MSN New Search a Flop?

[incrediblehelp]

http://www.threadwatch.org/node/1571

To be honest most that I have talked with and especially here on this forum feel that the search results are relevant and the updating of the index is quick.

Of course the blog poster above seems to be a MSN hater through and through. This should not take away from the fact that people use MSN and we, as SEO's, are responsible for performing on their search results.

So far so good for me!

[GapBridge]

MSN is great, and they will stay on the ball. I have a lot more faith in them than Google looking like, let's say 3 years ahead in time.

[RadarCat]

So far I have been getting highly relevant links from the new Microsoft search engine.

Unlike Google, the teenagers' search engine.

[janeth]

I like MSN, Yahoo and Google.

I think having 3 instead of one is great.

[GapBridge]

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

But I have to say this: By default of habit people will be googling for a long long long time

[angelpure]

I have a suite of sites I manage and they all get very relevant traffic from MSN. The are quick with there updates and the search results seem relatively targeted.

I still get the most traffic from Yahoo, and as I posted in another thread, I have given up on Google.

MSN is a great source of leads, my clients don't really seem to care where their traffic comes from as long as their bottom line is seen to grow.

[greeneagle]

We are seeing increasing relevant referrals from MSN on several Sites since "Beta" was integrated.

Ken

[kikkertm]

I catch myself using MSN more and more if Google doesn't produce the required results (as a searcher).
So far their results look quite good and relevant.

I have been primarely optimising for Google over the past year or so but I feel MSN has a future now so does anyone have good guidlines on how to optimise for MSN better ? Do they take IBL seriously, anchor text ? Or is it more the content and KW saturation that matters with them ? Any opinions on that ?

Thanks,
Mike.

[buddhu]

Originally Posted by kikkertm

I catch myself using MSN more and more if Google doesn't produce the required results (as a searcher).
So far their results look quite good and relevant.

I have been primarely optimising for Google over the past year or so but I feel MSN has a future now so does anyone have good guidlines on how to optimise for MSN better ? Do they take IBL seriously, anchor text ? Or is it more the content and KW saturation that matters with them ? Any opinions on that ?

Thanks,
Mike.

So far it looks to me overwhelmingly like on-page factors are the thing. I have new sites (a few weeks old), with just a handful of links pointing in, ranking first place for fairly competitive terms.

A coupe are under construction and have little in the way of optimisation except <title>,<h1> and a couple paragraphs of keyword-tweaked text...

MSN seems to be good for us from an SEO point of view, but I'm not quite so sure about the quality of their SERPS from a user POV.

[simonm]

Originally Posted by janeth

I like MSN, Yahoo and Google.

I think having 3 instead of one is great.

Janeth, be daring, say something BAD!
Like, I only like search engines that have my sites on their first page for loads of search terms, all the others are PANTS!

[who67]

I agree with everyone here. MSN Google and Yahoo are the top 3. The qustion is how long will Google remain number 1 and who will take over as number 1. Yahoo or MSN. I heard the new version of windows (longhorn) will have built in search capabilities using MSN results.

[montytx]

Since my site is still sandboxed with Google I get about half of my referrals from MSN. They are diffinitely easier to optimize for. I also like the fact that when I gain new BLs they show within a day or so at MSN.
They are now my preferred SE of choice.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by simonm

Janeth, be daring, say something BAD!
Like, I only like search engines that have my sites on their first page for loads of search terms, all the others are PANTS!

I agree with that (-;

[delstu]

MSN seems to favor content

My site lists well for several keywords, without backlinks

I am very new here and learning one step at a time

[toddieg]

MSN is also spending lots of money on advertisments. i've seen numerous ads on tv and even PPC ads via google adsense. they are serious about their promotion efforts and everyone knows they have lots of $


it will be interesting to see how much market share they can capitalize on over the next couple years.

[PizdusInc]

MSN has the advantage of being integrated into Windows OS so a lot of people who don't know better just open up a browser and use MSN to search.

MSN's algo has gotten a lot better and with the money they have it will keep getting better. Will be interesting what they do next...

[RadarCat]

Originally Posted by angelpure

. . .

I still get the most traffic from Yahoo, and as I posted in another thread, I have given up on Google.

. . .

Same here!! Google's Page Rank philosophy is absurd to the max. Where as I have all sorts of #1 rankings with AllTheWeb, Altavista, MSN and Yahoo, I am buried under Google's two tons (at least) of old web pages with dead links that have been floating around the web for years and haven't been updated for years.