Hi chaps,

 

I redeveloped my site back in the summer. I'm now toying with the idea of using some quiet, low key, mutable music on my website. Thing is, the site is structured in HTML. That is to say that each new page is just that, a new page. Can anyone suggest a method - if one even exists - of adding a sitewide MP3 track that would play even when the user changes page?

 

I really am not up for redesigning the site from the ground up again (it nearly killed me last time!), and I'm merely investigating the possibility. I know music is very controversial on websites, but if there's a method that might work, I'd be interested to hear about it.

 

Many thanks all,

 

Regards

 

Tony

Everyone will say "don't use framesets" but this is one occasion when they work.

 

Leave your pages as they are but set up a frameset with the top frame 0px high and 100% wide with the sound code if you don't want any controller or about 18px high if you want to put a controller in it. Put the page in the lower large frame. The links to other pages might need target="_self" to open in the same frame.

 

There is probably a PHP method but that's beyond my capabilities.

Thanks Wickham, that's really useful info. I might have to give that a whirl. I've spent so long getting everything to fit just so, so I might have to spend some time testing such a solution, but it would certainly work. What effect does a Frameset have on SEO and search performance?

 

Cheers,

 

Tony

What effect does a Frameset have on SEO and search performance?

 

A bad effect. A search engine will search the frameset so it will always show the url to the frameset for a search description that matches one in the frameset file.

 

(I'm guessing a bit below.)

 

However, if all your pages have the same type of content, the keywords and description in the frameset file could relate to all pages and therefore not be too much of a problem. If all your pages have completely different subject matter the search engines won't relate them to the frameset file but give only the individual frame file urls.

 

Search engines look at every page up on the net which includes the pages in the frame so if a search engine lists a page in a search list which is a page in the frame, when someone opens it they will open just the frame file and never hear the music and never be able to open the whole frameset.

There is also the problem that some search engine crawlers can't read framesets so will only ever see the frameset code and not the content within the page...plus you shouldn't use frames because the source code never changes and it means screen readers and other browsers that rely heavily on the source code will not be able to access the content of your site because of the frameset. So it isn't just the affect it will have on your SEO but also how it would change the accessibility of your site.

 

 

In short framesets should never be used, because they will change so much of your site from usability, accessibility and also seo.

 

Can't help with the problem tho as I have never placed music on an entire site like your want before.