Shopping.com Partners Resource Center Knowledge Base

While its important to focus on natural search optimization techniques (see our natural search best practices), it is more important to adhere to the policies of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and now MSN). As MSN and MSNBot crawl the web and build their indexes, following their "guidelines" will result in better rankings and prevent search engine exclusion.

Like the other search engines, MSN's algorithm rewards pages and websites that are designed with "valuable content that [the] target audience is interested in".

Breaking any of MSN's policies or engaging in any inappropriate search behavior "may result in the removal of the site from the MSN search index." Though improving search engine rankings is important, it should never result from inappropriate behavior (as described below) - which has significant, long-term consequences.

Below is a list of MSN's "Guidelines for Successful Indexing" written by MSN and available at on http://beta.search.msn.com. Although these guidelines pertain specifically to MSN and MSNBot, they are general best practices for all natural search endeavors; following these guidelines and our other Natural Search Best Practices will result in stronger rankings and long-term index inclusion:

Guidelines for Successful Indexing

Here are some recommendations that may help MSNBot and other Web crawlers effectively index and rank your site. We've also provided a list of items and techniques that MSN Search discourages.

• Technical recommendations for your website
• Content guidelines for your website
• Items and techniques discouraged by MSN Search

• Use only well-formed HTML code in your pages. Ensure that all tags are closed, and that all links function properly. If your site contains broken links, MSNBot may not be able to index your site effectively, and people may not be able to reach all of your pages.
• If you move a page, set up the page's original URL to direct people to the new page, and tell them whether the move is permanent or temporary.
• Make sure MSNBot is allowed to crawl your site, and is not on your list of web crawlers that are prohibited from indexing your site.
• Use a robots.txt file or meta tags to control how MSNBot and other web crawlers index your site. The robots.txt file tells web crawlers which files and folders it is not allowed to crawl. The Web Robots Pages provide detailed information on the robots.txt Robots Exclusion standard. This site may be available in English only.
• Keep your URLs simple and static. Complicated or frequently changed URLs are difficult to use as link destinations. For example, the URL www.example.com/mypage is easier for MSNBot to crawl and for people to type than a long URL with multiple extensions. Also, a URL that doesn't change is easier for people to remember, which makes it a more likely link destination from other sites.

• Limit all pages to a reasonable size. We recommend one topic per page. An HTML page with no pictures should be under 150 KB.
• Make sure that each page is accessible by at least one static text link.
• Create a site map that is fairly flat (i.e., each page is only one to three clicks away from the home page). Links embedded in menus, list boxes, and similar elements are not accessible to web crawlers unless they appear in your site map.
• Keep the text that you want indexed outside of images. For example, if you want your company name or address to be indexed, make sure it is displayed on your page outside of a company logo.

• 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.
• Using hidden text or links. You should use only text and links that are visible to users.
• Using techniques to artificially increase the number of links to your page, such as link farms.

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