It seemed almost like it would last forever. You'd put a site online with some basic SEO, garner as many backlinks as you could (it didn't even appear to matter the source of these backlinks, as I've seen such non-related topics as Carmen Electra and Dogs cross-linked either both ways or one way, well, unless you class Carmen as a dog, that is) and within a matter of a week you would be flying up the rankings. Now it seems as if MSN have cleared up their database somewhat from the spam which began to clog it. Is this a new algorithm or human filtering? And what more 'improvements' do you think we're due to expect from MSN within the coming year? P.S. Lord, please don't let it be a sandbox...
They're definitely making a huge push to counter spam. I'd align your website's SEO strategy a bit closer to what you'd do for Google--you'll win across the board.
Yeah? Good advice... Do you have any advice about new strategies for Google SEO these days? I used to be SEO mad about 3 months ago but due to other commitments I've not really been up-to-date as of recent. What does Google like, now?
I have plenty of advice. Google likes content and quality of links first and foremost. There's nothing really new here. See where your competitors are getting links from, try to do the same. Keep your content fresh. Link to subpages with relevant anchor text, not just the home page. Do the non-www 301 redirect (make sure your non-www pages aren't the only ones indexed first though). I do see a growing trend in the importance of the age of the site to Google. If you're a 2005+ domain you better have some good links/content to be able to succeed on competitive keywords.
Brilliant Jon, thanks for that. Also, what do you mean by non-www pages and 301 redirects and about them not been indexed first, I'm not entirely sure what you mean? I do have mod rewrite which forces www into my url, is this related to what you are saying above?
Googles lastest update in their webmaster section said this is no longer needed. In addition in the tools section you can choose your prefered domain.
It is funny you should mention that. I've been noticing the same thing-- a jump in my sites that age past 2 years (no, haven't changed the sites that much either). Ed
All I mean is that before you do a non-www 301 redirect you should check which version of your pages the search engines have indexed. If they all have the non-www versions indexed then when you redirect the pages be aware that all of your indexed pages will be dropped for a while. It's just so you don't get shocked when you lose all your subpage rankings/traffic for whatever period of time. +1 rep haha
I think its a good thing. However, they should no go over the tops and make ranking really difficult like Google.
Ok great stuff Jon.West. I'll take heed of that. Another couple of questions I have is regarding the age of a domain. Let's say for instance I purchased a domain name which never became a website, but nevertheless the domain name was around 2 years old. If I then constructed a website, what would happen with regards to say sandbox time? Or does Google just take notice of how long an actual site has been on and the age of the domain as an afterthought? Also, how about whoisguard? Does this effect ones acceptance into Google?
Starting with a 2 year old domain is better than starting with a brand new domain, definitely. It's best to put content on the domain right away so the search engines can categorize your website ASAP.
I have noticed that sites that I have that rank in Google now rank almost exactly the same in MSN......on a second note sites that I have that rank well in Yahoo dont do squat in Google or MSN.....
yea yahoo seems to be a little diffrent but msn seems easier to rank then google...i have sites that rank higher on msn then google
mine usually rank the same in MSN as in Google with a difference of only 2 or 3 spots. Yahoo on the other hand hates almost every site I put out as out of 6 sites only one has ever ranked for a targeted keyword and even then it was like #90 something........
I have seen some sites with very few backlinks rank high on MSN lately with plain onpage SEO. More recently, it seems that [MSN and Yahoo] have been playing a lot with their SERP rankings. I see MSN and Yahoo playing Google... maybe even tougher in a few years who knows. Ol' Bill Gates has been pretty adamant about beating Google lately. I think by starting with the spam sites, they might do it. Unfortunately, I still see 1 guy ranking in the top 10 for a very profitable and competitive term twice with spammed sites... oh well.