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Optimizing for MSN
SEO experts often forget that there are three major search
engines. While there is no doubt that Google is the number
one with the most searches and Yahoo! manages to get about a
quarter of the market, MSN has not retired yet. It holds
about 10-15 percent of the searches (according to some
sources even less – about 5%) but it has a loyal audience
that can't be reached through the other two major search
engines, so if you plan a professional SEO campaign, you
can't afford to skip MSN. In a sense getting high rankings
in MSN is similar to getting high rankings for less popular
keywords – because competition is not that tough you might
be able to get enough visitors from MSN only in comparison
to the case when you have optimized for a more popular
search engine.
Although optimizing for MSN is different from optimizing for
Google and Yahoo!, there are still common rules that will
help you to rank high in any search engine. As a rule, if
you rank well in Google, chances are that you will rank well
in Yahoo! (if you are interested in the tips and tricks for
optimizing for Yahoo!, you want to have a look at the
Optimizing for Yahoo! Article) and MSN as well. The opposite
is not true, however. If you rank well in MSN, there is no
guarantee that you'll do the same in Google. So, when you
optimize for MSN, keep an eye on your Google ranking as
well. It's no good to top MSN and be nowhere in Google (the
opposite is more acceptable, if you need to make the
choice).
But why is this so? The answer is simple - the MSN algorithm
is different and that is why, even if the same pages were
indexed, the search results will vary.
The MSN Algorithm
As already mentioned, it is the different MSN algorithm that
leads to such drastic results in ranking. Otherwise, MSN,
like all search engines, first spiders the pages on the Web,
then indexes them in its database and after that applies the
algorithm to generate the pages with the search results. So,
the first step in optimizing for MSN is the same as for the
other search engines – to have a spiderable site. (Have a
look at Search Engine Spider Simulator to see how spiders
see your site). If your site is not spiderable, then you
don't have even a hypothetical chance to top the search
results.
There is quite a lot of speculation about the MSN algorithm.
Looking at the search results MSN delivers, it is obvious
that its search algorithm is not as sophisticated as
Google's, or even Yahoo!'s and many SEO experts agree that
the MSN search algorithm is years behind its competitors.
So, what can you do in this case? Optimize as you did for
Google a couple of years ago? You are not far from the
truth, though actually is is not that simple.
One of the most important differences is that MSN still
relies heavily on metatags, as explained below. None of the
other major search engines uses metatags that heavily
anymore. It is obvious that metatags give SEO experts a
great opportunity for manipulating search results. Maybe
metatags are the main reason for the inaccurate search
results that MSN often produces.
The second most important difference between MSN and the
other major search engines is their approach to keywords.
Well, for MSN keywords are very, very important, too, but
unlike Google, for MSN onpage factors are dominating, while
offpage factors (like backlinks for example), are still of
minor importance. Well, it is a safe bet that the importance
of backlinks will be changed in the future but for now they
are not a primary factor for high rankings.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
It is hardly surprising that keywords are the most important
item for MSN. What is surprising is that MSN relies too much
on them. It is very easy to fool MSN – just artificially
inflate your keyword density, put a couple of keywords in
file names (and even better – in domain names) and around
the top of the page and you are almost done for MSN. But if
you do the above-mentioned black hat practices, your joy of
topping MSN will not last long because, unless you provide
separate pages that are optimized for Google, your stuffed
pages might pretty well get you banned from Google. If you
decide to have separate pages for Google and MSN, first, it
it hardly worth the trouble, and second, the risk of
duplicate content penalty can't be ignored.
So, what is the catch? The catch is that if you try to
polish your site for MSN and stuff it with keywords, this
might get you into trouble with Google, which certainly is
worse than not ranking well in MSN. But if you optimize
wisely, it is more likely than not that you will rank
decently in Google and perform well in Yahoo! and MSN as
well.
Metatags
Having meaningful metatags never hurts but with MSN this is
even more important because its algorithm still uses them as
a primary factor in calculating search results. Having
well-written (not stuffed) metatags will help you with MSN
and some other minor search engines, while at the same time
well-written metatags will not get you banned from Google.
The Description metatag is very important:
<META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”Place your description
here” />
MSNBot reads its content and based on that (in addition to
keywords found on page) judges how to classify your site. So
if you leave this tag empty (i.e. CONTENT=””), you have
missed a vital chance to be noticed by MSN. There is no
evidence that MSN uses the other metatags in its algorithm
that is why leaving the Description metatag empty is even
more unforgivable.
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