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I was tasked to check on why Google can't seem to index a client site properly. The site uses a framework given by client's parent company (so we can't use other framework). The framework use frameset for almost every page; the main page is a frameset, and many pages inside the individual frame also use frameset. And those framesets are written to the page using javascript (particulary document.write function).

I know Google bots can index content in framesets, and able to execute some of javascript in a page to get data. But can it properly index the combination of both?

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There three ways to make sure search engines can't index content:

  1. Use frames (contrary to what you believe these are not search engine friendly)
  2. Use JavaScript to generate the content (there are exceptions but they don't apply here)
  3. Hide the site behind a login

This site uses JavaScript to write framesets to display the content. If you hid the entire site behind a login you'd have the perfect non-search-engine-friendly site.

Based on what you've described, short of building a second website with the same content that isn't powered by JavaScript and framesets, you don't have a prayer of getting this site indexed. I know it isn't what you want to hear but that framework is the anti-seo framework. You just have an impossible task.

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  • Added the link to the said site Feb 25, 2014 at 7:31
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I have experience in websites with framesets...

I used framesets on my own site, couple of years ago, but I saw that Google did not index chunks of content that were stated on the site. When I changed the structure of the website and removed the framesets, the traffic to my site exploded in a positive way.

Therefore: yes, it will index it, but just partially and I can assure you that the things it's indexing, are not optimal and not the things you want. If you have the option to opt-out of framesets, than opt-out. Otherwise, your SEO won't be optimal.

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