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MSN Search Launches 
By Jim Hedger

Microsoft Gets Out of Vapourwear Business and Shows Up in Search

Microsoft has finally released the beta version of its own 
proprietary search engine. For over a year, webmasters and SEOs 
have seen evidence of "MSNBot" spidering their sites as MSN 
Search gathered information and compiled its database. 
Microsoft's full entry to the world of search engines will have 
fairly significant effects on the industry. Up to this point, 
MSN displayed results from the Yahoo/Overture database. A 
preview shows highly relevant results under a variety of keyword 
phrases. Relevant results, coupled with the search engine's 
clean design and piggybacking on the MS Windows operating system, 
could make MSN Search a serious challenge to Google's current 
dominance of the organic search market.

Bill Gates has long expressed his dismay that Google and Yahoo 
were able to bypass Microsoft's near monopoly to capture 
dominance of search. At last February's World Economic Forum, 
Gates publicly remarked "Google kicked our butts". While MSN 
has been working on a search tool for at least two years, this 
statement was both a warning to competitors Google and Yahoo, 
and a rally-cry for Microsoft's search-unit.

The beta search engine is now live and can be seen at 
http://beta.search.msn.com/. Results displayed on the beta 
engine are very different from results displayed on their main 
MSN site which continues to show Yahoo generated listings. A 
desktop search application is expected to be released before the 
new year.

MSN has published a list of guidelines for webmasters and SEOs 
on their site. While they read as simple SEO common sense, they 
also give a small window into how MSNBot views websites. 

Proprietary 

The following is copied directly from MSN's guidelines with 
short comments for SEOs in sub-headings.

TECHNICAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUR WEB SITE

All Sites Should Be W3c Validated.
Use only well-formed HTML code in your pages. Ensure that all 
tags are closed, and that all links are functioning properly. If 
your site contains broken links, MSNBot may not be able to index 
your site effectively, and users may not be able to reach all of 
your pages. For more information about correct HTML syntax, see 
the HTML 4.01 Specification (http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/).   

Moving Hosts And Urls Shouldn't Damage Rankings.
If you move your page, use the appropriate HTTP redirection code 
to indicate whether the move is permanent or temporary.

MSNBot Follows Common Exclude Tags
Make sure MSNBot is allowed to crawl your site, and is not on 
your list of Web crawlers prohibited from indexing your site. 
Use a robots.txt file or Robots Meta tags to control how MSNBot 
and other Web crawlers index your site. Using a robots.txt file 
will tell Web crawlers which files and folders on your site it 
is not allowed to crawl. For more information, see the MSNBot FAQ
(http://search.msn.com/webmasters/msnbot.aspx)

Url Syntax Carries Some Weight.
Whenever possible, use URLs that are simple and easy to read.

CONTENT GUIDELINES FOR YOUR WEB SITE

Page Size Matters. Keep It Simple, One Topic Per Page.
Limit all pages to a reasonable size. An HTML page with no 
pictures should be under 150 KB. MSN Search recommends 
discussing one topic per page. Use links to take users to 
related topics.

Links Matter And Msnbot Relies Heavily On Continuity With Url Paths.
To ensure your pages are easy to link to from other sites, keep 
your URLs simple and static. Complicated URLs, or URLs that 
change often, are difficult to use as link destinations. A 
persistent URL is easier for users to find and remember, and 
makes it a more likely link destination from other sites.

ITEMS AND TECHNIQUES DISCOURAGED BY MSN SEARCH

MSNBot recognizes the following items and techniques as spam, an 
inappropriate use of the index. Use of these items and techniques 
may affect how your site is ranked within MSN Search, and may 
result in the removal of your page or site from the MSN Search 
index.

Content Matters, As Does Keyword Density. Spam Will Be Noted 
And Dealt With, Otherwise They Would Be Less Likely To Make The 
Implied Threat.

Loading pages with irrelevant words in an attempt to increase 
a page's keyword density. This includes stuffing ALT tags that 
users are unlikely to view.

Easy Enough To Understand. 

Using hidden text or links. You should use only text and links 
that are visible to users.

Links Matter. As an Algorithmic Spider, Msnbot Has Taken A Lesson 
>From Pagerank. Following Links Leads To Considering The Number Of 
Links Followed As A Factor In Rankings.

Using techniques to artificially increase the number of links to 
your page, such as link farms.

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Jim Hedger is a writer, speaker and search engine marketing 
expert based in Victoria BC. Jim works with a limited group of 
clients and provides consultancy services to StepForth Search 
Engine Placement (http://www.stepforth.com). He has worked as 
an SEO for over 5 years and welcomes the opportunity to share 
his experience through interviews, articles and speaking 
engagements. Other articles by Jim Hedger can be found at 
http://news.stepforth.com
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