Most domain registrars offer a free feature called "forwarding" or "framing" or "masking". At first blush, it seems like a quick and easy way to setup a custom domain that displays your content. You don't have to do anything on ActiveRain, you get a cool domain that shows your blog, and everyone wins. Maybe. Let's take a closer look:
<html> <head><title>http://www.jhahnactiverainblog.com</title></head> <body> <frameset rows="100%,*" border="0"> <frame src="http://activerain.com/blogs/jhahn" frameborder="0" /> <frame frameborder="0" noresize /> </frameset> </body> </html>
(Example HTML code to embed my gorgeous blog in a frame on the fictitious www.jhahnactiverainblog.com)
How does this feature work? It starts with your domain registrar hosting a small html file containing a snippet similar to what you see above. This method of embedding a "page within a page" carries no SEO benefits and could, at worst, hurt your standing with search engines.
Strike One: If you look carefully and know some basic HTML, you'll notice that your domain registrar chooses the title of this page. Instead of your carefully crafted blog title, complete with relevant keywords, you're stuck with a bland URL.
Strike Two: When your content exists within a frame, you lose the powerful links that we so carefully craft on your behalf. For example, you can find this blog post at http://activerain.com/blogsview/901499/The-Great-Frame-Up-or-How-I-Learned-to-Stop-Worrying-and-Trust-ActiveRain. The link is rich with keywords that help boost your content to the top of search results. When you're "framing" content, this benefit is completely lost.
Strike Three: Search engines hate frames. They're a bygone technology from an era long since passed. Most "crawlers" can't (or won't) traverse frames. In my example, Google will not assign any value or PageRank to the domain www.jhahnactiverainblog.com because it has no real content — it just points to ActiveRain!
Strike Four: Tangentially, "framing" content on ActiveRain creates a security problem for our users. Imagine: a member visits my example site at www.jhahnactiverainblog.com. When they click on the login link, they don't see the familiar https://activerain.com/login URL and security padlock — they see my custom domain name. With the proliferation of "phishing" attacks and other online "confidence games", our priority is to keep ActiveRain a safe haven for our users.
Write without reservation and continue sharing your knowledge with the world — we'll take care of the arcane SEO bits.
Jorgen, did you seriously use tangentially in a blog? Cmon dude, that with html talk is definitely above an 8th grade reading level! We supposed to write to that level to make it easy to understand! LOL Now, on another note, what is the possibility of getting AR to work on my Blackberry?
Thanks for taking time to explain some things. Honestly, my brain hurts a little now, however.
Dude, I would say that 'Framin's been 'Framed!' Personally, I prefer to 'traverse' a nice steep incline of freshly fallen powder, but I digress...
'Masking'...is that anything like 'backmasking?' Cuz' earlier tonight, I played my blog backwards, and I swear it said that Zillow was the Anti-Christ...
'Snippet".... Isn't that the European version of 'Bop-It?'
'Bland URL'....Bed Head Tigi has some awesome conditioners that can transform 'Bland URL's' into 'Foxy cUrls'
'Hate' is such a strong word. Do the Search Engines really have the capacity for 'hate?' Perhaps they're merely indifferent?
I can think of no one I would rather entrust my arcane SEO bits to than you!
(P.S. Like the new pic. McConaughey has nothing on you!)
Jorgen – I had a very well known person in the Social Media arena (who shall remain nameless) just yesterday ask me to look at his blog. It was Framed just like your example. I showed him how to go to his site and view the source code. He had paid big bucks for this site too! You can bet he was steamed. His site was hosted on a very large "Daddy" of a hosting company. I have seen a few of these "Go" that way without anyone realizing.
Moral: If you have an Outside Blog maybe you better go peek at the source code. If you have a ActiveRain Outside Blog you have nothing to worry about.
What? Me Worry?
Nope, my outside blog is safe from worry - it's AR.
Zillow is the anti-christ.
I trust you guys...you have never let me down! :) Ok...now I do have question...on my website...I have the option...to place an external link or frame my blog into my site...I framed it...is that bad? I just reread the post does that include framing my outside blog into my site?
Thanks for letting us know in a fun way to just stay with A/R for our outside blogs! I'm leaving all the heavy thinking up to you guys!
Jorgen - "Write without reservation and continue sharing your knowledge with the world - we'll take care of the arcane SEO bits." Thank you. Those arcane SEO bits are way out of my league.
That was intense! Lol.... Thank you for sharing that with all of us! Have a great day!
Thanks for sharing. I am learning all I can about SEO and blogging.
My head is spinning. On the plus side, I understood a whole lot more than I would have 8 months ago.
jorgen,
Thanks for the info! I learn MORE on AR than any other website!!
Keep up the good work!
Kathy Opatka ,Re/Max Premier Properties, OCEAN CITY,MARYLAND
Hi Jorgen...Though I don't understand a word you said, I concur!
Trust Active Rain!
That's all I do and all I need to know.
Kate
P.S. Do any of you geniuses make house-calls?
Great info and glad to have the tips. Best wishes!
Hi Jorgen;
Active Rain is full of information fo everyone, and I do appreciate your post.
Rich - get back to work!! lol! Thanks for clarifying this Jorgen, there are a few members that need to know about this, I hope their eyes make it this way and are opened. :-)
Wow - over my head but I get the jist of it. Beyond that I get the real message - trust Active Rain!!! And if nothing else I look forward to reading a post like this one in 6 months and getting it all!
Thanks Jorgen, this tip is helpful. I've heard that frames were bad, but this clairifes it, and other things.
Well over my head and now I am wondering if that is why half my domains have no real page ranking.
Yeah, it amazes me the amount of out-dated HTML that I run into out there. Frames of course are the biggest bone head mistake of them all. Of course my favorite one is pages with poor spelling and grammar. I mean come on... Mine isn't the best and I occasionally miss something, but to let sales pages sit out there looking like crap with misspellings and worse, then be directing traffic to them?
Sheesh!
Interesting post, but it's a little too "techie" for me.
Me too, too techie for me. I haven't framed anything here yet.
Ditto to her comment:
My head is spinning. On the plus side, I understood a whole lot more than I would have 8 months ago.
My brain could explode with all of this tech talk. I just had my husband read it and he "gets it"! I'm so thankful that Active Rain takes care of all of us dummies, lol. Thanks Jorgan! I hope I get to meet you when I come to Seattle!
Thanks Jorgen I didn't realize it until I read your blog but this is stuff I needed to know.
It is always good to hear about the ins and outs of the confusing SEO world.. Thanks for sharing.
Jorgen, thanks for the informative post. Take care and happy blogging!
I never even intended to be a Realtor...everything, to me, is luck & pretty much unintentional, due to my inability to really grasp the nuts and bolts of everything in life. As long as it's working and I like it, I stick around. And I'm never the last to leave. I count on all you smart folks to keep sending smoke signals. Thank you!!
Def something I did not know...thanks for the post!
I don't think I understood quite all of that, but thanks for writing it anyway - I'll come back when I have more time and try to soak up more of it!
Jordan, I am actively looking at adding a blog to my website and appreciate the information above. Not that I am sure exactly what to do with it at this point but believe I know what to ask and/or send in an email before making any decision. If you have any recommendations I am very interested. Thanks again for the post.
I read the beginning twice. Tried for a third time and realized it wasn't making a difference. I'll just have to go along with the moral of the story...trust AR.
However, I agree with Rich...McConaughey doesn't have anything on you!
I definitely trust AR and appreciate that I found you when I did!! But I wish I understood your description of framing to understand if my websites do that. As with everything here, I end up learning it after being really confused for a while. I will have to study it and go check out my other sites. Thanks for giving me something new to spend hours on LOL
I believe it if you say so! Actually it makes sense. Sort of. Kinda. Bottom line... stay with AR on outside blogs. Right?
It's funny because chickens don't drive cars.
So here's a late add to the list but since we are talking about SEO and Framing, is there a worry about reversing this idea? Say you have a client who wants to have some external links on their site and they want those links framed to carry a header with their logo and link back to their site. Such as surfing for images in google and linking out to view the image.
Question being, is there any right or wrong way to do that that may or may not help/hurt your SEO efforts of linking. Obviously inbound are the important links we all talk of but outbound do carry some weight... what happens to those if they become part of a link that goes something like:
http://www.mysite.com/extlink.php&url=http://www.externalsite.com
Just curious?