.

[ciml]

I've found an example that I can use.

[w3.org...]
[w3.org...]

The first URL is in Google with PR4. It has the second URL as an IFRAME src. The second URL is not in Google.

The pages were there at the crawl before last.

[digitalghost]

Why not just link to the iframe target page from the site map? Google will crawl the link, find the target page and index the content.

[ciml]

A site map link would be fine, DG.

whatever.html is not indexed from this.

<IFRAME src="whatever.html" height="100" width="400"></IFRAME>

whatever.html is indexed from this.

<IFRAME src="whatever.html" height="100" width="400"></IFRAME>
<A href="whatever.html">link</A>

Is whatever.html indexed from this?

<IFRAME src="whatever.html" height="100" width="400"><A href="whatever.html">link</A></IFRAME>

[chiesa]

I have tried what was suggested in post #9. I still cant get it to work, also i dont understand how to use an external .js file.
Alternatively I would like to have a heading link appear if the page is not in its inline frameset, this would allow my visitors to click the appearing link to see it in its intended framset.
Thanks