Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Iframe redirect bad for SEO?
-
Hi,
I have a website (http://www.blowingminds.de) wich I put a spreadshirt shop into via iframe.
The thing is I am not sure on how the iframe effects my SEO? Can I just optimise the main domain for search?
Well I want the spreadshirt shop to be found under the domain name (www.blowingminds.de) but the only real way to do it is by implementing an iframe because each spreadshirt shop has its own subdomain eg.: blowingminds.spreadshirt.de but the only real way to do it is via iframe, as they do not offer a complete domain redirect. (Or have I overseen some other way?)
I hope you guys can help me on this one

Thanks in advance.
Malte
-
Thanks for catching it, really. I actually laughed, and while kicking myself said...bright one bigfish.
Best
-
Thanks Robert, much appreciated. Your answer here is certainly detailed and well thought out, should be of help, nice one

-
Simon is correct, I was being over simplistic and imprecise. From GWMT: Google supports frames and iframes to the extent that it can. Frames can cause problems for search engines because they don't correspond to the conceptual model of the web.
The content can be indexed but it will typically be from the originating url as opposed to the destination url.
The question was: How does the iframe effect my SEO? Can I just optimize the main domain for search? I want the spreadshirt shop to be found under the domain name (www.blowingminds.de)
As it stands now, from looking at www.blowingminds.de, there is nothing outside the iframe. All of the iframe urls resolve to the subdomain = blowingminds.spreadshirt.de. So, once shopping begins, a product is selected for further consideration, then you are redirected to the subdomain.
If the SEO he is speaking of is that of www.blowingminds.de, and if by I want the spreadshirt shop to be found under means that when someone searches on a search engine for it I want them to find blowingminds.de and not blowingminds.spreadshirt.de then, it is likely he is going to be disappointed.
While I agree that user experience is important, Spreadshirts appears to have developed an affilate model that utilizes an iFrame wherein they keep all the juice. They do not want blowingminds.de to become stronger than spreadshirts.de. They are fine with the subdomain gaining authority (this is my opinion).
So, it would appear what he is asking is (for practical purposes) not doable. He can either use the subdomain provided by spreadshirts: .blowingminds.spreadshirts.de or redirect to that from an Iframe which is provided.
Good catch Simon. Helps keep us on our toes to be more precise.
-
i would do a request on the iframe and stream it inot the page, this may get messy with forms posting and stuff
-
Content in an iFrame can be indexed, that's the biggest issue here. iFrames have a URL all of their own, so are a page in their own right. Sometimes they are wrapped in a Frameset, which can tie them together to produce a whole normal page.
If their is any way to avoid using an iFrame, then go for it. If not, then it's not just about SEO anyway, Usability is also very important and it's often a compromise that has to be made.
So do what's best for the User Experience and cater for SEO afterwards, which could be using a 'NoIndex, Follow' tag on each iFrame and an 'Index, Follow' tag on the overall main page URL.
Regards
Simon
-
Malte
First content in an Iframe cannot be indexed. Your site http://www.blowingminds.de has all content inside an IFrame so no value for SEO.
With some of our sites where a product/service provider provides their info via feeds to an iframe, we build the site to have its own content, etc. and place an iframe on the page with the feed coming in. (In the US we see this a lot with real estate sites though it appears to be going away even there). If we want to optimize around something within the Iframe, we have to optimize what is outside the frame in order to do so.
As it stands now, unless I have missed something here, your site has no chance at Domain or Page Authority.Hope this helps
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Someone redirected his website to ours
Hi all, I have strange issue as someone redirected website http://bukmachers.pl to ours https://legalnibukmacherzy.pl We don't know exactly what to do with it. I checked backlinks and the website had some links which now redirect to us. I also checked this website on wayback machine and back in 2017 this website had some low quality content but in 2018 they made similar redirection to current one but to different website (our competitor). Can such redirection be harmful for us? Should we do something with this or leave it, as google stop encouraging to disavow low quality links.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kahuna_Charles1 -
Merging Pages and SEO
Hi, We are redesigning our website the following way: Before: Page A with Content A, Page B with Content B, Page C with Content C, etc
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | viatrading1
e.g. one page for each Customer Returns, Overstocks, Master Case, etc
Now: Page D with content A + B + C etc.
e.g. one long page containing all Product Conditions, one after the other So we are merging multiples pages into one.
What is the best way to do so, so we don't lose traffic? (or we lose the minimum possible) e.g. should we 301 Redirect A/B/C to D...?
Is it likely that we lose significant traffic with this change? Thank you,0 -
CDN for SEO (or not)?
Does CDN impact on SEO or not? There seems conflicting ideas as to whether they impact positively or negatively, I realise that if the page loads quicker this is a good thing for SEO and usability of course. Does Google see CDN as just cheating and a get-around for not doing the work from the ground up and using good hosting etc? Do you have any direct experience? All constructive input much appreciated!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman101 -
SEO impact difference between a URL Rewrite and 301 redirect
Hi guys and girls! Just putting a new site live, we changed the URL from one thing to another and I created a 301 file redirecting the urls like for like. The developer installing it has created a different file with columns like: RewriteRule ^page/ http://www.site/page [R=301,L] RewriteRule ^/page/ http://www.site/page [R=301,L] What's the difference? The page redirects but is there a difference between the 301 redirect and this URL rewrite in terms of SEO and link value?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | shloy23-2945840 -
Too many 301 redirects?
Hey, My company currently has one chief website with about 500-600 other domains that all feature the same material as the chief website. These domains have been around for about 5 years and have actually picked up some link traffic. I have all of these identical web-pages utilizing rel=canonical but I was wondering if I would be better served, from SEO purposes, to 301 redirect all of these sites to their respective pages on our chief website? If I add 500 301 redirects, will the major search engines consider this to be black-hat link-building even though the sites are related and technically already feature the same content? For an example, the chief website is www.1099pro.com and I would 301 redirect the below sites to the chief site: 1099softwarepro.com 1099softwarepro.info 1099softwarepro.net 1099softwarepro.biz 1099softwareprofessionals.com 1099softwareprofessionals.info ...you get the point
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Stew2220 -
Primary Domain or Redirect?
We are starting a new travel guide for a resort town. I have bought an expired domain with decent related links and PR (which seems to have survived the transfer (4 months ago). Beofre we launch the new site I am trying to decide if we should use this expired domain as the primary URL for the new site or just do a permanent redirect and buy a new domain that better matches the theme of the site. I am obviously concerned with starting from scatch with a new domain. I am confident we can build some good rellevant links in a short time but this space is very competetive. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Locals0 -
Subdomains and SEO - Should we redirect to subfolder?
A new client has mainsite.com and a large numer of city specific sub domains i.e. albany.mainsite.com. I think that these subdomains would actually work better as subfolders i.e mainsite.com/albany rather than albany.mainsite.com. The majority of links on the subdomains link to the main site anyway i.e. mainsite.com/contactus rather than albany.mainsite.com/contactus. Having mostly main domain links on a subdomain doesnt seem like clever link architecture to me and maybe even spammy. Im not overly familiar with redirecting subdomains to subfolders. If we go the route of 301'ing subdomains to subfolders any advice/warnings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AndyMacLean0 -
How To 301 Redirect .html pages
I need to redirect a page/URL that is purely .html to a new location. I don't know how to do this. All the redirects I can find are for server side code pages .php/.aspx etc. From my understanding I can't put a server side redirect in a .html file. I am hosting on a microsoft server, however the new page I am redirecting to is .php. I am running some WordPress (.php) files on the server. I need to make it redirect before the old page loads so visitors don't start reading something that is about to get redirected Can someone please help me?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MyNet0