MSN SEO Tips

Hi,

Can anyone shed some light onwhat the best SEO practices are for MSN.

What are the suggested Keyword density ranges, Do they favor incoming links more than anything else, use of H1, H2, H3... tags etc.

Is there anything else which you should be looking at when optimizinf your site for their particlular SE?

Thanks in advance for any input!

Judging by the latest and new results I see, all you need to do is have your most important keyword phrase be the domain name.
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Basically the big three (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) are distilling down to the same basics: good on-page with substantial off-page focus. The days of optimizing for one and not the others are basically over. With Google being the most difficult, if you focus on Google, I guarantee that your SERPs in both Yahoo and MSN will be exemplary.

Thanks for the input guys

What i find very effective for msn is putting some words on my pages.
Seems to work really well because i am no,1 for most keywords i am going for even if i havent put any work into the site.

This is definitely not the case for me

What... you're ranked extremely well in Google and not in the other 2?

That is abnormally rare.

I do well in all 3, but recently my G rankings have improved from #8 to #3-4, and my MSN has gone from #1 to #4. MSN has sites with few backlinks (less than 1% of what I have), or just blatent spam/stolen text beating me now.

I am curious as to what MSN has changed, as they have definately changed their algo a little.

This is a good thread to post a question I've had for a year now, in reply to fathom:

I have a site that's ranked at #1 for the keywords I am targeting in Google, but it is badly ranked on MSN and Yahoo!

I created a gr. 12 kinematics instruction site a few years back, it is a frames-based website (optimized for indexing and accessibility). I have it listed in about 2 educational directories, Y! directory and DMOZ, and thats it. For some reason it ranks #1 in Google for a two-word phrase that is in the title of the site, it doesn't rank for them in Y! and MSN. It ranks #1 in Y! for a three-word phrase that is in the title.
I also recently found out that its not indexed in MSN at all (and I guess thats why it didn't rank well ).

I have always considered this a glitch on Google's side - some hillbilly's site w/ no backlinks outranking .edu university websites. I've considered MSN and Yahoo's ignorance of my site to be due to algorithmic superiority. So this just goes to show that its not that rare to rank well in G but not the others.

The non-indexing in MSN also indicates that it might ignore DMOZ and Y! Directory...

What do you think about all of this?

We all know that Google does not condone keyword stuffing. Perhaps, at least until recently, MSN condoned "light keyword stuffing," especially at or near the top of the page being optimized. After having seen a dramatic change in my serps over the past two weeks, I believe that MSN has modified its position on the practice of "light keyword stuffing." I had ranked for months #1, #2, or #3 on a number of keywords/phrases for all three of my sites. (My target keyword(s) are in the domain names for all three of my sites.) I checked my competition and in most (but NOT all) cases, there was "very light keyword stuffing" in both the text at or near the top of the page and in the titles/descriptions. So, I have done two tasks today:

1. Completely changed the text at or near the top of my pages.

2. Completely changed the wording of the corresponding descriptions.

Let's see what happens. Maybe the old saying "Less is better" will work here.

MSN is the absolute easiest engine to manipulate. In 2 days I put a current client in the top three, mainly #1
Apply this to your pages:
· In META keywords. It’s not necessary for Google, but a good habit. Keep your META keywords short (128 characters max, or 10).
· In META description. Keep keyword close to the left but in a full sentence.
· In the title at the far left but possibly not as the first word.
· In the top portion of the page in first sentence of first full bodied paragraph (plain text: no bold, no italic, no style).
· In an H3 or larger heading
· In bold – second paragraph if possible and anywhere but the first usage on page.
· In italic – anywhere but the first usage.
· In subscript/superscript.
· In URL (directory name, filename, or domain name). Do not duplicate the keyword in the URL.
· In an image filename used on the page.
· In ALT tag of that previous image mentioned.
· In the title attribute of that image.
· In link text to another site.
· In an internal link’s text.
· In title attribute of all links targeted in and out of page.
· In the filename of your external CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) or JavaScript file.
· In an inbound link on site (preferably from your home page).
· In an inbound link from offsite (if possible).
· In a link to a site that has a PageRank of 8 or better.

Other search engine optimization things to consider include:

· Use “last modified” headers if you can.
· Validate that HTML. Some feel Google’s parser has become stricter at parsing instead of milder. It will miss an entire page because of a few simple errors – we have tested this in depth.
· Use an HTML template throughout your site. Google can spot the template and parse it off. (Of course, this also means they are pretty good at spotting duplicate content).
· Keep the page as .html or .htm extension. Any dynamic extension is a risk.
· Keep the HTML below 20K. 5-15K is the ideal range.
· Keep the ration of text to HTML very high. Text should out weigh HTML by significant amounts.
· Double check your page in Netscape, Opera, and IE. Use Lynx if you have it.
· Use only raw HREFs for links. Keep JavaScript far, far away from links. The simpler the link code the better.
· The traffic comes when you figure out that 1 referral a day to 10 pages is better than 10 referrals a day to 1 page.
· Don’t assume that keywords in your site’s navigation template will be worth anything at all. Google looks for full sentences and paragraphs. Keywords just laying around orphaned on the page are not worth as much as when used in a sentence.
GaryTheScubaGuy

HILARIOUS!!!

Although these days if your keywords are in your domain name, that part may be optional.

ah, that explains why I have been ranking so poorly

great tips, but i already make use of most of them. i was actually thinking of making use of less of them in hopes that G will give me better ranking for not over-optimizing.

oh well, i guess i am still doing better than anyone else in my industry.