Will SEs penalize for use of frames

[Bradley]

BACKGROUND:
My site has over 600 pages to it. I have about 5 pages within the site that use frames. All 600 pages have links on them that point to the 5 framed pages.

QUESTIONS:
Because I am using frames,
1. Will my entire site be penalized because I am using frames in the first place?
2. Will the 600 pages be penalized individually in the search engines (in terms of ranking) because they have links on them that point to framed pages?
3. I'm not worried about the 5 framed pages getting ranked well in the search engines.

The reason that I have to use framed pages is because the website is connecting to a database. The database resides on another domain name. We are using frames so that the user doesn't think he/she is mistakenly going to another website. We want to make sure the location bar contains the website's address (and not the other website that has the database).........In no way are we trying to trick the SEs.

[Bolotomus]

I wouldn't worry about it. I don't think SEs penalize frames outright. But they create weird problems as people will find your frame pages without finding the framesource page.

I manage a very large site (2000+ pages) which also contains one small framed area. Why? Because that one area needs frames! I generally don't like frames, but when you gotta have 'em, you gotta have 'em.

That site is certainly not penalized. It ranks very highly in its category.

Bolot

[glengara]

Bradley, just wondering what prompted the post; is the site up already with disappointing results, or are you trying to prevent problems down the line?
Bolot, I'm trying to get a handle on frames, apart from their use to link to dynamic content,or the designer liked them so you're stuck, where would you consider their use beneficial?

[Bradley]

Its the latter. I'm trying to prevent problems down the line.

[glengara]

Here are some recent threads on that and related subjects that may help
searchengineforums.com/Forum21/HTML/000303.html

[webmasterworld.com...]

searchengineforums.com/Forum21/HTML/000330.html

[webmasterworld.com...]

searchengineforums.com/Forum8/HTML/003003.html