need improvement in MSN

[indian-seo]

hi,

my site loansvalley.co.uk is coming on 7 page on MSN and the keyword is "wedding loans". Please suggest me the ways how can I improve it...

[Paz]

Hi Imran,

msn's easy.... just make a few small changes every couple of days or so....

everything else on the page is ok - perhaps you can add a <h1>Wedding Loans</h1> and see what happens... (I would think about "UK Wedding Loans")

PS tried to review your site today, and my browser crashed just as I was nearly finished.... :mad:


I'll have a look later tomorrow.

Cheers,
Paz

[cvele]

I have similar prob. on msn
http://www.warhammer.net cant be found on first 10 pages on msn...
I am 3rd on google and 2nd-3rd on yahoo

All of this for keyword "warhammer"

[guybrush]

Hi paz
can you please check my site (the first one in my sig) and suggest ways to improve its positioning on msn. It used to stay in among the top 10 right from the days of msn's launch for KW "logos", but suddenly fell to #65 last week and doesnt seem to climbing back up.

thanks

[Paz]

Hi Guybrush,

You look ok for msn - maybe msn prefers shorter, punchy page titles. It certainly still likes fresh content, though it's not so easy as it used to be - maybe your content is a little stale?


Cheers,
Paz.

[guybrush]

been adding content at regular frequency since day one of its launch. I'll increase its frequency from now on.

The keyword-heavy page title has also been like this since the launch of the site. Do you think shortening it would work? I ask this cos some of my competitors have even longer titles and their position hasnt been affected at all.

[Paz]

Hi,

I looked at your competition and they had either very short titles (2 or 3 words) or longer titles with repeat use of of the "logos". The second is a better option if you want to rank in Google and msn too. Also most have "logos" in the domain name. But with 85 million serps results you've set a tough target for yourself!

When you expand the search to something like "business logos", then the situation is more "normal". Be honest, is "logos" an appropriate target for your website? I would prefer variations "logo design" or "business logos" "web logo design" "company logo design"..... etc.

Cheers,
Paz.

[guybrush]

"But with 85 million serps results you've set a tough target for yourself!"
well i was doing a pretty good job with it till only last week. :)

To be honest, i started out with "business logos" and "company logo design", but then msn started giving me huge number of visitors and sales from "logos" and placed me in its top ten, so i naturally had to focus on this kw alongwith others.

Anyways, thanks for the help Paz. I'll modify the title and will see if it works or not.

[Kierslee]

[QUOTE=Paz]Hi,

I looked at your competition and they had either very short titles (2 or 3 words) or longer titles with repeat use of of the "logos". The second is a better option if you want to rank in Google and msn too. ....
Paz.[/QUOTE]

I have found that short 2 or 3 word page titles have worked for me for MSN. I'll try the longer, repeated use of keywords in title tags for some sites I optimize for Google specifically and see how I fare.

Thanks for the input Paz.

[Web Gazelle]

MSN is easy. You put the keywords in yout title tag, meta keywords tag, meta description, h1, h2, and h3 tags. Make sure the content has the keywords in it but don't over do it. Put the keywords in the anchor text of internal links. Keep updating the site and getting new inbound links on a regular basis.

[guybrush]

"The second is a better option if you want to rank in Google and msn too."
Yeah, ive just tried that and serps in google have literally shot skywards for me. Thanks Paz.

[Paz]

Hi,

that's great news - but let's step back a bit.

Normally, I would expect a time delay for Google (and msn), in fact when I make such a tweak, I normally drop in the serps for a short time and bounce back a higher later, but there is a usually a delay.

Are you sure you didn't do something else a week or so ago that caused you to leap? Anyway, I'm very happy for you .... enjoy it!

Cheers,
Paz.

[guybrush]

nope... the only thing during last week was the nosedive in MSN.
Hmmm... maybe google likes sites which take such dives on its rival SE. :P

[Web Gazelle]

Dare ya to try my suggestions. I keep snaggin top positions for keyterms in MSN.

[guybrush]

back up again though not on the first page yet, but still acceptable.
Thanks for all the advice Paz.

[interactive]

Listen the Web Gazelle. That's the forumla for most on-page seo success. Personally, I find msn like an increased keyword frequency. Just be careful not to over-do it

[Web Gazelle]

MSN does seem to like a higher KW density.

[softstor]

It has been suggested here that MSN likes to see pages updated on a regular basis with new content. Would adding a XML feed on your site work for this requirement?

[Paz]

[QUOTE=softstor]It has been suggested here that MSN likes to see pages updated on a regular basis with new content. Would adding a XML feed on your site work for this requirement?[/QUOTE]
I don't know.... but I think not (just a feeling!)

Microsoft (software) have excellent support for xml... but I've never seen it in their search engine serps... good idea though.

Cheers,
Paz.

[slatz]

I have tried the .xml thingy with MSN and it really doesn't show any real benefit. The Gazelle said it best in a previous post, I would definitly stick to his advice, it does work...

<h1>1 of these</h1><h2>1 of these, maybe 2 max</h2><h3>2 or more of these works fine, but don't get carried away</h3> and like the Gazelle said, make sure the keywords are on the page, with a higher frequency than google likes. Update your content regularly in small doses. Make sure your internal links are using the proper keyword anchor text, that you specified in your H tags.

[Web Gazelle]

How is that strategy working for you slatz?

[slatz]

Works like a charm, so I don't plan on fixing it, if you know what I mean...

[Web Gazelle]

If there are still some doubters out there I would like to update you on my progress for my biggest keyword. Search for aquarium fish in MSN and you can see that this method for ranking in MSN works. I have to thank SEO-Guy for offering his advice in a different thread.

[netmar]

[QUOTE=Web Gazelle]MSN is easy. You put the keywords in yout title tag, meta keywords tag, meta description, h1, h2, and h3 tags. Make sure the content has the keywords in it but don't over do it. Put the keywords in the anchor text of internal links. Keep updating the site and getting new inbound links on a regular basis.[/QUOTE]

I agree with everything or almost. I say almost cause I'm currently working on a website that has 1 inbound link from a PR 4 website and still rank on the first page of MSN' results for a few keywords competing with more than 300k other websites. The site is also about 5 months old only. So I would say anchored text made a huge impact in this case, along with website architecture. Oh by the way, the url doesn't even have the keyword that I'm ranking with in it.

[Web Gazelle]

The site that I am working on doesn't have the keywords in the URL, it has aquariums in it but not aquarium fish.