Is there any "secret" to getting MSN search to index your website? In
other words is there something in particular which MSN search requires
(or refuses to accept) which is different from other search engines?

I am an amateur web site developer (i.e. I just do very simple sites
for friends). And I have been successful in getting Google, Yahoo and
other search engines to list a site but not MSN search.

In fact searching MSN for the title of the web page in question will
turn up the Open Directory listing which includes my web page but not
my web page itself??

The web page in question is: <http://houstonparliamentarian.com>.

Any help will be appreciated.

--

John Small

(remove the z's for email address)

> I am an amateur web site developer (i.e. I just do very simple sites
> for friends). And I have been successful in getting Google, Yahoo and
> other search engines to list a site but not MSN search.

You are in MSN for both the non-www and the www versions of your URI.

http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...540&FORM=REDIR

It's not worth spending too much time on this - MSN currently accounts
for around 3% of my traffic.

Your server returns a 200 for both the non-www and the www versions of
the URI. I would suggest redirecting the non-www to the www via a 301.

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-ad...onicalization/

Other than that, you have some waiting to do.

On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:43:02 UTC, "Phil Payne"
<EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:

> > I am an amateur web site developer (i.e. I just do very simple sites
> > for friends). And I have been successful in getting Google, Yahoo and
> > other search engines to list a site but not MSN search.
>
> You are in MSN for both the non-www and the www versions of your URI.
>
> http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...540&FORM=REDIR

A search on the URI would be pointless. If they already know the URI
there would be no need for a search. The can URI can be entered
directly.

What I am looking for is how to get searches for key words to list
this site. For example a search on the title (and the first three
words of text) of the page "Houston Parliamentary Services", should
have this URI listed on the first page (if not first) of a MSN search
result. See
<http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...on+Parliamenta
ry+Services&go.x=12&go.y=7&go=Search>.

But this search result does list first another page which has a link
to and a short description of my URI. I don't understand how MSN can
find an indirect reference to my URI but not my URI itself when, as
your search shows, MSN does indeed know about my URI.

>
> It's not worth spending too much time on this - MSN currently accounts
> for around 3% of my traffic.

This is interesting. My friend is concerned that MSN search is the
default search for a lot of people. So he thinks he is missing a lot
of traffic from those who, for whatever reason, haven't taken the
initiative to reset their default search.

From your stats it sounds like he may not need to be worried about it.

How do you determine that your traffic is from MSN?

> Your server returns a 200 for both the non-www and the www versions of
> the URI. I would suggest redirecting the non-www to the www via a 301.
>
> http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-ad...onicalization/
>
> Other than that, you have some waiting to do.

Pardon my ignorance but I din't understand anything about this part of
your response, even after visiting the URI you provide. (As I said in
my initial post, I am just an amateur.)

After looking up error codes 200 and 301 I think I understand. You are
saying that the web server, when queried for
houstonparliamentarian.com, should return a 301 indicating that
houstonparliamentarian.com has "permanently moved" to
www.houstonparliamentarian.com. Is this correct?

How does one do this? Is this something I can do or is it something I
need to ask the owner/administrator of the web server to do?

Thanks for all your help!

--

John Small

(remove the z's for email address)

Fleeing from the madness of the Posted via Supernews,
http://www.supernews.com jungle
John Small <EMAIL REMOVED> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

> On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:43:02 UTC, "Phil Payne"
> <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
>
>> > I am an amateur web site developer (i.e. I just do very simple sites
>> > for friends). And I have been successful in getting Google, Yahoo and
>> > other search engines to list a site but not MSN search.
>>
>> You are in MSN for both the non-www and the www versions of your URI.
>>
>> http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...540&FORM=REDIR
>
> A search on the URI would be pointless. If they already know the URI
> there would be no need for a search. The can URI can be entered
> directly.

indeed - but that is what you asked

> What I am looking for is how to get searches for key words to list
> this site. For example a search on the title (and the first three
> words of text) of the page "Houston Parliamentary Services", should
> have this URI listed on the first page (if not first) of a MSN search
> result. See
> <http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...on+Parliamenta
> ry+Services&go.x=12&go.y=7&go=Search>.
>
> But this search result does list first another page which has a link
> to and a short description of my URI. I don't understand how MSN can
> find an indirect reference to my URI but not my URI itself when, as
> your search shows, MSN does indeed know about my URI.

How do /you/ link to that page?

Hint: do you use "Houston Parliamentary Services" as the link text?

>>
>> It's not worth spending too much time on this - MSN currently accounts
>> for around 3% of my traffic.
>
> This is interesting. My friend is concerned that MSN search is the
> default search for a lot of people. So he thinks he is missing a lot
> of traffic from those who, for whatever reason, haven't taken the
> initiative to reset their default search.

yep - I'd be inclined to agree with your friend. MSN does appear to be
making ground.

> From your stats it sounds like he may not need to be worried about it.
>
> How do you determine that your traffic is from MSN?

referer logging is just about all you have to go on - where available.

>> Your server returns a 200 for both the non-www and the www versions of
>> the URI. I would suggest redirecting the non-www to the www via a 301.
>>
>> http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-ad...onicalization/
>>
>> Other than that, you have some waiting to do.
> Pardon my ignorance but I din't understand anything about this part of
> your response, even after visiting the URI you provide. (As I said in
> my initial post, I am just an amateur.)
>
> After looking up error codes 200 and 301 I think I understand. You are
> saying that the web server, when queried for
> houstonparliamentarian.com, should return a 301 indicating that
> houstonparliamentarian.com has "permanently moved" to
> www.houstonparliamentarian.com. Is this correct?

yes

> How does one do this? Is this something I can do or is it something I
> need to ask the owner/administrator of the web server to do?

best in the web server config - can be done with script if your pages are
dynamically generated.


--
William T***o

http://williamt***o.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

John Small wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:43:02 UTC, "Phil Payne"
> <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
>
> > > I am an amateur web site developer (i.e. I just do very simple sites
> > > for friends). And I have been successful in getting Google, Yahoo and
> > > other search engines to list a site but not MSN search.
> >
> > You are in MSN for both the non-www and the www versions of your URI.

This is amazing if it is not a glitch.
I was looking at msn.co.uk and
www.houstonparliamentarian.com just changed to number one
in msn.co.uk SERP for Houston Parliamentary Services
I checked for your home page
and you have now a 301 redirect from the non-www URL to www

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 12:44:50 UTC, "William T***o"
<EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:

> Fleeing from the madness of the Posted via Supernews,
> http://www.supernews.com jungle
> John Small <EMAIL REMOVED> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
> and said:
>
> > On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:43:02 UTC, "Phil Payne"
> > <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
> >
> >> > I am an amateur web site developer (i.e. I just do very simple sites
> >> > for friends). And I have been successful in getting Google, Yahoo and
> >> > other search engines to list a site but not MSN search.
> >>
> >> You are in MSN for both the non-www and the www versions of your URI.
> >>
> >> http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...540&FORM=REDIR
> >
> > A search on the URI would be pointless. If they already know the URI
> > there would be no need for a search. The can URI can be entered
> > directly.
>
> indeed - but that is what you asked

I don't see where I asked for searches on the URI to work. The only
specific search I mentioned was a search on the title of the page.

> > What I am looking for is how to get searches for key words to list
> > this site. For example a search on the title (and the first three
> > words of text) of the page "Houston Parliamentary Services", should
> > have this URI listed on the first page (if not first) of a MSN search
> > result. See
> > <http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...on+Parliamenta
> > ry+Services&go.x=12&go.y=7&go=Search>.
> >
> > But this search result does list first another page which has a link
> > to and a short description of my URI. I don't understand how MSN can
> > find an indirect reference to my URI but not my URI itself when, as
> > your search shows, MSN does indeed know about my URI.
>
> How do /you/ link to that page?
>
> Hint: do you use "Houston Parliamentary Services" as the link text?

I myself do not have a web page to speak of. I just have helped
friends set up their web pages.

Are you saying that the key to solving my problem is the links others
may have to houstonparliamentarian.com? In other words, will having
others link to housotnparliamentarian.com, using appropriate key text
phrases, affect how MSN indexes a page?

If yes, it is interesting that MSN is fussy in this way. As I said in
my initial message key word searches on Google, Yahoo and several
other search engines are already working quite well.

Thanks for your help!

--

John Small

(remove the z's for email address)

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 18:17:13 UTC, "cristina"
<EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:

> I checked for your home page
> and you have now a 301 redirect from the non-www URL to www

Yes. After posting my "how-do-I-do-this-reply" I happened to read
another message regarding the .htaccess file. And from that I figured
out to do this.

--

John Small

(remove the z's for email address)

> > >> You are in MSN for both the non-www and the www versions of your URI.
> > >>
> > >> http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...540&FORM=REDIR
> > >
> > > A search on the URI would be pointless. If they already know the URI
> > > there would be no need for a search. The can URI can be entered
> > > directly.
> >
> > indeed - but that is what you asked
>
> I don't see where I asked for searches on the URI to work. The only
> specific search I mentioned was a search on the title of the page.

Read the search URL. Look at the "q=site" bit. It _isn't_ a search on
your URI, it's a "site:" tool request on your URI - which is how you
determine whether or not a page is actually in the index and NOT
whether any given search will actually bring it up.

You asked: "Is there any "secret" to getting MSN search to index your
website?" and I used a site: search to show you _are_ indexed by MSN,
albeit not as you might like.

Fleeing from the madness of the Posted via Supernews,
http://www.supernews.com jungle
John Small <EMAIL REMOVED> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

> ...
> Are you saying that the key to solving my problem is the links others
> may have to houstonparliamentarian.com? In other words, will having
> others link to housotnparliamentarian.com, using appropriate key text
> phrases, affect how MSN indexes a page?

For a definitive answer you must address your questions to the developers
of each search engine, but it is a widely held belief that link text can
make a positive contribution to SERPs

--
William T***o

http://williamt***o.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

John Small wrote:

> I don't see where I asked for searches on the URI to work. The only
> specific search I mentioned was a search on the title of the page.
>
> Are you saying that the key to solving my problem is the links others
> may have to houstonparliamentarian.com? In other words, will having
> others link to housotnparliamentarian.com, using appropriate key text
> phrases, affect how MSN indexes a page?

This is strange.
www.houstonparliamentarian.com is first in an msn.co.uk search
with SafeSearch filter moderate, but not
with SafeSearch filter strict,
the MSN safesearch filter filters out your site.

I do not use MSN very often, so when I changed in Options
only the number of results displayed per SERP, I did not
realize that the safesearch filter changed as well.

The advice from Phil Payne and William T***o is very good,
concentrate your results to the www version of your URLs
by permanent redirection from non-www to www,
and link to your pages with relevant anchor text.
When search engines find your pages from links,
it can only help if the anchor text contains
words that you want good search results for
(or for which you want good search results, or something like that).