are iframes search engine friendly?

[grichards]

Just a quick question...are iframes search engine friendly? Can spiders see the content within? Are they treated as an outgoing link? Is it best to stay away from them - especially for placement of content?

Thanks,

Greg

[Chris]

Its best to stay away. Support is spotty and why use them when you can use something else?

I only use iframes when I do not care if the SE sees what is inside. For instance with advertising I will often serve banners out of iframes. One thing this accomplishes is that if the ad network is slow only the iframe will be slow to load and not my whole page.