does it mean i'll eventually be ranked good in the other ones. Right now, i'm ranked #7 for a very competitive keyword in MSN but am nowhere to be found in Google or Yahoo for these keywords. Does this mean i'm still in the sandbox and when i get out, i should be ranked well in google and yahoo?
Nope - I've been #1 for several keywords is Yahoo for over a year and MSN since they launched their new engine - but I'm nowhere to be found in Google for most of the terms. The sites of mine in question are 3-4 years old so it's not the sandbox effect. Of course it's possible that when your site is out of the sandbox you will be ranked well on G, and your rank on other search engines can be a good indicator - but what I'm trying to say is it's not definite.
MSN seems to rank new sites very high at first, then later most seem to drop in the rankings. With google it will take much more work and time to get a top ranking.
MSN and Google are two completely different cups of tea. Even Yahoo. Got top10 with a one page site, whereas there is no chance in Google with one page sites. MSN is generally way too easy to rank in. It is the most SEO friendly search engine of the three.
There really is no correlation when comparing rank in one se to another. They all have their proprietary algos and look at different things. Backlinks are important in all 3, keep getting them. The more relevant the better and alter the anchor text.
I couldn't agree more with what Kierslee said. Each SE has it's own algo and has different likes and dislikes but they all seem to like inbound links. While Google gives the PR factor some weight for inbound links, the others don't care about PR.
I don't know how but I believe the engines do 'check' each other. I have had a few experiences but 1 in particular that made me draw this conclusion. One website of mine has always done very, very well with google, ok with yahoo and msn but no comparison in traffic. This happened right around the time of the release of the new msn, and or yahoo switched I can't remember the exact time line. Anyways I was in the middle of switching hosts for some of my sites, so instead of doing a standard server based permanent redirect with some of my type in traffic domains I used go daddy's forward system. All I can say big mistake, my site that has been loved by google for years all of a sudden disappeared. Even searching for the site name it was burried which is extremely unusual as this site usually will beat out others domain names or site names with one simple code of text on it. Ok now for the fun part I noticed almost the same day google totally started to drop me who should start sending me more traffic, and not just on a percentage based but hundreds of more hits a day? Yahoo and MSN As soon as I figured out the forward glitch I fixed it, site once again became in google's good graces but sure enough a day or 2 after yahoo and msn traffic started to dwindle. Now of course this could be maybe that yahoo and msn gave me more credit for some reason over the godaddy redirect, however none of these domains are even active, most have never been. I have had this happen with other sites as well, but not to this extent. I know others out there score well on all engines, but I do feel they somehow do 'check' each other out and make certain they deliver different results. Have not proven it, but again have noticed many occassions which point to this. Moral if I'm correct here, in some cases being ranked good in one engine may actually hurt you in another. Bring on the insults now as I'm sure this sounds crazy
I wish I could learn the secrets to yahoo and google. I can get #1 rankings in msn by accident, but can't get anything to show up yahoo or google. I know it must be something I am doing. :0
What's your oldest running site? One thing for sure is google loves older sites. Some extremely 'crappy' sites score very well on google simply because they have been active for years and have never tried to spam the se's. My 1 site that scores well in google on almost anything I throw at it 'even content unrelated' has been active since roughly 1998.
Just stick to the basics of onpage SEO and get lots of inbound links. Watch who you link out to and keep your site updated. Google will rank you.
I agree with Web Gazelle, you just have to be patient. I know it can be frustrating at times, I am in the same boat as you. I do really good in MSN and not as well in Google or Yahoo. I just market my website in other ways and keep my website updated. I am sure Google and Yahoo will eventually rank me good, but I try not to obsess over it! Just hang in there, do what you can seo wise, we will get there eventually! E'Lisa
If you do basic SEO on your site, ( having researched your keywords), Using proper meta tags, position of keywords, Using anchor text links, using a site map, using keyword rich menu links, using proper keyword density. inter-linking of pages etc etc for on site optimization. Then you follow up with off site opitmation as far as getting keyword anchor links back to your site using various methods. 1) article submissions, 2) SEO friendly Directory submissions, 3) Press release articles 4) Blog links & Forum Signatures 5) One way link submissions/exhange, 6) If you have to, purchase links 7) reciporcol links (yuck) SEO is really not hard if you know the rules. There is plenty of information out there, unforunatley alot of it is mis-leading. If you work your sites and test your results you will learn over time what is what. If you don't have the time then Hire and SEO that knows a thing or two. There are some good one's out there. Eric Gehler Bigebiz