Is there actual risk to having multiple URLs that frame in main url? Or is it just bad form and waste of money?

[gravityseo]

Client has many urls that just frame in the main site.  It seems like a total waste of money, but if they are frames, is there an actual risk?

[icecarats]

In that case I agree with Kane; the short answer is it probably doesn't 'hurt' anything, but it's most likely not helping anything either. Those domains are an investment in a way, in terms of hosting, bandwidth, code maintenance, etc. And currently that investment isn't really being used to its full potential. I don't know if it's still the case, but WayFair (née CSN Stores) used to have at least 20-30 domains 301'd to all of their major properties, usually mispellings, (name)sucks, that kind of thing.

[KaneJamison]

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I don't think his test justifies the assumption that the links are treated as standard links, but it appears you could certainly assume that they're passing anchor text.

I didn't see any mention of whether the iframed page was considered to be the linking page or whether the top level page was considered to be the linking page, however.  I'd like to see how the link shows up in his Google Webmaster Tools, since that would be more valuable information IMO.

[KeriMorgret]

This thread just came out on Search Engine Roundtable today, which suggests Google may actually pay attention to content on an iframed site. I haven't had a chance to look at it in real detail yet, but it is interesting.

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-iframe-link-14558.html

[KaneJamison]

From what I understand, Google won't 'count' any content that is iframed on a site, so essentially Google will just see a blank page with an iframe to another site. That won't be a risk to the main domain that's in the iframe, but it's not doing anyone any good most likely.

Are they ranking for anything with these extra sites, and do they get any traffic?

I would probably see if they'll dedicate any budget & time to creating secondary sites on the better keywords, and I'd encourage them to 301 the rest. Possibly even dump some of the worse domains if they're not worth keeping, but the client might be trying to do a land grab on keywords to keep competitors out, which might be worth the annual fee to them.

[gravityseo]

@Valery, thanks for the reply.  You did read it right, but I'm still looking for input on whether it's actually a risk or just a waste.

[icecarats]

If I take your meaning correctly they have something like 'site.com' as their main page, but also have 'site1.com' which is just 'site.com' content in an iframe on 'site1.com'? It depends on what they're trying to accomplish I guess, but from a link juice/seo perspective that seems kind of backwards. Usually people just 301 the domains over.