Many of the SEO professionals are often forget to realize the fact that, there are three major search engines. Without having any doubts, Google is the number one with the most searches and the next one is Yahoo. MSN has not retired yet. MSN search is also one of the most important focuses of search engine optimization. Optimizing for MSN can certainly increase the online presence of your website. It holds about 10-15 percent of the searches 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 shouldn’t skip MSN. In a sense getting high rankings in MSN is equal 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 the website for MSN is slightly different from Google and Yahoo optimization, but still it has some 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 and MSN as well. But the opposite is not true, however. If you rank well in MSN, there is no guarantee that you’ll get the same in Google and yahoo. So, when you optimize for MSN, don’t forget to keep an eye on your Google ranking as well. It’s no good to top MSN and be nowhere in Google. The reason behind this issue is, 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 cited, MSN uses the different algorithm compare with other search engines, and that leads to some drastic results in ranking. Apart from that MSN is also like other search engines, first it spiders the pages on the Web, then indexes them in its database and applies the algorithm to generate the pages with the search results. So, the first step in optimizing for MSN is similar like other search engines. If your site is not spiderable, then you don’t have even a conjectural chance to top the search results.
One of the major differences between MSN and other search engine is that MSN still trust heavily on meta tags, None of the other major search engines uses meta tags that heavily like MSN. It is a well known factor that meta tags give SEO experts a great opportunity for manipulating search results. Maybe meta tags are the primary reason for the inaccurate search results that MSN often produces.
The second major difference between MSN and the other major search engines is their approach to keywords. Keywords are the most important factor for MSN, but unlike Google, in MSN onpage factors are dominating, while offpage factors like backlinks are less important then onpage factors. Well, it is a safe bet that the grandness of backlinks will be changed in the future but for now they are not considered as a primary factor for high rankings.
MSN Keywords:
Keywords are the most important component for MSN. What is surprising is that MSN trusts too much on them. So it is very easy to chest MSN, you just artificially inflate your keyword density, put a couple of keywords in file names and it is even better if it is 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 methods, 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 plan to have separate pages for Google and MSN, at first. it is hardly worth the trouble, and the second thing, the risk of duplicate content penalty can’t be ignored.
Metatags:
In MSN, meta tags are most important, since MSN algorithm conceive them as a primary factor while calculating search results. Well-written 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:
MSN reads its content and based on that resolve how to classify your site. So if you leave the content tag empty, you have missed a vital chance to be noticed by MSN. There is no manifest that MSN uses the other metatags in its algorithm that is why leaving the Description metatag empty is even more unforgivable.
We hope this article will definitely help you in knowing about the MSN optimization.
