Optimising a frame site

Too many differing views

[curtains]

Hello, I have to optimise a new site that was originally to be plain html. There are three keyphrases to optimise for, so I got their marketing people to write a 400 words on each phrase which I added titles, headers, text links etc. The idea was that these pages would be added as information pages to the site map.

Now they have gone and built it in frames and will not go back to html. :o

My question is can I put some good optimised content into the <noframes> and use text links to link through to my pure html info pages? These pages have text links in the body and at the bottom of each page that link to the other info pages and the main site url (ie the front door).

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[Macguru]

Hello curtains,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld. [webmasterworld.com]

Technically, frames are HTML. But turning the site to a framed version is a big mistake.

1 - frames will show up in search engine results and will open to visitors without the proper navigation if you dont use a JavaScript to force it into the frameset.

2- The NOFRAMES tag is no longuer a viable alternative for major search engines.

It is advisable not to use frames.

[curtains]

Thanks for your quick reply Macguru.

*The NOFRAMES tag is no longuer a viable alternative for major search engines. *

Could you please explain a little more, thanks.

Unfortunately there is NO chance of these people taking it out of frames, I have to cope with this.

So my question about the <noframes> tag still needs answering.

The clients' suggestion is to build a few small sites and theme them like the main site and create inbound text links - yes they have read a book :) - but I really dont want to go down that road.

[Macguru]

I use to be more hard headed than my clients. ;) But I see, you chose to live with that. Lets go along with this.

The NOFRAMES tag will defenitely help you. It is better filled with relevant text and links to important pages, then empty. (or with that stupid default text some WYSIWYG editors put into it "Your browser does not support frames, bla, bla".) But some search engines account less importance to it's content, since it is not visible to most visitors.

A good rule of thumb is to keep them relevant and short. I use to put a summary of 'real' content into it. I builted a different frameset at least for each main section of site, sometimes more.

To help you find a way to avoid the first problem I did a little search on this board for Forcing frames [searchengineworld.com]

I hope it will be helpfull for you.

>>The clients' suggestion is to build a few small sites and theme them like the main site and create inbound text links

A lot of people do this. Just make sure not to host all those sites on the same server.

[curtains]

Thanks for your input Macguru.

[ukznmcl]

I have had great success with using the noframes tag. I have even gained a couple of no1 positions!

Also make sure you have text links to each important page on the site. My first SEO contract was with a home cinema company. The designer had frames within frames!

I did a little research and managed to get him a top 10 spot for the 3 phrases he wanted to be searched on.

[korban dallas]

I think this also depends on the phrases. If it is about a theme with a very static content e.g. funeral you will have good chances to make your site no.1. But if it is all about fast changing theme with a lot of other sites that all want to become no1 you won't have a chance with these cheap methods.