What are your opinions... for websites, frameless or frames

[joyofsoycandle]

I got my site all set up and like the way it looks. However someone told me that i would get more visitors to my site, or more traffic, or it was better...or SOMETHING lol if my site was frameless. What is your opinion on this. I can switch to mode 4 in the estore im using and make it frameless. But I dont know all that html stuff. What do yall think. :rolleyes2 Thanks!

[sudsnwicks]

I prefer frameless, that's just my personal preference. I thought I read somewhere that frames aren't very search engine friendly.

[joyofsoycandle]

thanks for the input suds, only thing is, i dont know how to do all the html stuff so i dont know if i could do it frameless.

[ebcandles]

What are frames? lol

[joyofsoycandle]

check out my website, and see how the left side moves seperately from the main section and has its own scroll bar. Im not good with using the techinal words but thats what frames are lol.

www.scentedsoydelights.com

[prairieannie]

I also prefer frameless. IMO a frameless site looks much more professional.

[RobinInOR]

Frames are passe (of course IMO). Many search engines don't like framed sites. You can do so much more with CSS now that the browsers adhere to the standards more consistently, that's the way to go.

[MichelleOH]

What are frames? lol

LOL glad I'm not the only one that didn't know what frames were!:highfive:

[7Angela7]

Wow woman! Your site is up already!? You just got it!

[ebcandles]

check out my website, and see how the left side moves seperately from the main section and has its own scroll bar. Im not good with using the techinal words but thats what frames are lol.

www.scentedsoydelights.com

Aha! Thats what a frame is. I agree, it would look better without it.:smiley2:

[ebcandles]

I like the way the cart value "follows" you as you scroll down the page.

[theBohnen]

Frames websites are really nothing more than multple "little" webpages loaded into one page, with each of the "little" pages exsisting in a "frame".

The idea behind frames was in the early days, slow connections made even simple webpages take awhile to load. Also very tight bandwidth limitations were imposed on web hosts, and even alot of ISP's would limit your amount of bandwidth per month.

Some information, like the navigation bars are the same for all your pages, so with frames, you only had to load the stuff that was simular to all pages once.. which greatly improved load times, and reduced bandwidth expendatures.

With most folks today, even in rual areas, connecting at 33.6 or faster, and bandwidth limits set very high (or removed all together) it really isn't much of an issue anymore.

Some eStore hosts with online page editors still promote the use of frames in their available templates, but that's mostly to take advantage of the bandwidth savings I mentioned.. dosen't really mean much for a single site, but when you multiply that savings by 3 or 4 hundred (or more) it adds up.

What it all really comes down to is what YOU like on your page.. if you're happy with it, and it's working correctly (i.e. not trapping the visitor in a scrunched up frame or something) then leave it alone.

I personally don't care for a site with more than one scroll bar, and prefer not to have to scroll much at all.

[perlgoodies]

Frames are NOT good for search engines. Search engines actually prefer if you don't use them because it can mess up your details.

"Your pages use frames. Google supports frames to the extent that we can. Frames tend to cause problems with search engines, bookmarks, emailing links and so on, because frames don't fit the conceptual model of the web (every page corresponds to a single URL). If a user's query matches the page as a whole, Google returns the frame set. If a user's query matches an individual frame on the page, Google returns the URL for that frame. The page is not displayed in a frame because there may be no frame set corresponding to that URL. "

- http://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html

On a personal note, I do not like framed pages or coding for them. They are a hassel. Use Server Side Inludes (SSI) if you need to.

But that's just my opinion.

[joyofsoycandle]

:smiley2: Well, unless there is someone kind enough to help me figure out how to do it frameless in the estore im using, than its staying with the frames lol. its easiest lol. I dont mind either way how it is, i would prefer though that it is the most search engine friendly. But whatever works lol. I dont have anything besides microsoft publisher. So I dont know how else to get it set up frameless without all the html mumbo jumbo lol.

Thanks angela, i was determined to get it done! lol thanks to eugenia, she helped a whole lot too!

[cryptic]

I suggest anyone who wants the ease of updating their site (frameless) to use Server Side Includes (SSI) or PHP. SSI is best for smaller sites with a couple of pages, no hassle. If you have a large site with many pages, then the easier route is with PHP, in my opinion. I have a handy little script somewhere around here (I have to look for it) if your host has PHP installed on the server. You could also do a search online...but it's a little tricky if you are not familiar with it or don't know what you are loooking for.

Basically, the idea behind the PHP script I use (there are zillion ways of doing it) is that you only need to create one page (index.php). This would be the page that describes the "layout" (where your nav bar is, your header, your footer, etc.) The rest of the pages you create are your "content" pages (page1.html, page2.html, etc) These content pages only have the text and images you want. By clicking on a link in the navigation bar, you stay on the main page, and only the content that changes shows up on the screen... it's pretty cool.

Comparing to SSI, SSI requires a certain server include tag on each page and also has to reload the entire page when a page link is clicked on, having to reload all the text and images of the header, footer, etc. every time. (IMO, you use more bandwidth this way).

As far as the URL of the main page is concerned, it's an ugly URL with "?page" or similar in it so it's not earch-engine friendly if you are concerned about URL display, however, I never had a problem with it since I use meta tags and descriptions and my websites have always shown up in Google with no problems.

Just wanted to share info. PM me if you are interested in trying the little PHP script for fun to see if that would make your life easier

The alternative is to use SSI, let Dreamweaver build it for you (it creates it's own linking system), or use a Content Management System (CMS). You can find many here: http://www.opensourcecms.com/ - Blogs are my favorite to use, like Movable Type, Weblog, and Mambo at times. The catch is that you would have to mess with some code to "customize" your website. (I'm just throwing this out there, sorry if I sound too technical).