Looking for expert Opinion on MSN

[flanok]

Hi,

I was number one on MSN for a UK term for a good two years right up until Oct 1st last year on MSN co.uk or live.

I, like many others lost a lot of rankings, down to about 32 or so.

I decided to give up on MSN (even though it brought me a good return) and focus on Google.

However last week I was in spain and did a search and discovered I was number 1 for my search term. So i went through all of Europe and find out that in most countries I was number one.

It now looks like I am number one in most countries except USA, UK and Germany and the OCT 1st change only applied to these 3 countries.

As this is a UK search term and only searched for in the UK and related companies only hosted in the UK, I am trying to distuguish, why the OCT 1st change only affected me for certain countries.

It would have been helpful if I could have done a link command on each countrie with MSN.

So an MSN expert please.
I have more links
I have more pages.

It is a UK term only, no one in other countries use that term. (when i say UK term i dont mean it has the word UK in it. I mean it is a description of a service, that dscription is only used in the UK, other countries use a different term.)
This service in another country would be known by another name.
It only reflects UK sites and companies
My site is hosted in the UK
Other worldwide msn sites, love the site
It is on the first page of google uk also

So why does the UK show different results to other countries on a specific UK term for UK businesses?
What was the algorythmic change?

thanks

Mark

[incrediblehelp]

It is only normal for different regional search engines to show different results. First off your asking some broad questions without much background on your website.

What type of TLD is it using? Sounds like you want tot target the UK. Do you have back links from other UK websites ranking well in MSN?

[flanok]

Hi,

Not sure what you mean by TLD.

The term is breakdown cover, which may be known as roadside assistance or breakdown insurance elswhere.

Links do come from worldwide sources, but there are more UK based links now than was then.

Also, I dont have links from any country that does not speak English, i,e Spain, Italy where the results have remained as they were.

My competitors also have links from abroad.

If I had lost results worldwide, I would understand that the algorthym had changed.

What I am trying to understand, is why I only lost positions on certain datacenters, unfortunalty one of them relating to my business in the UK, when this is very much a UK hosted and search term related site and was at number one for 2 years, before this change.

Yet in other countries, there was no change.



Hope this helps

Mark

[incrediblehelp]

Problem #1

Originally Posted by flanok

Not sure what you mean by TLD.

Top level Domain. co.uk for UK .ca for Canada and so on. These help the search engines know where the websites from

Problem #2

Originally Posted by flanok

Also, I dont have links from any country that does not speak English, i,e Spain, Italy where the results have remained as they were.

My competitors also have links from abroad.

You need links from websites in the country your targeting.

[flanok]

Actually I don't have a top level domain, it is a .net rather than .co.uk

However, the top 10 results are a mixture of .co.uk and .coms

Do you think.nets have been downgraded?

My site is hosted in the UK. (hosting is what google uses)

I know about having regional links but what I don't understand is how there were sufficient regional links beforehand and not after the change.

And how I rank number one in countries I have no links from at all.

The results are nearly identical in all contries except for myself at number one and another site at about number 6. Everything else is the same.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by flanok

My site is hosted in the UK. (hosting is what google uses)

That is not true. They use much more than that, like I said the TLD matters, back links etc.

Originally Posted by flanok

And how I rank number one in countries I have no links from at all.

The results are nearly identical in all contries except for myself at number one and another site at about number 6. Everything else is the same.

Well I cant answer that with with this limited information and time. I am sure much more research would be needed to get into what is happening. The bottom line is you have to work to get IBLs as they are the best way to optimize your chances in ranking for the targeted region.

[dburdon]

Mark,

first thing breakdown cover is a highly competitive business and you could hardly expect to beat the AA, RAC, Greenflag and Direct Line in their own backyard. Secondly I'd take a punt that having .co.uk domain has an advantage over a .net in a UK search. Lastly, I wouldn't recommend targeting MSN/Live. Aim for Google, its algorithm is similar and of course wi will deliver 15-20 times the volume for similar rankings.

[incrediblehelp]

flanok I would also try posting here:

These forums are for Webmasters to connect, share ideas, askquestions, make suggestions, and report issues.

[sushil]

Yeah incredible help but you already posting here however you try to post here. well i think you joking. well i am not expert but want share my opinion. Msn is good search engine but by which reason it's not working finely that is popularity. msn not becoming popular that's why it's not developing.

[incrediblehelp]

I am not joking you can get feedback there.

[flanok]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

I am not joking you can get feedback there.

Well after posting there and not getting a reply, I asked why no reply?

I was then promised to look at my site if i gave them my url

I did, then no reply.
I asked again no reply
Asked again no reply

Nearly 3 months later, no one at MSN wants to reply to my question, but they have no problem with other issues being posted on that forum.

In short, they pick and choose.

[incrediblehelp]

Sorry to hear about your luck with them flanok.