Does a link in an iframe count as a backlink to your domain?

We are not specialized in creating backlinks but this does not mean that we do not like to experiment.

Many of you know that we have given colleagues some useful and free tools like Schema Markup Generators and not only that but also the option to have them easily implemented on any website using a responsive iframe.

Now, if you will allow me, I would like to share something with you. The option to implement these free tools on another website was part of an SEO Experiment.

Generation of backlinks based on iframes with useful content

In the following link you can see the iframe codes for the “Free Embed Schema Generators for your website”, which a part of our small collection of free SEO tools.

The FAQ Free Embed Schema Generator

Inside the iframe, there is a link to our website and we wanted, naturally, to test whether Google will see that at some point. Of course, we also knew that this will take a long time due to the specific type of “buyer persona” that will need such tool on their website.

And here we go 6 months later (it could be even earlier … but I must admit that the existence of the experiment has been forgotten) you can see that Google has discovered the fruit of our effort.

In the screenshots below, you can see that Google has discovered our hidden backlink.

Here is an image of the simple code used to create our non-intrusive backlink.

If you decide to use such an approach, we want to mention that the iframe has a title attribute that can provide additional information to the search engine about the content you have on your site (HTML <iframe> Tag).

We don’t use the title atribute and our reasons are not SEO related as the SEO benefits are more than obvious.

One last thing, please don’t abuse the technique. Not only that, in our opinion, is unethical, but we’re also pretty sure that it won’t bring any good to anyone.­

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