SEO and the IFRAME

The other day, I ran into a law firm with a website coded using the IFRAME element. While there is nothing programmatically wrong with IFRAMEs, they present some significant challenges for search engine optimization.

Here is a definition for “IFRAME” from Wikipedia:

“IFRAME (from inline frame) is an HTML element which makes it possible to embed another HTML document inside the main document… IFrames are more commonly used to insert content (for instance an advertisement) from another website into the current page.”

A few examples of sites using an IFRAME are:
http://www.samisite.com/iframephotos/index.htm,
http://calcium.brownbearsw.com/demos/miniframe.html &
http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/96/37/stuff/iframe_ex.html

From a search engine optimization point of view, the use of the IFRAME is problematic for several reasons. First, whenever a search engine spiders the content that’s within an IFRAME, the search engine will normally link to the IFRAMED page itself instead of the “master” page it is housed within. Often, this means searchers are delivered to a page without site navigation. This is not optimal for keeping the attention of search engine spiders or visitors. A good example of a page like this within Google’s index:
http://www.paxilbirthdefect.com/source/about/prenatal_exposure.html.

Next, if you’re using an IFRAME to display another website’s content within your overall navigation structure, you’re now subject to showing whatever that site may change their content to say. Today’s IFRAMED page about birth control may be tomorrow’s IFRAMED page about a less savory topic. Of course, search engines will recognize you’re serving another site’s content so it will have no positive impact on your site’s rankings.

Additionally, some users turn off the IFRAME element in their browser’s advanced settings because of a the security hole it presents (trusted websites can unwittingly serve malicious content via IFRAMES).

Finally, and this is the most important point, I’ve spotted some sites that have multiple IFRAME “shells” on different URLs that all serve the same framed-in content. In the eyes of the search engines, this is duplicate content and is likely to be reason for de-listing.

If you can’t tell, I don’t recommend using IFRAME in your site’s code. Just like framesets, there was a time for them, but that was years ago. Duplicate content, end-user experience and security concerns are factors I consider to be argument enough.

[tags]IFRAME, inline frames[/tags]

Written by jclayc on May 7th, 2007 with 6 comments.
Read more articles on Coding Topics and General SEO Discussion.

What is Social Bookmarking and Why Should I Do It?

You may have heard the buzzword “Web 2.0”. You may also be familiar with “bookmarks” in your Internet browser and even “viral” web marketing. I want to focus on one particular element of Web 2.0 that lawyers can use to promote their websites: social bookmarking.

First of all, what’s “Web 2.0”? Simply put, web 2.0 references online systems that support contribution of multiple users. The Wikipedia is a good example of “Web 2.0”; it has an open structure where many users can contribute and edit content. The “Web 2.0”” expression of a search engine is “social bookmarking”. Imagine this: instead of a search engine deciding who should be #1 by itself, wouldn’t it be great if they could get the input of thousands of users like me and you? Sites like Del.icio.us, Shadows.com and Furl.net are (free) social bookmarking sites where end users can bookmark their favorite sites for others to see. Those bookmarks are also associated with tags (like keywords) that describe the site’s content. (So, when bookmarking a legal site, tags used would be lawyer, attorney, law firm, litigation and other area-of-practice specific terms.) When many, many people set bookmarks for a site or article, they rise in the rankings of the search system’s results according to their tags.

So who notices? Yes, you’ll get some traffic from the sites themselves… but traditional search engines like Google also notice – and that’s what’s important. Social bookmarking your own site (and encouraging your colleagues to do the same) effectively “reminds” Google that your site is worth reviewing. My suggestion: go to the three social bookmarking sites listed above, sign up and bookmark your site(s)… bookmark sites you find useful… and bookmark any new page or article you have published. Create one account at home and one at work, if you’d like. As part of a larger online marketing campaign of on-page optimization, link building and PR, social bookmarking can be a useful tool.

[tags]social bookmarking, bookmarks[/tags]

Written by jclayc on May 5th, 2007 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on General SEO Discussion and Legal Websites and SEO for Law Firms.