SEO & Frames, External Vs. Internal Blog

Hi, I'm trying to figure whether to use a Blog tool that comes as part of my website building software (WebPlus X2 from Serif Software, or whether to use an external Blogging tool like Blogger or Wordpress.

Someone on the Serif Forums told that WebPlus X2's blogs are built with frames. Yet I've heard that frames are not user friendly, ie that the search engines will only see the surface page. Someone else on the Serif forums disputes this:

"There is nothing wrong with having content in frames. Probably years ago (ancient history in internet terms) search engine spiders couldn't deal with frames and this piece of 'advice' has been passed down over the years by people who didn't really understand it..." Is this correct?

I also understand it's better (for SEO) to try to incorporate blogs as part of one's own domain (website) rather than linking to outside Blog tool like Blogger, WordPress, etc. So that would be an advantage of using WebPlus's built-in Blog tool. (they call it a "smart object".

Any feedback for this newbie?

thanks, Eric

I would use wordpress, its tried and tested and has an active community for support and is updated and revised constantly. You can use it on your domain and the issue of frames will go away.

Just because a program is included with your computer when you buy it or with your hosting package, it does not make it good at all.

Part of my analysis of a software program is to read through their community forum.
I want to know how active the forum is, how many people are actually using this software, what their experience has been, and what the complains a issues are with the software and if the provider resolves the problems. When judging a software package by complaints, I also add in the factor that many of the complaints are from people who just don't know what they are doing.

I would go with wordpress

Frames can be a problem.

It's not at all unusual to go to a page in the serps and find yourself at a frame with no navigation or context.

The SEs index pages - and a frame has its own URL, and therefor may be indexed separately - and superior to - the index page. Conversely, on a framed site, no page, except the index 'officially' exists, therefore limiting your site's seo options.

Anything a frame can do, other methods can do usually do better.

In this case, blogger or wordpress are almost certainly better options, and both are easy to set up on your site (domain.com/blog).