iframe and seo

[esthera]

will search engines take note of a link in an iframe?

[forapathy]

whel i'm not shore about that.. you should try to parse your page with a spider simulator tool.. (you can find one here http://www.dot-seo.com .. but there are a lot more).. and see if it retrieves the link.. or with the link extractor tool also found in that page...

[Bill Posters]

Yes they will.
They will index the iframe's src and follow it as though it were a link - indexing the content of the page to which it refers.

The problem with frames and iframes is that search engines index each framed/iframed document as an individual page, ignoring that it is being presented as a sub-area within another page (or collection of pages).

Consequently, search engine list it individually, linking directly to it in the serps. This means that users arriving via the serps will go directly to that framd/iframed document and will not get the presentation you intended when framing/iframing the document.
This can leave users disoriented and, in some cases, unable to navigate to other pages on the site.

There are client-side and server-side techniques which can be used to 'rebuild' the frameset/parent+iframe arrangement and if you are intent on using iframes, this is something you should consider.
(Bear in mind that js-based techniques to rebuild the arrangement will not work if the user doesn't not have javascript available in the browser.)


Frames and iframes also come with other negatives, one being that bookmarking will not record the url of the content currently being displayed within the iframe, just the url/title of the uppermost document.

For these and other reasons, framesets and iframes are increasingly avoided - and recommended against - by those looking to pursue some form of 'best practice' in web development.