Where am I going wrong with MSN Search?

Does anyone have any advice on my MSN problem?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I am not a regular visitor to this particular forum and I must confess to knowing little about MSN search. I subscribe to their Business Central site but that's about it. MSN used to provide me with about 6% of my traffic but recently this has dropped away to nothing.

My site is popular. For my main KW I have the number one position in Google and for several others I have top five positions. I also feature OK in Yahoo but I am nowhere at Microsoft. Is it not the case that if I am figuring so high in Google that I should have at least some sort of ranking at Microsoft?

I appreciate that they use different algos but surely I should be figuring somewhere? My site provides free information about widget software and it is recognised as an authority site by lots of my peers.

Any help or assistance would be appreciated.

[Leosghost]

Given the difference between the "beta" results ..the possible "final results" and the current results ..is it worth worrying? doing anything at all for now?
I'd let them sort out their music before you try to dance to the tune..

2c

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Yes, but it may be long while before the band starts playing :o)

[rfgdxm1]

>Yes, but it may be long while before the band starts playing :o)

Yep. The beta results to me look like it is a very early beta. It could be quite a long time before MSN switches.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

So - are there any obvious things that I should know that could be preventing me from getting my MSN traffic?

[billygg]

i wouldnt worry about msn, same thing happened to our company, msn dropped down to like 100 clicks a day, from over a 1,000, whats funny, is we have all our positioning there. nothing has changed, placement wise, i think, after they pulled PFI there results went to ...., and most people are reverting to another engine, yahoo seems to have picked up about 400 clicks a month, lol, i wouldnt worry, msn is poo right now.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

They may be poo but if anyone using them searches for my main KW I am nowhere. On Google I am number one. I would just like to see what traffic I am missing.

[lgn1]

BeeDeeDubbleU I noticed that you are in the UK.

MSN does geographic profiling and penalize sites that
are not hosted in the USA, evn if you have a .com
domain.

How is your ranking on the UK version of MSN.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Thanks for that Ign1.

I am in the UK and my results on MSN UK are very good but they don't bring me much business. My problem is that my market is worldwide. Is there anything I can do to combat this geographic profiling?

[lgn1]

MSN started doing this geographic profiling thing about 3 or 4 months ago. The new beta version of the MSN does not use this feature from what I can tell.

Fortunatly Google and Yahoo does not discriminate by the country of origin of your ISP.

We are taking a wait and see atitude, to see where MSN is going with this. If MSN continues with this policy, we may start looking at the posibility of hosting our .COM with an American ISP.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Thanks again for the information. I was not aware that they had started doing this but it would certainly explain my current problem. I am a bit pissed off at them for not telling me about this.

As a paid up member of their Business Central I contacted them about the fact that despite doing well elsewhere I was no longer figuring in their index and I got a stock reply about all search engines being different, etc.

I will contact them again and ask the question directly. If I get a useful reply I'll let you know.

[Receptional]

MSN have indicated that they very much intend to persue "local" search, which leads me to believe they will use geographic profiling to the full extreme.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I decided to try talking to M$ support through their chat line. I got someone who was unable to help me at all. I have now submitted an email request asking about the local filter issue. If I am paying for their service I think I am entitled to know about this.

I'll be in touch ...

[lgn1]

I have no problem with the concept of local search, just the way it is implemented.

If a user wishes to perform a local or regional search, they should have an option to select this, but it should never be a default setting.

And if MSN wants to see if a company serves a local or regional market, they should based this information on the content of the site being spidered, not on where the site is hosted from.

We have done a lot of work to Americanize our site, we drop ship from suppliers in the USA, have prices in American dollars, and we are a leading competitor in the US market for our niche.

The current MSN model is being sweeped away, and hopefully, and from what I can tell, the new MSN Beta search does not penalize for ISP hosting outside the USA. I just hope they keep it that way.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Update ...

Six days later and still no reply? Why am I paying them for this service?

[lgn1]

Just an update. It appears that MSN has abandon the concept of geographic profiling based on the ISP country of origin, and thus tanking your results on the MSN.COM if you are not american hosted.

We are back on page one on MSN search. If they are still doing geographic profiling, then its being done properly by examing site content, and not by where you are hosted.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Yes. My site has also started to figure in MSN once again. I like to think that this was as a result of my pursuing this matter?