5 Reasons Why You Should Avoid Iframes On Your Website

While all browsers can display iframes (inline frames), some of them have their iframe support setting turned off by default. So, netizens who use browsers like Opera, Firefox or Safari are likely to be greeted with a blank page when viewing your iframe content. This will limit the reach of your content and may lead to low site traffic.

Because iframes allow for embedded content (in the form of frames) on your website, each “frame” will have obvious borders that are restrictive.

Most users find such segregated webpage designs and layouts to be antiquated. You can remove the borders between iframes, but not without compromising security even further.

Besides their limited layout options, there is the possibility of major navigation issues that comes with iframes. Broken “Back” buttons are the most common problems. Users may also get annoyed or confused by double scrollbars and the inconsistent printing outputs of webpages that have iframes.

If your website has iframes, you must be aware that third-party users can alter your HTML without your knowledge or consent. With malicious intent, such users can abuse iframes to upload harmful content on your site.

For example, hackers can add malicious plug-ins to your website. There are ways to prevent this, but in-depth knowledge of iframes is needed.

The iframe injection attacks of 2008 had fooled readers of several major news sites into clicking on buttons that were overlaid with iframe links to malicious content.

Iframes expose your website users to phishing scams, or the hijacking of their clicks (clickjacking) and keystrokes.

Iframes were once popular for making cross-domain connections possible. But the accompanying risks and hassles are proving too great to overlook.

Iframes also helped improve page loading speeds, by segregating the page into several small sections (frames) which load somewhat quicker. But there’s another solution available in 2019 − speedy AMP Pages.

Even if you manage to beef up your iframe security, you can’t change this fact − search engines find it tough to index iframe content. This is because iframes violate the “one page, one URL” standard.

Google crawlers get confused by the multiple frames and any keywords inside iframes just don’t get recognized.

In stark contrast to iframes, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are designed to perform well in Google’s ranking parameters.

Optimized for mobile use, AMP pages are officially favored by Google over traditional slow-loading pages. So if your website is AMP-ready, then it’s in a better position to rank higher and thus, reach more people.

The latest content format "AMP Stories" is powered by AMP Pages. AMP Stories load at blazing fast speed on phones, to ensure a smooth reading experience for mobile-users.

Minimal text, stunning visuals and eye-catching animation will keep your readers hooked. And - as opposed to iframes - AMP Stories are actually “crawlable”.

Visual Stories can help you modernize, by adding the AMP Stories feature to your site. You’ll be able to attract the ever-growing mobile-using audience to your website, and enthral them with the modern user experience of AMP Stories. You can create Stories using the free AMP Story Builder by Visual Stories, and publish them on your own new, monetized site.

You can also get a Visual Blog, to reach more mobile-users and deliver a much safer browsing experience to every one of them.

Take a step towards the future, by adorning your website with AMP-driven content!