To Frame or not to Frame
By twhite94
This is exciting because I didn't have an idea of what frames were until I answered a question in my class. The questions was, "What are the advantages and disadvantages of using frames in Webdesign." A frame layout is similar to having a template with information that is always viewable on your website. I use frames for my website. It is divided into 5 frames. The header, a column to the right of the body, the body, 2 column to the right of the body, and a column going across the bottom of the page.
The frames give me many advantages. The greatest advantage is that my advertisement banners are always visible (when I have them up). Ad Sense is a great way to generate banners and get paid for them. The Amazon Associate program is a great way to get widgets that are related to your website content (these can be displayed in the frames as well). The frames can also help the performance of the website because essentially your website is only loading new information into the Body frame opposed to a whole different Web page layout all together. Last, frames make the website very easy to maintain. You can give the entire website a face-lift by uploading new information into the frames (this is quick).
The main disadvantage of frames is that it is difficult to get Search Engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo Search, Excite, and etc.) to crawl all of the pages on your site. This affects your website rank, which will make your website low on the search results (people won’t see your website). A great way to bypass this is to use very relevant and descriptive Meta tags. These tags communicate with the crawlers telling them what is on each of your webpages. If frames are used incorrectly they can make your website look very unprofessional and cluttered. Make sure that you have a theme and goal for the website in mind before you start randomly adding frames.
If you have any questions then make them known!
Some Web Design Aids
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Comments
Billy, I will make sure to get you some good information on Bots and meta tags. If you want me to test your websites, then I will be glad to help. My one website is ranked pretty high in Google Search results. I'm still in the learning phase, but I have progressed nicely. Have a good one!
Mate, good on you for having the courage to try "frames" .
Having built some websites myself I have shied away from the practice for the very reason you suggest above!
It is hard enough to get traffic to your site without adding to the hardness.
Great Hub I will keep track of your progress here on HubPages :-)
agvulpes, I write about things that I believe will be helpful to a sometimes small crowd, opposed to main stream.
Either way, if it hits me then I will write it. Frames isn't the most popular subject out there is it? lol.
I am in my second Web Design class and working on an internship right now, so I hope to have some more thoughtful Web Design hubs soon. Stay tuned bud.
Frames have been made obsolete by CSS.
Take a look at Yahoo Grids for an idea of what CSS design can accomplish.
I'm very new to the Web design, but I have come to already love CSS. My website I'm currently working on is using HTML 4.0 and embedded CSS. It is working like a charm.
I thought frames were good for beginner blogs, but not much more than that. What is your preferred coding language?
I'm a Perl fan. Its lack of forced structure fits my chaotic mind :-)
My main website is static pages created by Perl scripts. It's a home grown CMS.
You blew my mind with Perl. I never heard of it until now. It seems REALLY user friendly.
I am going to checkout your main website. I want to see it in action!
I couldn't find a link. Do you have a URL, so I can see your website?
Try http://aplawrence.com/Unixart/website.html
That will give you an idea.
billyaustindillon 23 months ago
Very helpful info on frames thanks - I always need to keep up with the internet tips for the BOTs and meta tags.