Climbing
the Beanstalk
January 19, 2005
Welcome
to the January 19, 2005 edition of “Climbing The Beanstalk”,
the bi-weekly newsletter on search engines and search engine positioning
from Beanstalk. In this edition we will be focusing our attention
on a single issue that will have a huge impact on your website traffic
and on the search engine world in general. So without further ado,
let's get to it.
Live From Redmond ... It's MSN Search!!!
For
those of you who have been subscribers to this newsletter for a
while you'll be well aware of the fact that I've been anxiously
awaiting the launch of the new MSN search engine. Well starting
about a week ago they began rolling it out and it looks like it's
available now pretty much everywhere. There are still some regions
where MSN search results are being drawn from Inktomi however they
appear to be few and far between. The rumored "official launch
date" is February 1 however pretty much everyone seems to be
getting them early.
Until
very recently when you ran a search on www.msn.com your results
were actually being drawn from Inktomi, an engine owned by Yahoo!
Microsoft has invested enormous resources and time developing their
own engine and it appears they are satisfied with what they currently
have. In this SEO's opinion, they certainly should be.
While
I will admit an obvious bias in that all of our clients are doing
very well on the new MSN search engine, this is due in large part
to the tactics we use. Don't spam, use internal links intelligently,
and build quality, relevant incoming links. This may seem simple
and obvious and it is. That they have done a good job of writing
their algorithm around this produces far less irrelevant and/or
spammy sites in the results. this should not be taken to mean that
you won't find inappropriate sites in the results however if we
compare the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) with those of Google
you'll generally find equal, if not better sites listed.
What
Does This Mean To You?
First
and foremost, this new development means you're going to have to
take three engines into account as opposed to two. Until recently
webmasters and SEOs would only have to optimize their sites for
Google and Yahoo! to get good rankings on the three major engines.
Now however there are three completely separate spiders and algorithms
to take into consideration.
While
many of the SEO basics are the same, MSN definitely operates by
different rules than the other two (though definitely closer to
Yahoo! than Google). This can be seen by running searches on all
three. Usually you will end up with completely different top results
for generic phrases (i.e. not brands or company names).
How
Do I Optimize For MSN Now?
First
and foremost, always follow the basic rule of keeping it clean.
This refers to your code, your site, and your SEO tactics. Cluttered
code is not enjoyed by the new MSN. There are rumors that sites
with W3C compliance will rank higher. I haven't seen any solid evidence
of this specifically however I can say that there's evidence that
sites with cleaner code tend to rank higher.
If
you would like to check if your site is W3C compliant you can do
so at http://validator.w3.org/.
Another
important factor, like the others, appears to be incoming links
however MSN seems to enjoy a variety of different anchor texts being
used. Google has recently started adopting this into the algorithms
however sites that rank highly on MSN almost always have a variety
of different anchor texts used in the inbound links to their sites.
Develop
a good internal linking structure designed to boost the relevancy
of key internal pages on your site and your site will rank well
for those phrases (provided you have the inbound link popularity
and well-optimized content already in place).
Is
Google Still The King?
Google
still rests atop a very high throne as far as it's positioning in
worldwide popularity, however people are statistically becoming
less-and-less satisfied with the results they're getting. This basically
means that if MSN can show the average search engine user that they
can provide a more satisfying search experience, Google users will
switch.
Yahoo!
users report a much higher satisfaction rate and are less likely
to switch to MSN.
If
we think about the fact that MSN has the power to integrate their
search into the computer owners browser (Internet Explorer), media
player (Windows Media Player) and even Desktop (Windows) we quickly
realize that this game quickly becomes theirs to lose. All MSN really
has to do is produce a great search engine and they will win. Getting
their product in front of the vast majority is a field Microsoft
has already won, getting them to switch just requires excellence.
And as much as I may complain about Windows, the folks at Microsoft
do know a little something about excellence.
The
Future
While
I've never been approached to work for Jojo and her psychic hotline,
I do feel comfortable making a few predictions as to where the search
engine world will lie a year or two down the road. Let's take a
look at current statistics.
41.6%
of searches are done on Google
31.5% of searches are done on Yahoo!
27.4% of searches are done on MSN
I don't
think Google will be dethroned in the next year though I wouldn't
bet them to be the #1 player in two years time. I would guess that
on January 1, 2006 the percentages will look something closer to:
Google
- 38%
Yahoo! - 29%
MSN - 33%
As
you can see I would predict that MSN will take some from both of
the big players pulling itself into the #2 spot. You're free to
remind me about this prediction on December 31st. I'd bet that while
the numbers may be a bit different, the trend will look something
very close to what's predicted above.
If
you would like more information on the launch of the new MSN search
engine you can find some great information at the WebproWorld forums
at http://www.webproworld.com/viewforum.php?f=51.
Thank
You
Thank you very much for subscribing to “Climbing The Beanstalk”,
the bi-weekly search engine positioning newsletter. If you have
any questions about the areas covered or if there are any areas
of search engine positioning that you would like to see covered
in future articles/newsletter please don’t hesitate to contact
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