Frames a "no no"... Why?

Hi Hank,

Welcome to TWF!

Consider that frames are indexed individually by search bots.

A visitor may be directed to one of the frames rather than the top frame (you can solve the display with some simple javascript - but it's still an SEO nightmare)

In my book, that is the main reason to ditch frames.

Most contemporary sites use a server-side scripting language like PHP or ASP to dynamically display the page content, so frames are not needed.

I will occasionally use an iframe to display an embedded document - but I think the content in iframes is not indexed with the page content either.

Read some more opinions in this Google search

(oh, and you can achieve a static menu effect with the CSS property position: fixed)

Hi there

Thanx very much.

Hmm..ok. My problem is that at the moment i have no clue about PHP or Server-Side-Scripting, but i guess i have to dig in to that.

But, for the moment....do you think that frames totally sucks ?

What is your opinion on the website I am running www.gotthard.com

Regards
Hank

Hi Hank,

do you think that frames totally sucks?

well, if it looks okay, and you understand the compromises with SEO, it's ok for now...

It's a nice looking site... IMO the menu text is kinda small on a 1440x900 display - some of the other image text looks forced - but I am not a "designer"

There is at least one section "under construction" and not ready - generally it is a better idea to disable or hide the menu until it is ready (again, my personal opinion).

After you make 4 posts and "critique other sites" you can ask for a critique - the comments can be very helpful, from an objective point of view.

Some resources for learning PHP and more include http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp and http://www.tizag.com/phpT/

You may want to consider using a CMS such as Drupal

You could also use a Prototype window (actually, a div element dressed up with the scriptaculous/prototype javascript libraries) for scrolling content

Hi again

Thanx very much for the feedback.

You mean the "fan shop", it was closed some weeks ago. I just left it like that, so i avoid e-mails with questions of what happend to the fan shop

Yeah i guess it looks a bit small in 1440 x 900. I designed it for 1024 x 768, but made it so it expands.

Thanx again
hank

Hi hankbalony,

As jody mentioned above, frames provide problems for search engines. it can really hinder your indexing and ranking. It's also a problem for accessibility - assistive technologies like screen readers have difficulty navigating frames.

As decibel.places said, using includes is the best way to make sure standard content is included on every page. If you want something to stay in a fixed position on the screen you should try using the CSS property position: fixed. This, combined with overflow:scroll or overflow:auto could simulate the look of frames without actually using them.

Hi Megan

Thanx for yhour respond.

I just hate website where the whole content scrolls away as you scroll down on the page.....thats my main issue

As for indexing...i just want my first page to be indexed.....

I normally put the meta tag "META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"

...don´t know how well it works....

However i have one problem on my site. Not in old explorers, but in explorer 7 i have a wierd problem.

One of my links (Guestbook) links to another server, so it goes out of the webhost (website)but still opens in the main frame....and everytime i have used that link all other clicks on menue buttons inside the website now opens in a new window and not in main frame as they are supoosed to do.

If i click the back button everytime i have used the guestbook link, the problem does not appear.

have anyone else similar problems. As i wrote...this only happens in explorer 7

Hi Hank,

I am unable to replicate the problem with the menu in IE7 - guestbook and other links open in the same frame

the robots meta tag is useful, some search bots read that, others may ignore it and read the robots.txt file - and some may ignore both anyway...

Two suggestions that have already been made in this thread, this time with examples:

So you can use position: fixed to keep the menu in the same position

You can use the overflow property to scroll content in a div, similar to in a frame

Hi there

Hmm..strange that you don´t get that problem. Maybe it is only on Vista computers, cause i sure get it on my new laptop running Vista. I don´t have the issue on my work pc.

I will have a look at the links...and see what i come up with.

Thanx for all help