iFrame Alternatives

Previously, we talked about the drawbacks of iFrames in Should I Use iFrames in My Web Design?. But we did not delve into better alternatives.

Most all applications of an iFrame have alternatives that will benefit your site in the search engines, benefit you with easier content updating, and benefit your users with a more cohesive web experience. Here are some common reasons people give for wanting to use an iFrame, and better alternatives for each:

• “I don’t want my web site to scroll”

alternative: Let it scroll. 99% of professional websites scroll vertically. Take a look around, they do. It is much easier to take in the content on a web site by using the main scroll bar to scroll the page than to use a little scroll bar in an iFrame. With an iFrame, you are still scrolling; your viewable space is just smaller. If you really mustn’t scroll, break your content into separate pages.

• “We don’t want users leaving our website (so we’ll open another site in an iFrame).”

alternative: Open external links in a new window.
Simply add a target attribute to your links to have them open in a new window. Clicking an external link, only to have it opened within an iFrame of the current site, is maddening. The outside website was not meant to be viewed in your fixed resolution box, so give it a browser of it’s own.

• “We don’t want our navigation buttons to reload every time a new page loads.”

alternative: Create a lightweight navigation menu.
Navigation often times takes a while to load when images are used for each button. Rollover images can increase the load time even more. Navigation menus written purely in HTML with CSS mouseOver events (no images) load quickly and look slick. Try them out.

• “Our marketing people can update text files that show up in the iFrame. It’s a quick CMS.”

alternative: Get a real CMS or update HTML by hand. Updating every page isn’t my idea of fun, but what good is your marketing team’s content if it can’t be indexed by search engines because it’s buried in an iFrame? Using an iFrame as a cheap CMS is really only suitable if you do not want outside traffic coming to your website.

Usability and indexability are crucial to your website’s success. Maximize these factors by using alternatives to iFrames whenever possible. I believe nearly all front-end iFrame applications have a superior alternative.