Optimizing for MSN

One of the most common preconceptions with SEO is that if you optimize a site for the benefit of Google then you will rank well with other search engines. However, the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) all use different algorithms that demand different things. Google has a mixed bag but certainly leans towards inbound links whereas Yahoo loves keyword dense content sites. This leaves us with Optimizing for MSN, whose primary consideration when determining their search results seems to be heavily based on internal linking structure and inbound links.

MSN the Meta Search Engine

MSN Search is a Meta Search engine. Whereas Google openly ignores your Meta Tags. You need to include the “keywords”, “description”, and “title” Meta tags. All tags must include the keywords

Also, because MSN uses the Meta tags, you should be careful not to spam them with numerous instances of your keyword or the use of incorrect or inaccurate keywords.

Page Layout and Code

The coding of a page is also an issue for optimizing through MSN. Optimizing for MSN use limited amount of HTML or any programming language and also keep the page size below 150 KB. MSN Search usually does not condemn the use of tables on the whole. Using tables within tables will decrease your MSN optimization. To avoid this try to use CSS in addition with tables.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is also an important factor to increase optimization for MSN. MSN has a much greater tolerance for higher levels. Google prefers only a 2% to 3% density while MSN and Yahoo allow 5% to 6%, possibly even a little higher.

Of course this raises the problem that optimizing for MSN may have you flagged as spam with Google. Use keyword plurals and stems, and try to ensure that you don’t go above the Google ideal of 2% for each of these variants.

Website Infrastructure and SEO

Your website infrastructure is important to MSN for optimization. Try to use the primary keyword for a page as its title and ensure that you use this keyword in all of your navigation bars on your site. Use text links for navigation so that MSN can visit every page easily and your site is properly optimized by MSN.

Inbound Link Importance

Inbound links count as votes for your website. The more votes you get from sites the better your search engine results. Like Google, MSN also search for inbound links for MSN optimization. MSN Search is gaining a little ground on its major competitor, Google. Microsoft is unlikely to sit back and be happy with only taking a small share of the market so optimizing for MSN in order to ensure that you get beneficial results from their search engine is a very good idea. It is possible to optimize pages and content for all of the major search engines if done properly and carefully.