Help Me - Moving Away From <iframe>s
If you're reading this page, then it's likely that somebody has reviewed your website and suggested that you move away from using <iframe>s. If you're nodding, read on...
Why Should I Stop Using <iframe>s?
You're probably thinking "but my website works, why should I change?" and to a degree, you'd have a point. If <iframe>s suit your needs, and you don't care about the potential issues involved with using them, then you might as well keep on coding your <iframe>s. However, be warned, they're not as harmless as you might think.
<iframe>s Are Bad for "SEO"
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the process by which you make your website easier for search engines to index. Even though you might not really be in to SEO or have never given it a second thought, search engines can make up a large amount of your daily traffic. If you make things a little easier for search engines, it stands to reason that they'll give you more traffic.
There are two core reasons why <iframe>s are bad for search engines:
- Search engines such as Google rely heavily on incoming link count and authority to judge how useful a page is. Because a website with iframes is not likely to have any incoming links to internal pages — otherwise that'd break the frames — your pages don't get relevant links and therefore aren't ranked as useful.
- The content of <iframe>s are sometimes seen as separate websites. This means that all of the important keywords that make up your content, keywords that you could potentially be ranked for, are treated as for a separate website.
So, as your main page isn't benefiting from the keywords, and your inner pages aren't benefiting from links, you end up with pretty useless content. If your content isn't being seen, what's the point of having it?
<iframe>s Are Bad for Usability
Imagine you've just landed on a page. That page has been incorrectly linked to, and while it should be shown in an <iframe> is actually being shown as a full size page. How do you get to the main web page if you're new to the site and don't know the root URL? Do you know the answer? More importantly, does that user who's maybe not as web savvy as you know the answer? Probably not, they're likely to exit the page.
Also worth noting is the increase in mobile (cell) phone browsing; many phone browsers do not currently support <iframe>s, and you'd be missing out on potential visitors by ignoring the issue.
<iframe>s Can Be Insecure
There is a certain risk element to using <iframe>s. While this is minimal when using normal inter-page linking, <iframe>s that reference external content are open to exploit which leaves your own site as a potential part of a malicious attack on the user. For example, imagine you have an <iframe> which picks up a button rotation from a source URL: if that source changes, either through the expiry of a domain or an attack on their end, you could be including content from an insecure site straight in to your own. It's not common, but it happens, and is something to remember.
How Do I Change From <iframe>s?
There are several alternatives to <iframe>s that can be taken, and they are all as easy to maintain as <iframe>s. I suggest reading the tutorialtastic tutorial — Converting from iframes.
Good luck!