You know frames - and the default frameset HTML code - here I talk about proper use of frames / frameset for experienced web publishers. For official reference you may consult the basics about Frames in HTML documents - frames standards by W3C. Here below we talk about SEO relevant howto use frames in web design.

Here a brief overview of what we learn today:

1. common mistakes in frames use
2. how to use frames properly for SEO
3. frames / frameset file name policy
4. correct linking in frames organized web pages
5. how to tell your browser to open all content file in the proper main frame ?

Common mistakes in frames use

Based on the many site reviews I have done during past 10 years for other webmasters - the most common fatal error is to call the frameset file index.html !

why?

Because as you know the frameset file has zero content and hence a search engine crawling your domain.tld/ or domain.tld/sub_folder/ will get your frameset instead of your content !

While apache allows to define any other file as a default index file - it makes absolutely no sense at all to break common rules of www. the start page of any folder / sub-folder or domain always should be named index - with the file extension according to your apache the file extension can be either of below:

• .php
• .htm
• .html

Other file extensions like phtml or shtml are quiet seldom and can be avoided with proper server configuration.

How to use frames properly for SEO

Hence if frameset never should be in the index file - frameset can be any filename you wish. for logical reasons of using a file naming structure you easily can remember - I recommend to use frames_index.html for frameset of your folder-frameset file.

That leaves the actual index.html free for the main page of that folder - in that main page you have an overview of the entire folder with links to each file within that folder. A typical example of correct frames naming policy are most of my own framesets. To show you a successful example of frames use - look for example at my large folder of the teachings of love - the index-file of that folder is the file in the left frame with the navigation bar - hence a file with all links to all files in that folder - easy to find and follow by any and every major and minor search engine!

Another newer example is the tropical wallpaper collection. here the index file is the main frame.

In both a.m. examples a search engine searching for / always receives a file with all links to all files in that entire folder! that is the key difference for successful SEO using frames.

Frames / frameset file name policy

If you truly understand and know what you do - you may adopt any other file name policy - until then I recommend you just trust a professional and adopt my system - it makes sense, is logical and you never need to think before understanding your own file names.

let's assume we have a frameset using the following frames like in the Philippine Travel Guide for example - hence a left frame, a top frame and a main frame with the actual content page.

I name the frames in my frameset file frames_index.html as follows:

• left - for the left frame with all the links to each page of the growing Philippine travel section
• top - for the top frame
• main - for the main frame on the right side with all the actual content

The file names associated with above frame - names are as follows:

• left.html - for the left frame-file
• ph_top.html - for the top frame - as you see I append with "ph_" for Philippines-section to avoid confusion with file names if I have several top.html files from various folders open at the same time in my editor.
• index.html - for the main frame-file

Correct linking in frames organized web pages

Since you fully SEO every single file on your entire web site - surfers will find any particular file directly using major search engines. Hence once the visitors are on your site - in a particular file - you need to guide them. Either on top of each page and/or at the bottom of each page you link to your frame-set file - frames_index.html - to allow surfers to view the full frameset with all files belonging the one file they found in the search engine. this helps people to stay on your site and see what else you may have to offer to satisfy their hunger for information.

You also want to have a few links within the actual content to related topics on your own web site. Strictly avoid linking to external sites within your content unless you link to a real authority. hobby sites or better hobby webmasters - the large majority of the millions of webmasters are hobby part time webmasters - change domain names like other people change T-shirts or they change or delete folders/files/file names - thus turning your good intentions into death links and additional work to correct death links.

How to tell your browser to open all content file in the proper main frame ?

In the file of the left frame - here called left - we add the meta tag:

<base target="main">

in our case the main frame is called "main" as defined in our frameset file. If you gave your main frame a different name - then you have to replace "main" by your different frames-name as given in your frameset file. Remember this is the frame name and NOT the file name of the main frame !!!

God bless

hans

Previous posts and follow-up articles on successful web publishing

To read all follow ups and previous articles of the free online web publisher tutorial just read the posts published in the topic category Internet - see top of my blog - to find previous articles around search engine optimization - see category SEO and to read more about being successful in general view the topic Love - as love is the key to success in work. Work is nothing else but the expression of love toward a wider audience, or even toward all.

You may also find many useful information, tips and links in my webmaster resource pages