So I know this is a topic that has been recently discussed, but I was interested in seeing a new post to discuss more recent going ons. My website has recently belly flopped in MSN to the point that it no longer exists. I know that MSN doesn't account for much traffic anyway, but it is still something and considering that I'm still working my way up to the top in Google (currently 43rd) and Yahoo (currently 12th), MSN (I used to be #1) got me 20 quality uniques every day that equated to 3-4 valuable leads per week.

So my question is: What did MSN change within their system recently that has caused us to dive. I'm guessing they're just being more picky, have probably started making backlinks age a little more before they count them and probably weigh content more. Do others have opinions on what they now want to see.

Well we are all trying to figure that out. I have several sites that have all but disappeared. I hae thought it was affiliate link related but others tell me its not. I think the consensous it that MSN has copied google. You must now have higher value links from higher PR sites and lots of them. Unlike Yahoo where link volume rules the day. Simply put MSN will likely be as difficult to climb now as Google is. So if you value the site you will need to gets lots of high value links. I recommend you use nameetas, carlitos and tonys services. For a few hundred $$$ you will pick up several links.

I'm seeing quality sites going down, many of my pages being deindexed and a lot of irrelevant results (pollution) getting higher rankings these days. I really have no idea what is happening and why, and honestly i don't care too much. Google is my main target anyway.

I agree - it's really odd the way sites can suddenly drop out of MSN, even #1 ranked sites - I've never been able to figure it out.

If it makes you feel any better, the chances are it's only temporary.

My website pretty much always ranks #1 on msn.co.uk for the search term search engine optimisation, and also for search engine submission. We do actually get a great deal of traffic from MSN as a result. However, you can almost time your watch by what happens to our listing; every 8 weeks or so, we drop off the radar for search engine optimisation - but only for 7 to 10 days. Then we come right back to #1. It's bizarre. But it's been that way for us for over a year now.

So chin up, if you were #1 for whatever your search term - you probably will be again very soon.

My experience is that it is relatively straight foward to optimise for MSN with excessive text which will work both in the long term and the short term assuming that the content is relevant to the user.

However, I have always worked on the assumption that given that MSN cannot be effective at validating sites via external reference i.e. a link it then puts more emphasis validating sites through monitoring repeat searches from the same IP indicating that the user may not be interested in the site.

This may explain why your site has ranked well then dropped?

Sorry to hear about the belly flop. I don't know what MSN is doing. My ranking has remained static for some time. Do you have your keyword phrases optimized in your page as well as your anchor text?