Post by shikharani00189 on Oct 31, 2024 2:27:48 GMT -5
John Mueller answered a very interesting question about indexing content embedded in iframes (at 21'16 in the video below). Indeed, we are entitled to wonder what happens when a page uses an iframe to display external or internal content. And the least we can say is that the response from the Google spokesperson was more or less ambiguous.
As a reminder, the question asked was this:
If I syndicate my content to another website with off page seo service an iframe, how can I make sure that the iframe URL gets value instead of the page embedding the iframe?
Here is John Mueller's relatively long and complex answer, so I'll translate it (as best I can...) in its entirety, it will be easier for you to form your own opinion on the subject:
In the short version, you can't (be guaranteed to get value, Ed.).
En particulier si une page est intégrée dans une iframe, au sein d'une plus grosse page externe, alors il est possible d'indexer cette page telle quelle. Et lorsque nous affichons cette page, nous observons évidemment votre contenu, puisqu'il est également visible dans l'iframe. Et dans une certaine mesure, nous pouvons dire qu'il s'agit d'une page entière avec ce contenu en elle, donc nous l'indexerons comme cela. Nous pourrions donc l'afficher dans les résultats de recherche ainsi.
Typically, we find the connection between the embedded page and the iframe version. And we try to display that properly in search, to really highlight the original page rather than the single iframe. But it's not something where you can say, "I want both of them to be visible in search or generally on the web, and I'd rather have this specific page displayed."
So you can only do that if you're connecting with the other site that's using the iframe to that embedded page, which is pointing to the actual version of the content that you want to display. At the same time, if you don't want your pages to be displayed in an iframe, there are options that you can put, in the header of a page I think with a special meta tag to say that you don't want your pages to be used by iframes. And that's something that browsers will enforce, at least the modern ones. And it's also something that we respect on our side. If we see that a URL is being displayed in an iframe but in fact that URL shouldn't work in an iframe, we'll respect that in search as well.
This answer has the merit of being long, but sometimes a little difficult to follow as John Mueller goes in several directions. I will therefore try to start a translation of the translation to explain what I think I understood (you will have noticed that I am very careful ^^). In summary:
Google can index a page that uses an iframe, while granting it the value of the content embedded in the iframe. This is essentially what the spokesperson is saying in the first paragraph of his response. In other words, your content can be stolen via an iframe, and this plagiarism page can be indexed as if nothing had happened, while benefiting from the value of the stolen content. Thanks Google...
Google is able to determine the link between the page using the iframe and the page of the original content. John Mueller insists again (2nd paragraph) to say that the search engine will not display both versions of the content in the SERP. And in this case, it rather favors the page using the iframe (because it is more important in its eyes) over the one offering the original content.
It is possible to prohibit the use of iframe by another site, and Google seems to respect this. In other words, absolutely put the anti-iframe header to avoid someone stealing your content and clearly profiting from it.
In itself, I admit that I am not surprised that Google is more interested in the "bigger" page that contains the iframes, rather than in the unique content of an iframe. However, this clearly encourages plagiarists to insert all or part of the content of other sites within iframes . It is indeed more difficult to detect plagiarism with this technique, so you could end up with unindexed pages simply because others are taking advantage of your content. And I find it lamentable that Google does nothing so that we can at least complain about it or indicate it in the Search Console for example. Of course, there are general complaint forms, but we will still have to fight to prove our honesty...
How to block iframes on the web?
To help you avoid being plagiarized, here is the header that John Mueller did not name: X-Frame-Options . It can take three values:
X-Frame-Options: DENY means that it is forbidden to use the contents of the site in an iframe.
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN means that only the original site can itself use an iframe to display its own content (for contests with similar original URLs, this is particularly interesting, etc.).
X-Frame-Options: ALLOW-FROM www.site.com/ means that only the proposed external source can iframe content from your site (this is why John Mueller talks about knowing the person iframing your content).
All you have to do is find the right solution to block iframes . Here are several possibilities that you can use. Note that there are also what are called frame-ancestors (origins of iframes) of the Content-Security-Policy header to go further ( source ). So I provide you with the complete method, but know that the Content-Security-Policy header is supported everywhere except by the legendary Internet Explorer ...