5-25 MSN Search Update

[newwebster]

I am seeing major movement in the serps. Nothing looks pretty at all. The authoriy knob just got turned off completely. I am seeing a new load of spam and overall lack of relevency.

[F_Rose]

I see the same..

Major update..

Our site dropped from page 1 to page 7..

What's going on?

[kneukm03]

I actually think the opposite, and I've gotten hit a bit in the update. All the searches I've gone through have improved pretty well from at least a few months ago, although I admit I haven't been watching closely enough to know for sure that this update did it. For example, the term "spyware" has relevant results for the first time ever since I've used MSN. Some of the very most annoying spam is gone in other areas as well.

I'm still seeing some sites come up with hidden text, nonsensical duplication of of text from elsewhere, etc. though.

[surftrack]

don't think it's done. seeing some large sites not fully indexed.

[LifeinAsia]

Wow- we used to rank very well on MSN, even though we didn't get much traffic from them.

[crobb305]

Looks like index pages taking a hit right now. Incomplete indexing, and homepages not listed (site: search).

I see legit authority sites completely gone and MORE subdomain spam. They should just give it up to Google and Yahoo. This subdomain crap is such a joke and they know the problem exists. To go so long without doing anything about it proves their inability to compete with the big search engines. Though, they have so much potential, they just can't do it.

[sugarrae]

I'm seeing major movement across my serps as well. Whatever they did was bad (is producing bad results, not for me/my sites personally)... they need to get back to the drawing board or the changes we're seeing either won't stick, or something important hasn't been added in yet.

[surftrack]

i'm thinking at this point that it just isn't complete yet.

wait and see, bet it will get better in the next day or so.

[Nabeel]

Lol, MSN havn't dropped my website rankings, but swaped the index pages with Privacy Policy pages. MSN keep it up, LOL , you need to hire experienced employees.

[handsome rob]

The first 7 results for one of out biggest keywords are all location(ie. newyork.website.com) subdomains of the same site.

[JimLahey]

Yikes, I can't see them keeping these results for long. Bill, quit playing with the knobs!

[seoArt]

Garbage.

[Karma]

Now position 2 for my keyword, was position 24 :)

[carguy84]

haha Karma just labeled himself a spammer ;)

[textex]

Really bad...misery love company...I am glad I am not alone.

[chrisv1963]

junk

[Karma]

lol anything but a spammer :) I've worked hard and been left out of the MSN party for too long tbh, battling against an established site (5years+)

Hope they keep these results but I doubt it.

[texasville]

Looking at the results in my sector, there has been a small shakeup. I have slipped a bit on some keywords. The results tho are excellent. No spammers or scrapers or ridiculous inclusions.
As always, much better than google returns.
I am aware that most of the webmasters on this forum are creating sites for money. Informational sites that exist only to draw people for the ads they are serving up. But for the true websites in commercial areas that actually are for brick and mortar businesses not drop shippers, the results on msn far outdo google.
I would like to hear from like webmasters out there. What are the results in your sectors?

[angiolo]

Keywords in URL gives a boost.

[crobb305]

but swaped the index pages with Privacy Policy pages

Yep. Same thing with my site.

Just subdomain spam outranking everything good.

[edited by: crobb305 at 7:25 pm (utc) on May 25, 2006]

[crobb305]

MSNdude asked me for examples. That's a good sign. I was irritated earlier, but I think they are trying to get better. I took a hit, but I guess we have to take a deep breath and work with them, and try to be patient. They really need to work on the subdomain issue, IMHO

C

[BillyS]

>>Keywords in URL gives a boost.

I think this hits it. Subdomain spam coupled with page spam seems to be popular right now.

[Tourz]

Dropped in the SERPs: this is the thanks I get for opening a MSN adcenter account? I was waiting two weeks for my ads to come online and now I see why.

I was just telling someone I met from Microsoft this past weekend how they were in my good books. Not anymore.

The natural SERPs should not be affected by who is advertising on the online ad listings. Income from natural SERPS supports paid listings. The inflationary nature of PPC bidding is not sustainable for long-term advertising, so it is in MSNs best interest to continue giving traffic to advertisers who support their paid listings. Duplicate results? Let the advertiser decide if that's a problem.

If not, you'll get dropped.

[Lyndsay]

Just subdomain spam outranking everything good.

Here too. Took a major hit on lots of keywords, several sites.

[F_Rose]

"MSNdude asked me for examples"

Same Here..

I really appreciate the communication.

I wish Google would do the same..

I truly hope MSN gets us listed again..

[Interent Yogi]

I have just noticed that I cannot even do a search on MSN.com it now auto defaults to my country results .

Crap is there any way around this it most of the searching I do is international and they are forcing me to go local . Well that is if I was using them for search .

[TammyJo]

I noticed the site that replaced our #1 search keywords is being indexed by using OUR meta description. We have been using that description for years and it is EXACLTY ours.

When I went to the site, it was filled with auto generated articles from a "supply house" if you know what I mean.

In this case it should be age first. Still needs some help :)

[fred9989]

Extraordinary results. They are bad, sure, but in my field they contain almost none of the authority or old sites which have become familiar in the search results on Yahoo and Google.
MSN have applied criteria resulting not only in a selection of the worst sites in the field but also they're ones that no-one has even heard of! Absolutely amazing!
Makes Google look wonderful.
Rod

[Bennie]

Aweful results. Good work MSN, two bad updates in a row ;-P I really don't know how you do it!

Added/

Had a bit more of a look, total rubbish one known spammer now dominates a whole reltively non-compeditive sector of travel, 10 out of 10 (I did'nt dare look futher..) Too many crosslinked sites allowed in the same results. Can you smell spam?

To be fair a nice mix of sites are showing in some areas, but largely the same players.

MSN you really need to establish some way of determining authourity based on quality and variance of IBL's not just anchor text.

[travelin cat]

Yep, this nailed our serps too... fortunately MSN gives us less then 5% of our total traffic