We do OK on Google (UK) which is my main market and on Yahoo for most of our key words - usually in the top 10 for things like Indian Spices, Indian Cooking, Indian Foods etc. We really struggle with MSN listings despite having around 250 MSN listed backlinks. Can anyone tell me how I can optimise better for MSN (without losing Google serps positions!).

Any other comments on the site would be most welcome.

Thanks

Spiceboy

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Natco Online - the UK's leading Indian food website

Is anybody out there.... Stll no reviews after a day? Is it that bad?

Please visit http://www.natco-online and let me know.

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Natco Online - the UK's leading Indian food website

Nice site spiceboy, well done. Purple is not a great color for a background, but it seems to work here. Blue is better, blue is a "Trusted" color and makes people feel more secure.

Other than that, seems very nice to me.

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#1 Selling Hosting Solution | Exotic Rare Parrot Plants

Thanks for the compliments angelpure - cant do much about the purple, its a corporate issue from the parent company.

Any ideas though on my points above - how can I do it better for MSN searches without buggering up my Google listins - what do I need to change?

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Natco Online - the UK's leading Indian food website

I made a search on this phrase that you use in your site: Indian Spices Cooking Foods (no commas, no repeat on indian)

and your website name came up #1 on MSN

when I used all these together:
Indian Spices, Indian Cooking, Indian Foods (separated by the comma)
your site still came up #1

When I used the three phrases individually, your site was nowhere to be found.
I'd say MSN is seeing your site just fine.

From reading your text I see you might work on re-wording a few phrases.

For example:
"Indian cooking" is repeated 10 times verbatum.
"Indian" repeated 24 times
"indian Foods" repeated 4 times
"cuisine" only one time

Your descriptions are fairly dull when you consider that your competitor's sites say:

"Indian recipes for cooking"
"Indian Vegetarian"
"Indian Cuisine And Culture"
"Indian Food Guide "
"Indian chutneys"
"Indian and world cuisines"
"art of Indian cuisine preparing paratha, samosas and pakoras, lamb biryani, butter chicken, spicy seafood and savory chutneys"
"curries to veggies, learn how to create flavorful dishes from India's many distinct cultures"
"Incredible Indian Cooking (raita cool down, malai chicken, usli ghee "
"diversity of India's food and culture"

etc.,

Please don't plagarize by copying competitor's text word for word, but work better descriptive key words into your text.

Also, Reword your intro - take out those passive words - like this:

Worldwide Indian Cooking Enthusiasts

We're passionate about Indian cuisine and Indian foods!

We supply the widest range of specialized Indian ingredients possible to make your Indian meal authentic and enjoyable.

Our wide range of Indian powdered spices, dried herbs, flour masalas, rices & flours, and exotic Asian specialities provide everything you need to make your Indian feast a masterpiece!

(please don't tell the user to "click here")

Anyway, you are on the right track. Just crack open the ol thesaurus and find substitutes for common words. BUT, you still must repeat your major key words at least as many times as your competition.

http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=tasty

Derek,

Just did a keyword verification for Indian Spices and here is how you rank


All the Web: URL found: Page 1
AltaVista: URL found: Page 1
Google/AOL/HotBot: URL found: Page 1
MSN: URL found: Page 2
Yahoo!: URL found: Page 1

For Indian Cooking

All the Web: URL found: Page 1
AltaVista: URL found: Page 1
Google/AOL/HotBot: URL found: Page 3
MSN: URL found: Page 1
Yahoo!: URL found: Page 1


For Indian Foods

All the Web: URL found: Page 1
AltaVista: URL found: Page 1
Google/AOL/HotBot: URL found: Page 2
MSN: URL found: Page 1
Yahoo!: URL found: Page 1



I'd say you are doing just fine! What are you worried about?

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#1 Selling Hosting Solution | Exotic Rare Parrot Plants

Dear snowflakegirl

I am deeply impressed with your detailed analysis, thank you very much for the time taken - just so I understand correctly, I want to go over a few of your points;

1 Something seems to have happened since I posted yesterday. Now getting much better positions on MSN as you say. But I am getting different positions than you are as follows

INDIAN FOOD
No 2 on MSN.co.uk and No 14 on MSN.com

INDIAN SPICES
No 1 on both MSN.com and co.uk

INDIAN COOKING
No 3 on MSN.com and No1 on MSN.co.uk

So things are looking up but my results are not the same as yours. Do you think this is just regional?

2 On text, each page is optimised (to varying degrees of success!) for one or two keywords/phrases only. The key word for our Home page /Intro page is "Indian Cooking". You will note that this is included in page titles, descriptions and indeed appears 10 times in text copy. This is deliberate.

You seem to be saying this is incorrect and your copy suggestions for the intro page are much more general. Have I got this wrong? Would this not just dilute the effectiveness of optimising for the key phrase "Indian Cooking" on that page?

3 You say the descriptions (meta descriptions do you mean?) are fairly dull. Again this is deliberate so that the keyword/phrase for that page is not diluted with unnecessary text in the tag - have I got this wrong? or did I misunderstand?

You dont have to reply, you have done enough already but any help in clarifying the above would be welcome - I just want to be sure I understand your points before acting on them.

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Natco Online - the UK's leading Indian food website

Gordon

You and snowflakegirl are both correct - something seems to have happened almost as soon as I posted yesterday!

I guess its a bit like a visit to the dentist? Suddenly the agony disappears.

Thanks for your help eveybody, its been illuminating.

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Natco Online - the UK's leading Indian food website

When I said #1 - I mean't page 1.

That's pretty darned good positioning if you ask me.
Especially when you notice that you've made page 1 out of about 952,000 entries.

Don't take away any of your Indian Cooking wording...ADD more descriptive phrases to pick up on those keywords your competition is using.