What are currently the most important algorithm criterea for MSN Search?

[Mike34]

I noticed that my 'smiley' sites dropped rankings last few months within MSN Search. Many of them even totally vanished which had very dominating rankings in the past. Most of my sites were ranked top-5 or 1st page! At the moment I have only few sites ranked well. All of my sites have basicly same content, layout, etc. but each one targeting specific keyword. Each site was therefore also ranked high for that particular keyword!

Regarding my knowledge the following algorithms were always important for MSN:

- MSN likes keywords in domain;
- Number of backlinks plays a role for a certain amount;
- MSN is grazy about keywords in 'title' of site, but also likes keywords in 'headers'!
- Also number of times same keyword has been used within content plays a role.

At the moment I am working on all my sites again in order to get my high rankings back, therefore wondering what regarding you opinion MSN Search most important algorithms are at this time!

Preferrable, ONLY reply to my thread when you are more or the less an expert on MSN Search SEO. Your experience with Google and/or Yahoo SEO will not help me directly (although MSN copies concepts of Google/Yahoo).

I need to figure out how MSN Search ranks sites right now & where MSN crawlers look at in particular!

Many thanks in advance!

[Marcia]

>>ONLY reply to my thread when you are more or the less an expert on MSN Search SEO

Well, it looks like Erik Selberg hasn't shown up yet to tell you how to get killer rankings at MSN Search. He must have been busy at work this month. :)

>>although MSN copies concepts of Google/Yahoo

Actually, they don't. Where certain basic things are concerned there are just so many things that can go into the algo soup, but the recipe is different at each one, and sometimes they come up with some unique ingredients to add - something like adding chocolate to a chili recipe to flavor it up.

>>I need to figure out how MSN Search ranks sites right now & where MSN crawlers look at in particular!

Reading the related white papers regarding their search, and ones written by some of the people on their team can give a lot of insight. But that takes a bit of time and work, it doesn't come as a gift.

[Wlauzon]

We have been #1 in MSN for the top 3 keywords now for about 3 months.

I wish I could figure out what I did right :(

[lisa2005]

i am really frustrated about this as well. i rank number 1 or 2 on msn for the keywords i want for like 3 days, and then it will completely drop off msn completely. then it recaches my index, and then it will be back to 1 or 2, for like 2 or 3 days. anyone knows why?

[Marcia]

We have been #1 in MSN for the top 3 keywords now for about 3 months.
I wish I could figure out what I did right

As a rhetorical question, aside from what's on-page, do you have a good number of inbound links - especially decent quality ones?

[Wlauzon]

We have a fair number of incoming links, but not more than 400 or so.

However, quite a few are from "authoritative" sites, such as .gov and .edu domains. Not sure if MSN considers those the way Google does (did?) or not.

[milanmk]

Site rank : 2
Competition : 1,00,000
Back links : 32
Optimised areas : Title tag, Meta tag, on page keywords, link text in internal linking

Constantly in top 4 rankings since 6 months with #1 being Wikipedia.

Milan

[Marcia]

We have been #1 in MSN for the top 3 keywords now for about 3 months.
I wish I could figure out what I did right

From what I've seen, good on-page (and on-site) optimization can get a site ranked well, but they can slip in and out, up and down if not well linked.

IMHO as long as the on-page is good, good links (and 400 IBLs is good, especially quality ones) seem to give a boost AND more stability.

[ramachandra]

As far as I think MSN Ranking is not stable, every couple of weeks site position fluctuates and I am noticing this for couple of my sites since 6 months.

A small on-page change will have a bigger impact, either it boosts or drop in Ranking.

[Mike34]

Thanks Marcia!

You mentioned: "Reading the related white papers regarding their search, and ones written by some of the people on their team can give a lot of insight. But that takes a bit of time and work, it doesn't come as a gift."

You referring to MSN Search explanation about what they see as important (SEO) & which can be found on their website? Or this information is found somewhere else?

[crobb305]

MSN LOVES comment spam backlinks and subdomains.

Create a subdomain, spam blogs, and wham! You are on the first page with all the other subdomains.