January 11th, 2006

Filed under:
About This Site
5 Comments »

Boring Site Note: This Site Is Barely in MSN Search

I’ve been having some growing problems with this site. With the help of a person way smarter than me, we’re trying to solve them. In the meantime, I thank you for your patience.

While completing some test searches related to another issue, I noticed something bizarre: this site isn’t indexed properly by MSN Search. If you say, search for my name, you won’t find my site. In Yahoo and Google, my site is (rightfully, I think) the first result.

I tried another test, searching for a phrase for which I happen to be highly ranked: “textual tattoos”:

Google: First
Yahoo: First
MSN: nowhere to be seen

What gives? When I use MSN to search my site exclusively, and enter no search terms, I only get 73 results. This suggests that MSN knows about a little of my site, but not the whole shebang. I usually use MT or Google to search my own site, so I’m not sure if this is a temporary glitch or a longterm issue.

I note, with some irony, that I’m lucky enough to be invited to Search Champs v4 down with the MSN Search team later this month. Maybe I can just slip into an unoccupied cubicle and manually add my pages to the database?

Comments: 5 Responses so far

Derek
January 11th, 2006
11:46 pm

That is odd. I get almost 4000 results via MSN, and I get a lot less traffic and fewer links than you do. The basic ego surf comes out on top too. And your code certainly is well structured enough for it to work.

Very strange.

[Reply]

James
January 12th, 2006
9:58 am

Indexing of my site looks consistent with Yahoo and Google as well. The MSN algorithm doesn’t really turn my crank for relevance, but my site turns up for all the keyword phrases where I expect to. Not that MSN generates much traffic for me. It’s just a blip of volume below Yahoo, which is just a blip below Google.

[Reply]

Andrea
January 12th, 2006
4:19 pm

MSN only lists about 1/8 of my pages. I don’t get it either. However, I still get an inordinate amount of traffic from MSN. Do you?

[Reply]

Darren
January 12th, 2006
8:52 pm

Andrea: My stats aren’t, uh, as comprehensive as they might be, but no, I couldn’t spot a single recent referrer from MSN search.

[Reply]

Matt Paines
January 17th, 2006
7:39 am

Hi Darren, good to hear you’re on Search Champs V4. FYI I’m putting a list together of the other attendees.You might want your description/photo adding.
http://www.ebusiness-strategies.co.uk/news160106searchchamps.htm
otherwise see you there. Matt

[Reply]

Add a comment