What do I need to know about the new MSN Search Engine?

search engine optimization (SEO)

Now that MSN has removed the wraps on its new search engine (beta.search.msn.com), intended to compete with both Google and Yahoo, the obvious question on the minds of SEO people everywhere is: what algorithm is MSN going to use for their pagerank calculations?

Microsoft is being predictably coy: their FAQ states: "The MSN Search ranking algorithm analyzes factors such as page contents, the number and quality of sites that link to your pages, and the relevance of your site�s content to keywords. The algorithm is complex and never human-mediated."

Nonetheless, there are some useful tips that give you a little bit of insight into how MSN is approaching search. This is all quoted from their site, and broken into three categories.

Technical Recommendations

• Use only well-formed HTML code in your pages. Ensure that all tags are closed, and that all links function properly. If your site contains broken links, MSNBot may not be able to index your site effectively, and people may not be able to reach all of your pages.
• If you move a page, set up the page's original URL to direct people to the new page, and tell them whether the move is permanent or temporary.
• Make sure MSNBot is allowed to crawl your site, and is not on your list of web crawlers that are prohibited from indexing your site.
• Use a robots.txt file or meta tags to control how MSNBot and other web crawlers index your site. The robots.txt file tells web crawlers which files and folders it is not allowed to crawl.
• Keep your URLs simple and static. Complicated or frequently changed URLs are difficult to use as link destinations. For example, the URL www.example.com/mypage is easier for MSNBot to crawl and for people to type than a long URL with multiple extensions. Also, a URL that doesn't change is easier for people to remember, which makes it a more likely link destination from other sites.
  
  Dave's comment: In case MSN didn't notice, the majority of traffic to a site are from search results, so the complexity of a URL doesn't matter as much as they are saying here. It's an interesting insight into their ranking criteria, imo.

Content Guidelines

• In the visible page text, include words users might choose as search query terms to find the information on your site.
• Limit all pages to a reasonable size. We recommend one topic per page. An HTML page with no pictures should be under 150 KB.
• Make sure that each page is accessible by at least one static text link.
• Create a site map that is fairly flat (i.e., each page is only one to three clicks away from the home page). Links embedded in menus, list boxes, and similar elements are not accessible to web crawlers unless they appear in your site map.
• Keep the text that you want indexed outside of images. For example, if you want your company name or address to be indexed, make sure it is displayed on your page outside of a company logo.

You can learn more at the MSN Search Site Owner Help. Competition is always good, so it'll be interesting to see what theories arise about how they're ranking and ordering search results!

Why You Should Avoid 'Page Swap' Link Exchange Proposals

Building Web site traffic

As is fairly common, I recently received an email from someone seeking to crosslink our two sites. It is always a wee bit of a surprise when these messages arrive, though, given my article How not to build traffic: respond to email solicitations of Link Exchanges. You'd think they'd at least reference the points made in that article in their email!

Okay, I said in my response, tell me how you would propose we accomplish this. Well, his second message with the details of the proposed exchange - to build traffic on both our sites and increase our mutual page ranks, of course - quite startled me...

Thanks for the reply. We would like to host some pages on free-web-money.com. For Example: www.free-web-money.com/partypoker.html, www.free-web-money.com/pokergames.html etc. These pages will be linked from your Homepage for navigation.

Kindly let me know if this is acceptable to you and also your expectations for each page. Hope to hear from you soon.

It's a nice enough email and sounds reasonable upon first glance, but if you think about what's being proposed here, this is a kind of link exchange that you should always avoid: they're asking to have a page of links and 'context' (the all-important link context that Google wants to see) on your site in exchange, presumably, for a single text link back to your site from their own. If you're desperate and really did want to pursue this sort of proposal, I would at least suggest that you charge the other party a significant advertising fee for a set of links rather than just one.

I mean, really, does this kind of "swap" sound equitable to you?

I didn't think so.

Just as important as the value of links is the ownership of content. Whether you're building a site with the intent of having some Google goodness or whether you're creating a site that has lots of good information and just incidentally has advertising, you should always retain tight control over your content because if a page is part of your domain, you own it. People who come to your site from a search engine (and 80% of Web site traffic - or more - is a result of searches and clicking directly onto a subsidiary page) have no way of knowing who created a specific page, so it's all lumped into content with your name on it.

And in that context, no, I'd much rather not have pages on this site talking about poker and other gambling games anyway, even if there was a nice payment involved.

What would you do in this situation?

Smart Tips on Maximizing Click-Thru on your Affiliate Links & Ads

affiliate marketing

I bumped into the following tips and ideas about maximizing your placement of affiliate / pay-per-click advertisements on your page and thought they were some very sensible suggestions. The source of this material is the Equifax Affiliate Newsletter, which highlights a valuable, if rarely considered, additional upside to joining some of the major affiliate programs too: it's in their best interest to help you identify how best to position and present your affiliate links, so they'll often help you create the best possible pages for their products.

On with their suggestions:

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While there are many different ways to place affiliate links, placing links in context with the theme of your site or within a specific category is a very successful technique for many affiliates.

Smart sellers know that product placement is essential to generating sales. This same rule applies to affiliate links on your site. Evaluate your site and organize your links in a way that makes the most sense for your audience to see, click, and take action. Keep the following guidelines in mind when designing your pages:

• Links placed in the upper right-hand corner of a site are more likely to be seen and clicked. Include special offers and new content in this location to maximum exposure.


• Try adding descriptive content around a link to improve link performance and let visitors know why the link is there.


• When incorporated into content, text links and product links have been proven to be much more effective link types than banner ads. When placed in context, product links can be closely matched to a visitor's interests. Similarly, text links can be included directly into site content or product recommendations, providing a direct and simple transition between information that you provide and a product that you are advertising.


• Add a call-to-action in your site text or within the affiliate link. The words "buy this here," "order now," and "click here," alert visitors to a commerce opportunity.

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While the savvy among you may be saying "that's pretty obvious", it's surprising how many sites offer affiliate links like this:
Equifax Credit Report

In fact, the affiliate program site says "use the HTML exactly as we present it", but the Equifax newsletter obviously - and correctly - suggests that you'll have better results with something like: You can clearly see the difference, I'm sure. In publishing it's the difference between "advertising" and "advertorials", and the latter performs quite a bit better than the former.

The Future of Online Advertising

pay per click (PPC) advertising

If you were lucky enough to be with me here at Gnomedex in Lake Tahoe, California, then you already know that Paypal's Dave McClure moderated a panel entitled "The Future of Online Advertising".

Panelists included Jeff Barr of Syndic8 (a favorite site of mine), Henry Copeland of BlogAds (which I've written about in my article BlogAds: An Advertising Network Specifically for Weblogs), Bill Flitter of Pheedo.com, Mark Pincus of Tribe.net and Gokul Rajaram of Google's Adsense team (which I've written about quite extensively on this site, including Partner with Google and Make Money).

Dave shared a list of links to different Web sites that offer a good starting point for learning more about the future of online advertising and was kind enough to share them with me for this weblog.

With that introduction, here's the list:

flash/graphics

www.pointroll.com www.macromedia.com www.enliven.com www.bluestreak.com www.eyeblaster.com

email marketing

www.emaillabs.com www.topica.com www.constantcontact.com

affiliate advertising

associates.amazon.com | www.amazon.com/webservices www.google.com/adsense affiliates.ebay.com | developer.ebay.com

organic/paid search, shopping search, metrics

www.searchenginewatch.com www.google.com/adsense www.overture.com www.findwhat.com www.froogle.com www.shopping.com www.clicktracks.com www.webposition.com www.atlasonepoint.com

blogs & RSS

www.blogads.com www.pheedo.com www.feedster.com www.technorati.com

identity / behavioral targeting

www.typekey.com www.dynamiclogic.com www.revenuescience.com www.tacoda.com www.dotomi.com

other sites of interest

www.wilsonweb.com www.webmasterworld.com www.free-web-money.com

If you have additional sites that you think are good starting points for people learning about monetizing the Web site, Web pages, weblogs, whatever, please do post them as responses to this thread.