msn.co.jp vs yahoo.co.jp

Very different results for msn.co.jp and yahoo.co.jp - what gives?

[philicious]

I have just been analyzing traffic for a client's site that has a big Japanese section. Their biggest Japanese search engine referrer is Yahoo.co.jp, but they get absolutely nothing from msn.co.jp.

I have tried searching specifically for their name in Japanese (as well as other search terms they rank for on Yahoo), but they do not come up at all on msn, except if I search for their actual domain name.

I thought that msn.co.jp uses the yahoo.co.jp database, but it appears to be wildly different.

Does anyone know what's going on here, and how I can improve performance on MSN (and is it actually worth it!)?

[bill]

MSN Japan is powered by Inktomi for its regular spidered results. You can get paid placement in MSN Japan by using LookSmart Japan or Overture Japan. I haven't done this recently, but you used to be able to get into the Inktomi TrustedFeed and show up on Goo and other Japanese sites powered by Inktomi. This may have changed since the Yahoo switchover.

[whats up skip]

The only really results we have obtained from MSN.jp is from PPC via Overture. For a while we were getting traffic from our paid submission to LookSmart, but now that is worth nothing.

Our site does not show up at all well in the results in MSN, even though we show up in the top five for some key phrases in Google.

[bill]

For a while we were getting traffic from our paid submission to LookSmart, but now that is worth nothing.

So your LookSmart listing is still there on MSN, but not drawing any traffic?

And just to clarify my post above; Goo used to be powered by Inktomi, but it now shows Google results.

[whats up skip]

It looks as though it has gone.

I am sure we had this site in the Inktomi feed a while ago, but that data seems to have gone as well. We did not renew it as it did not deliver much in the way of traffic.

Really unless you are in the top 3, there is normally not much volume, top 10 still gives you something, but Inktomi only ever got us to the top 20.

Now with the level of PPC advertising for most key phrases you need to be in the top two or so for free listings as there is often 3 PPC ads above you.