MSN results showing Metatags

Constructive criticism

[martinibuster]

Constructive criticism:
I'm generally happy with the serps. But...

Hasn't anyone noticed that the ransom notes are displaying the keyword meta tag? This phenomenom started a couple weeks ago with this update and it's still happening.

Some ransom notes are pure meta tag, while others are meta description + Keyword meta. It makes the MSN serps look spammy. It's a public perception thing where if the serps look spammy, then the public may perceive that MSN results are spammy. Just a friendly heads up on that.

[ramachandra]

My site is also doing well since last week.

I have noticed ups and downs in SERPs only for my main keywords. For other keywords my site is ranking well.

[sem4u]

I have seen this MB. Mostly the descriptions are being pulled from the description and keywords tags. I don't know why MSN are doing this and I agree that it does make it look a bit 'spammy'.

[martinibuster]

I think that the keyword meta tag in the ransom note bug has something to do with websites that have short meta description tags. That appears to be the problem.

[sem4u]

Good point. I might try and flesh out some of mine then, especially as some of the meta descriptions that Google pulls out can look a little short in the SERPs.

[Receptional]

If that's true MB / Sem4u (I haven't checked) then that will be a real pain and something they will have to fix. Very few pages on the web will have meta descriptions that are the ideal length for MSN's display purposes.

Surely they undertstand that displaying a description on its own is better than displaying a description AND the spammy tag.

I think that was completely unintentional. But it does casue an image proiblem, and is really easy to fix, so hopefully on the NEXT update...

[petehall]

Based on this feedback we did some investigation into how we are determining what is a page from the UK and we discovered some issues. I will update this thread with more information once it is available, however, I wanted folks to know that we are on top of this.

Fantastic news. It's great to hear that MSN are actually interested in fixing any problems with their search engine.

In my opinion this type of attitude is bound to produce a winner!

[steveb]

It's not fixing the problem. It's working to make the problem more consistently bad. Still rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic instead of avoiding the iceberg in the first place.

[steveb]

MSN displays keyword meta tag
Scrappers scrape
Now the keywords metatags are ranking for scraper sites, but not the original site

[petehall]

How on earth did my above post end up in this topic?

I'm sure I didn't post it there. Odd!

[sem4u]

Pete - it looks like part of the original thread has been split off into this new one to discuss the meta keywords tag being displayed in the SERPs.

[steveb]

You post was geolocated to this thread...

[petehall]

My post was related to the method of detecting UK sites.

Not to worry as I can see what has happened now.

Back OT....

[wordy]

I generally use meta keywords for misspellings so it makes some of our results look ridiculous.

Why is MSN publishing meta keywords anyway?

[Marcia]

>>Why is MSN publishing meta keywords anyway?

It's a bug, I reported it right away. Also that they're showing CJ affiliate URLs (as the URL) in the serps in just a few cases here and there, those "wierd looking" ones and they go right over to the merchants sites.

Those meta tags showing really don't look good, and unfortunately a lot of people will probably get the wrong idea.