MSN Search Results

MSN's results seem to be rotated, inktomi, looksmart, & who?

[gethan]

I've been looking at my results in MSN (search.msn.com) for my KWs. I can't work out exactly whats happening. There is definetly some rotation going on as I see two lots of results.

In one I'm 5th - thats Inktomi - checked with anzwers.com.au

In another I'm 18th -- also says 1-15 of about 15 results on the first page --- is this directhit??

Also I don't know why I'm not doing better than this as I'm number 1 in Looksmart.

Any ideas whats happening?

Gethan
- Apologies if this has been discussed recently - couldn't find it search -

[caine]

Gethan,

I'm assuming in Looksmart that you are #1 in the directory.
With MSN, you get db listings first feed by LS.com partners, then you get INK results, then DH, which offers the ten most popular sites for that search term in its db.

1. how long did you submit to LS partners ?
2. The 18th placement is more likely to be Ink than DH.
3. Looksmart is a directory, and the kw's that you are listed 5th and 18th, may vary in competitiveness.

Hopefully this helps

[gethan]

Thanks Caine, its got me closer to working out whats going on - I'm totally happy with the second page onwards = Inktomi.

For the first page;

I should have made it clear that I used the same keywords and just kept hitting search. Different results each time ;)

I tried just now and no longer got the same rotated type results. Unfortunately the search where I'm 20th is the one thats stuck.

I'm very confused on the first page lists "1 - 15 of 15" -- the top site dosen't even have the KW's in the Looksmart description, dosen't come up in the search under looksmart at all. It isn't the DH results set but the top site is the same, (also top site in Ink) -- whats going on in this page? It says directory sites -- but dosen't use either description from Looksmart or the Meta-data from the page (which is no title). Arghh ... I'm being beaten by a page with no title !!

Calming down now ;) This SEO stuff is the must frustrating part of my job :)

This is only under [search.msn.com...] -- under msn.co.uk I'm doing fine. And matches directory sites fine.

The only thing I can think of is that all of the LookSmart descriptions for my KW's have been recently updated and my site which has only been in LS for 3 weeks wasn't included when MSN did their last refresh.

The second page says "Results 16-30 of about 882136 containing ..." and is an exact replica of the Inktomi results.

So at least I'm clear on that :)