MSN SEO Techniques by Matt Jackson
Why Bother With SEO For MSN?
One of the most common preconceptions with SEO is that if you optimize a site
for the benefit of Google then you will rank well with other search engines.
However, the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) all use
different algorithms that demand different things. Google has a mixed bag but
certainly leans towards inbound links whereas Yahoo loves keyword dense content
sites. This leaves us with MSN, whose primary consideration when determining
their search results seems to be heavily based on internal linking structure
and inbound links. But these are far from the only SEO techniques you need to
consider.
MSN The Meta Search Engine
MSN Search is a meta search engine. Whereas Google openly ignores your meta
tags in the majority of cases MSN blatantly uses them to index your pages and
discover your keywords. At the very least you need to include the "keywords",
"description", and "title" meta tags. Your main keywords should be included in
all of these with your primary keyword appearing first in the "keywords" meta
tag. All tags must include the keywords you consider the most important to your
site.
Also, because MSN uses the meta tags, you should be careful not to spam them
with numerous instances of your keyword or the use of incorrect or inaccurate
keywords. At present, meta spamming doesn't seem to be an issue with the MSNbot
but it is only a matter of time and when the change occurs you won't receive
any warning before your site is penalized.
Page Layout And Code
The coding of a page is always an issue with search engines and, therefore,
should be important to you as well. If a crawler can't crawl your site then you
are unlikely to be indexed and you certainly won't receive the high ranking you
want. Keep the amount of HTML or any other programming language on your page
down to an absolute minimum and ensure that page sizes are below 150KB at the
very most.
Another slightly contentious issue is the use of tables. Again, this leads us
back to a crawling problem. MSN does not condemn the use of tables on the
whole. However, the MSNbot does not like to see tables within tables within
tables. This can be a problem if you don't use CSS and rely on tables to keep
your page neat. Including another table in the layout of your page begins to
make things look messy from the point of view of the MSNbot.
Keyword Density
Keyword density is an area of SEO that always causes arguments. No search
engine openly publishes their requirements in this area but it is widely
accepted that while Google has stringent rules in place that require minimal
use of keywords both Yahoo and MSN have a much greater tolerance for higher
levels. Google prefers only a 2% to 3% density while MSN and Yahoo allow 5% to
6%, possibly even a little higher.
Of course this raises the problem that optimizing for MSN may have you flagged
as spam with Google. Fortunately, MSN and Yahoo, both take keyword stemming and
keyword variants into account when doing their calculations. Use keyword
plurals and stems, and try to ensure that you don't go above the Google ideal
of 2% for each of these variants. Also, it is absolutely imperative that your
SEO writing does not prevent you from writing copy that is appealing to human
visitors.
Website Infrastructure And SEO
Your website infrastructure is important to MSN. Many sites, my own included,
have shown excellent results in MSN based on the internal text links and
associated anchor text. Try to use the primary keyword for a page as its title
and ensure that you use this keyword in all of your navigation bars on your
site. This will have a very positive influence on the MSNbot.
Also, as with all search engines, MSN wants to be able to reach every page of
your site quickly and easily. Text links are best for navigation and all pages
should be reached within three clicks from your home page. If you use graphical
navigation bars then you should consider either changing them to text links or
including a sitemap that is one click away from your homepage.
Inbound Link Importance
Inbound links count as votes for your website. The more votes you get from
sites the better, but moreover the more influential the sites that provide a
link to you the greater your search engine results. In all honesty, MSN
currently appear to favor the quantity of links over the quality but search
engine algorithms are renowned for evolving so try to plan ahead and get
relevant links from popular pages. The most important aspect of any individual
inbound link is the anchor text. You must get webmasters to use your primary
keyword for the page that the link points to as the anchor text.
MSN SEO Conclusion
MSN Search is gaining a little ground on its major competitor, Google.
Microsoft is unlikely to sit back and be happy with only taking a small share
of the market so optimizing for MSN in order to ensure that you get beneficial
results from their search engine is a very good idea. It is possible to
optimize pages and content for all of the major search engines if done properly
and carefully.
About the Author
About The Author
WebWiseWords is a website copywriter service
that specializes in providing well optimized content that remains appealing for
human visitors. They also offer an
ethical link building service to help further your SEO efforts.
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