30% continuous search traffic drop from MSN/Live in 2 weeksSubscribed

[okror]

Hi,

I know MSN/Live doesnt' matter that much in the search world but still alarmed me when I've noticed static decline around 30-40% since beginning of May. There is no major change in my site nor am I doing any redirection.

Any idea? And does other content sites have similar bad experience? FYI, my traffic from Y/G are either stable or slightly increasing as usual.

Thanks,

Li

[markis00]

Sorry, I posted that before reading the entire post. Most of the time, if you're doing well on Google, you should be doing well on MSN. I have noticed if your site has been around for some time (at least 2-3 years) it is easier to hold SERP listings on MSN. Sometimes MSN fluctuates and a keyword you were getting hits for repeatedly now shows a different site in your spot. My sites are doing this right now; I checked some of the referrals today and some of the keyword hits from Live aren't the same now when checking the query. I don't even show up on the first 3 pages in some cases.

To get back into the location you were in, you can try some backlinking, or blog postings. That may help some but then again you may just appear back in the index again out of the blue. For the most part, if you hold locations in MSN, your spot may go away for a few days, but then it should be back. Then it will go away again like a cycle.

# of backlinks dominate results on MSN. Correct me if I'm wrong. Backlinks from forum posts if you have a popular forum where you post helpful information for people with one or two backlinks to your site here and there help a lot in the long run. They stack up after a while.

I have had MSN go from a few % of my traffic to over 20% now. Maybe more people are using Live with Vista...?

[okror]

Thanks Mark. I used to see continuous growth of search traffic from both MSN and G. Just not sure what happened to MSN. I will see what I can do to get more back links.

Also I was in a similar position like you: MSN/Live combined (GA separates them) used to account for 15-20% of my traffic.

I will update if something I found interest...