Getting Listed in MSN
By Robin
Nobles
Contributing Writer
Article Date: 02.18.03
Dear Robin,
I regularly read your column on WebProNews and have learned a lot - thanks!
I'm a wedding photographer, and have put a lot of effort into creating a
web-site that should be search-engine friendly, as well as provide my
prospective customers with plenty of information about me and the services I
offer. For the most part I think I've succeeded, since I rank very high on
Google and most of the other big engines for the search words/phrases that
I've targeted (Seattle wedding photography, Seattle wedding photographers,
and several other variations). And I get numerous compliments every week
from people who have visited my site.
For some reason my site vanished from MSN's web-pages search results about 6
months ago (I can't even find my site there if I type in the site name), and
though I have re-submitted my site (using their free listing option) every
3-4 weeks since I noticed the problem, I have been unable to get my site
back into their web-pages results. Is there any way that I can contact a
real person at MSN to find out what I have done to fall into disfavor? I
can't find any links anywhere on their site to contact them for ANY reason
(except to give them money for something).
My site is Tom Ellis Photography, http://www.tomellisphoto.com.
I'd really appreciate any advice you can give me. I suppose I could just pay Inktomi's
fee for inclusion in the worst case, but if I've done something wrong with my
site that somehow offends the "search engine gods" at MSN I still might find myself
so deep in the listings that it does me no good.
Thanks,
Tom Ellis
Dear Tom,
You mentioned that your site "fell out of favor" with MSN about six months
ago.
Are you paying per click at LookSmart?
LookSmart provides the primary results at MSN, followed by Inktomi. If
you're not paying per click through at LookSmart, and if you don't have
good rankings in Inktomi, that could be your problem.
You can find out your rankings in Inktomi by visiting HotBot and choosing
to search through the Inktomi engine. I just searched at Inktomi for
Seattle wedding photography (no quotes), and your site isn't in the top 30.
Then, I searched for your domain, and I couldn't even find your site listed
in Inktomi at all.
So, if you're not in Inktomi, and if you're not paying for keywords at
LookSmart, that's why you're not listed in MSN.
The first thing you need to do is work on your pages a little. If you want
to be found under Seattle wedding photography, you have to USE that keyword
phrase in the page's contents and tags. You're not using that keyword
phrase anywhere in the body text on the main page. You're using it as ALT
text, in your title tag, and in a few META's. But you need to use the
phrase in your body text too.
Next, get rid of the "entry1, doorway1, etc., links at the bottom of the
main page AND the listing of keywords that you've listed at the bottom of
some of your pages. Those strategies would definitely be something that
engines wouldn't like and could easily be considered spam. AND, get rid of
the hidden text. Definite NO NO. Also, get rid of the redirects. All of
these things may have been what caused Inktomi to drop your site, if you
were in the index for a while.
Your page has a PageRank of 4, but it would greatly benefit your site to
work on building your link popularity. Make SURE that when you ask for
reciprocal links, ask them to describe your site as Seattle wedding
photography, NOT Tom Ellis Photography.
After you work on your page a little, here's what I would suggest:
My recommendation would be to go through pay inclusion at Inktomi for a few
of your pages. In fact, Lycos is having a 20% off sale if you submit to
both Inktomi's and Fast's pay inclusion programs at the same time.
http://insite.lycos.com/searchservices/select/select_overview.asp?co=undefin
ed
It's for a limited time only, and I don't know what that limit is, so don't
wait too long to submit!
After you submit through pay inclusion and wait for the pages to get in the
Inktomi (and Fast) index, then see what your rankings are in MSN. I bet
that after you get rid of some of the "problems" on your pages and use pay
inclusion, you'll once again find yourself able to compete in MSN,
especially for three-word phrases.
GOOD LUCK!
Hi Robin,
Thanks for the super-fast reply! I must admit, however, that I don't
understand a few of your suggestions. To the best of my knowledge, I don't
have any "hidden" text on my site - did you spot some someplace? Also, I
wasn't aware that my site has any "redirects" - could you please tell me
where these are located so I can get rid of them?
I'm going to contact all of my link partners and have their links back to me
changed to read "Seattle wedding photography" - I hadn't realized that was
better than just having my site name listed. I'll follow your other
suggestions as well - at least all of them that I understand.
What I find really frustrating about this whole situation is that when I
search under "Seattle wedding photography" on MSN no one listed on the "page
results" is there because they paid for the listing (or at least there is no
indication from MSN that is the case). And when I look at several of the
sites on the first page of results they are clearly using some of the "no
no" techniques you say my site is guilty of. I guess the search engine gods
are as capricious as they are powerful.
Again, thanks very much for your help.
Tom Ellis
Dear Tom,
Tom, the hidden text was on entry1 which was listed on the bottom of the
main page (but you've now removed those links -- GOOD for you!!). The
redirect is on that page too. The redirect took you back to the main page of
the site.
http://www.tomellisphoto.com/entry1.htm
When you hit Control A, you'll see the hidden text at the very top of the
page.
Here's the source code of that page (see below), and I've highlighted the
redirect (META refresh with a 0 second refresh). The hidden text I've also
marked in red.
Tom, you can still put links to all of your pages at the bottom of your main
page. Just don't name them "entry1" or "doorway1," etc. Name them after your
keyword phrase when possible -- or at least in a few of the links. It's okay
to have the links, but just don't name them as if they're doorway pages.
Plus, the redirect on entry1 with the hidden text needs to go. I didn't go
through all of your other links -- don't know if there were any other
redirects or hidden text or not, but I'd sure check.
Hope this helps!
Robin
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="Refresh"
content="0; URL=http://www.tomellisphoto.com">
<meta name="SUMMARY" content="Seattle wedding photographers">
<meta name="DESCRIPTION"
content="Experienced professional photographer specializing in affordable
wedding photography in the greater Seattle area">
<meta name="KEYWORDS"
content="Seattle wedding photography, photographer, photographers">
<meta name="FORMATTER" content="Microsoft FrontPage 2.0">
<meta name="aesop" content="sales">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 2.0">
<title>Affordable wedding photography - Seattle wedding photographers </title>
</head>
<body background="Gray_Textured0003F82D.gif" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p align="center" font size="4" face="Brush Script MT"><img
src="Check0000F6F2.gif"
alt="Seattle wedding photography,Seattle wedding
photographer,Bellevue,Tacoma,affordable,discount"
width="1" height="1"></font></p>
<p align="center"> <font color="#EEEEEE"> Seattle
wedding
photographers, photographer, photography, wedding photography,
Bellevue, Kirkland, Western Washingon, Tacoma, Everett,
affordable, inexpensive </p>
About the Author:
Robin Nobles, Professional
SEO and Trainer Search Engine Workshops
Hands-on, onsite workshops in search engine marketing strategies. Next workshops:
Orlando, FL, in Disney's Coronado Springs Resort: Feb. 18-19: Beginners Workshop;
Feb. 20-22: Advanced Workshop; Feb. 18-22: 5-day All-Inclusive Workshop The Academy
of Web Specialists Offering certified online training in search engine marketing
strategies.
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