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Do Iframes count as backlinks?

by zeurois
14 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I've searched the internet a bit but I found mixed answers.

I have an application (a website widget generator) and I want to build some backlinks for it. My generator currently gives people IFRAME html code. Do those count as backlinks?

Example: iframe src="mydomain.com/etc/something-here".

Or only "A" tags are counted as backlinks?

I know that putting links on the page that opens INSIDE the iframe is pointless cause it's basically linking from my site to my site, but i wanted to know if pointing iframes to my site does any good.

Thanks!
#question #seo
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    I don't think it would ever be a backlink. Can you make it plain html?

    You can also add a title to the iframe

    frame src="mydomain.com/etc/something-here" title="something here"

    That might do "something."

    I just thought of something else. I am not even sure this would work.
    In 1997, I remember that having nothis or nothat lines of html for certain
    things that a person could turn off. Like javascript. There's no such thing
    as <noiframe> I believe, so you would just get a blank line with nothing
    loading.

    However, I think if you put plain text/html after the iframe tag, that would
    display IF the browser did not support iframes. That is, something like

    <iframes> blah blah blah
    Sorry! Nothing here
    </ifrrame>

    The line of text would only show if no support for iframes.

    So one could, in theory, put an <a href there as well. And that would seem to
    be seen as a link.

    Now all you have to do is get your widget to put that line of code in there.

    Of course this is all my theory, but it makes some sense.

    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author PBScott
    The common theory is that Google can't read them properly...however they might count as backlinks... my html iframes were outranking my main pages in the early days of my website, which was undesirable for me, so I eventually moved my iframes inside javascript.

    Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

    However, I think if you put plain text/html after the iframe tag, that would
    display IF the browser did not support iframes. That is, something like

    <iframes> blah blah blah
    Sorry! Nothing here
    </ifrrame>

    The line of text would only show if no support for iframes.

    So one could, in theory, put an <a href there as well. And that would seem to
    be seen as a link.
    ^^ I do this, doesn't >seem< to work.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Well "working" is a little different than being a plain backlink.

      Google can read and crawl what is in an iframe just fine.
      But that's not the question, and nothing in an iframe would
      be credited to the parent.

      If google reads the source of a page for "backlinks," then that
      would be a backlink in the true sense of the word. How well
      it "works" would be up for debate and testing.

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan3
    I was under the impression as long as it had the a href tag it passes link juice which can definitely help.

    Whether it counts as a link idk. The only way to know is to test it.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by Ryan3 View Post

      I was under the impression as long as it had the a href tag it passes link juice which can definitely help.

      Whether it counts as a link idk. The only way to know is to test it.
      iframes don't have the "a href" tag.
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      • Profile picture of the author Ryan3
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        iframes don't have the "a href" tag.
        traditionally no... it doesn't.

        However I thought that you could have your site loading your iframe site with a anchor.

        <a href="yoursite.com" target="theiframe" when you click this wouldn't it load the domain you were iframing, and pass linkjuice?

        Or am I way off?

        Idk why that rel=nofollow is there i didn't put it there and cant remove it.
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
          Originally Posted by Ryan3 View Post

          traditionally no... it doesn't.

          However I thought that you could have your site loading your iframe site with a anchor.

          <a href="yoursite.com" target="theiframe" when you click this wouldn't it load the domain you were iframing, and pass linkjuice?

          Or am I way off?

          Idk why that rel=nofollow is there i didn't put it there and cant remove it.
          To be honest, I never played around with anything like that. Just not worth the effort.

          In the example the OP is talking about, I would not want the link. You are not going to have a whole lot of control over what websites the link is appearing on. Depending on the site setups, it could be a bunch of low quality sitewide links. Might do more harm then good.

          Side note, that "nofollow" thing is weird. I tried to edit it for you, but it is not there when I go into the editor. I'm guessing it is some sort of glitch with all the links on the site being nofollow. It's picking that up as a link and adding the tag automatically. I don't know for sure though.
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          • Profile picture of the author zeurois
            Let me explain again my situation.

            I have a countdown timer generator. It outputs html to a file and gives an iframe code to the user to put on their site, like:

            iframe src="mycountdownlink"

            My question was if that src would count as backlink or something like that. I can also add title to the iframe as keyword, in fact, I'm already doing that.

            I don't intend to put links inside the iframe, I know for sure that won't do any good to my backlinks.
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            • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
              Originally Posted by zeurois View Post

              Let me explain again my situation.

              I have a countdown timer generator. It outputs html to a file and gives an iframe code to the user to put on their site, like:

              iframe src="mycountdownlink"

              My question was if that src would count as backlink or something like that. I can also add title to the iframe as keyword, in fact, I'm already doing that.

              I don't intend to put links inside the iframe, I know for sure that won't do any good to my backlinks.
              It shouldn't count as a link and you shouldn't want it to either.
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            • Profile picture of the author yukon
              Banned
              All you have to do to prove the iframe isn't a backlink is look at the Google cache (text version). Done.
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              • Profile picture of the author paulgl
                Originally Posted by yukon View Post

                All you have to do to prove the iframe isn't a backlink is look at the Google cache (text version). Done.
                That's where my idea looks like it could be a link. The source of the page would indeed show
                the <a href="

                Now I am too lazy to play around with that. The link should only be shown on
                browsers that do not support the iframe tag. Rare these days in the free world.

                Unknowing people would copy everything from <iframe> to </iframe>, swallowing
                up the a href.

                The question would be, if it's in the code that's viewable, is it a backlink?

                Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author frettcarla
    iframe in own site may not be considered as the backlinks but yes in third party site it may be considered as a backlink.
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  • Profile picture of the author webdevpro
    The iframe contents are not directly visible to crawlers along with main page contents. So the links within might not be considered as back links.
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    I don't believe that a normal iframe count as a backlink. If there's a link in the iframe - well, then it seems plausible. However, I don't see why this link-in-iframe was worth anything as a backlink.
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    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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