Zero spam since <iframe>

julian · Sep 30, 2013

Cutting a along story short I've had to embed some contact forms using in various wp/joomla sites etc.

Putting the contact form on it's own sub domain, then embedding the contact form within the desired page via an iframe.

Since doing this even the most basic contact form (even with no captcha) doesn't get spam - bots can't seem to figure it out

Although it's not best practice and a bit of a hack does the job!

murph · Sep 30, 2013

Good idea! They won't figure it as they won't see it!

Edwin · Sep 30, 2013

Wow, that's a great tip. Thanks!

max_rk · Sep 30, 2013

As iframe page is made up of several files, it should be simple for spiders to look trough the code and find direct URL of each file.

julian · Sep 30, 2013

An iframe is not made up of several files in this instance e.g.

<iframe

name="mycontform"
src="http://mycontform.example.com/mycontform/mycontform.php"
height="500"
width="500"
frameborder="no"
scrolling="auto"
align="middle"

></iframe>

I'm not saying no bot is never going to find this url - I think they probably do.

I think the contact form being setup like this makes it difficult to populate/hijack the form fields for spam submitting.

max_rk said:
As iframe page is made up of several files, it should be simple for spiders to look trough the code and find direct URL of each file.

killaclown · Sep 30, 2013

Great tip.

Another tip is not to name the form fields 'name', 'email' & etc. Use random strings

max_rk · Oct 1, 2013

julian said:
An iframe is not made up of several files in this instance e.g.

<iframe

name="mycontform"
src="http://mycontform.example.com/mycontform/mycontform.php"
height="500"
width="500"
frameborder="no"
scrolling="auto"
align="middle"

></iframe>

I'm not saying no bot is never going to find this url - I think they probably do.

I think the contact form being setup like this makes it difficult to populate/hijack the form fields for spam submitting.

In my dictionary, more than one is several.
One file is where you have your code another files is your http://mycontform.example.com/mycontform/mycontform.php

ratboy · Oct 1, 2013

I've been forced into subscribing to Akismet for WP Gravity forms/comments and it's great. Working 100% and cutting out 165ish spam form submissions a day which i'm pleased with.

Like above though.

julian · Oct 1, 2013

Who got out of bed the wrong side today

You said:

As an iframe page is made up of several files, it should be simple for spiders to look through the code and find direct URL of each file.

Did you mean more like this?

<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<frameset rows="64,*">
<frame name="banner" scrolling="no" noresize target="contents" src="page.htm">
<frameset cols="150,*">
<frame name="contents" target="main" src="page.htm">
<frame name="main" src="page.htm">
</frameset>
</html>

Now if you'd read your web design book instead of your dictionary this morning, you'd know that an iframe does not need to be made up of "several" files at all - my example doesn't even use a file.

Over to you.

max_rk said:
In my dictionary, more than one is several.
One file is where you have your code another files is your http://mycontform.example.com/mycontform/mycontform.php

max_rk · Oct 1, 2013

julian said:
Who got out of bed the wrong side today

You said:

As an iframe page is made up of several files, it should be simple for spiders to look through the code and find direct URL of each file.

Did you mean more like this?

<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<frameset rows="64,*">
<frame name="banner" scrolling="no" noresize target="contents" src="page.htm">
<frameset cols="150,*">
<frame name="contents" target="main" src="page.htm">
<frame name="main" src="page.htm">
</frameset>
</html>

Now if you'd read your web design book instead of your dictionary this morning, you'd know that an iframe does not need to be made up of "several" files at all - my example doesn't even use a file.

Over to you.

web pages are files or documents, are they not?

you saved your frameset tags in a html/php file, mycontfrom.php is also a file.

WP is also made up of files.

Spider could look in to your frameset tags and find out the URL of your contact form file.

I resign.

sdsinc · Oct 2, 2013

I think the spiders will soon index your iframe, just a matter of time, after all it's like any ordinary HTML page.

murph · Oct 2, 2013

sdsinc said:
I think the spiders will soon index your iframe, just a matter of time, after all it's like any ordinary HTML page.

I not so sure they will. Can't see why they would bother? Sites have lots of Iframes such as G ads etc... They're presumably looking for the easy options?