MSN Guidelines

Technical recommendations for your website

• 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.

What to do when your site moves

• Redirect your site address with an HTTP301.
  
  When your site address changes permanently, we recommend that you create an HTTP 301 redirect.
  
  The HTTP 301 redirect tells search engine crawlers, such as MSNBot, to remove the old URL and use the new URL.
  
  You may see some change in your search engine ranking, particularly if your new site is redesigned for search engine optimization. It may take up to six weeks to see the changes reflected on your pages.
  
  
• Redirect your site address with a REFRESH meta tag.
  
  Adding a meta redirect tag to your page header does not remove your original page from the MSN Search index; however, it will redirect visitors to your new site.
  
  
• Add this code to the header section of the page you want to redirect:
  
  <meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="20; URL=http://newsiteaddress.com" /" href="#">

• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• A URL that doesn't change is easier for people to remember, which makes it a more likely link destination from other sites.

Content guidelines for your website

• In the visible page text, include words users might choose as search query terms to find the information on your site.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Add a site map. This enables MSNBot to find all of your pages easily. Links embedded in menus, list boxes, and similar elements are not accessible to web crawlers unless they appear in your site map.
  
  
• Keep your site hierarchy fairly flat. That is, each page should only be one to three clicks away from the home page.
  
  
• Building up back-links is a great way to increase your MSN ranking.

Items and techniques discouraged by MSN Search

• 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.