MS ranking problems

Perplexed and out done by cloaked sites

[debbiea]

When I started with MSN I was #6. Now I am #17. Today I ran a keyword check on everyone that is above me and without exception, they had their html cloaked. Do you have information on how to counteract this? They have to be serving MSN different pages than what you see because the pages that MSN shows you are NOT optimized.
It makes me mad because I really worked very hard to make a legitimate well optimized theam site.
debbiea

[storevalley]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld debbiea ...

It would help if you put a link to your site in your profile. It's difficult to comment without seeing this.

[debbiea]

I added it. Thanks.

[storevalley]

Odd ... there doesn't seem to be a homepage entry in your profile. This is where the link usually shows up (look at my profile for an example).

This is usually blank for users that haven't bothered defining a homepage.

Did you definitely add a homepage to your profile? If so, it might be worth dropping a report here ...

[webmasterworld.com...]

[debbiea]

I just looked. It's there.

[MonkeeSage]

Your site won't show up in your profile untill you have a certain number of posts (50 I think?). I'm not sure of all the details but I think this is to prevent people from joining just so they can get more advertising for their site. I guess they figure that established posters won't be misusing it like that. Seems like a good way of doing things.

debbiea:

I'm not certain, but you might be able to fill out a spam report with MSN and report the sites in question. I know Google has a spam report page, so mabye MSN has one as well. If not, you could always try contacting MSN customer service and ask them what you should do. I'm sure they would be able to point you in the right direction.

Jordan

[marcs]

If memory serves, that doesn't show in profiles for new users (below a certain post count).

[storevalley]

Your site won't show up in your profile untill you have a certain number of posts

Doh! Thanks for putting me right there, guys.

debbiea ...

MSN pulls results from a mix of sources (Looksmart, Inktomi and Overture last time I looked). If you are not paying for your MSN position, you are probably in there because Inktomi found and spidered you for free.

There are a couple of possible scenarios ...

1. People can bid for top positions in MSN through Overture ("Sponsored Sites")

2. MSN can sometimes also use Looksmart results ahead of Inktomi's ("Web Directory Topics" and "Web Directory Sites"). Looksmart is also a pay for play offering.

Bottom line is that people can pay to outrank you. Are you sure that this is not what is happening?

This thread contains some more useful info about MSN optimisation that might help with your research ...

[webmasterworld.com...]

[heini]

Then there's Trusted Feed which basically is sanctioned cloaking.