Google vs MSN rankings

[letsmove]

Hello all,
Just curious if anyone knows why MSN ranks sites so differently to Google.
My site appears in top rankings for a lot of terms in MSN but on Google there several pages down!! Does MSN rank certain factors things a lot higher than Google?

Cheers
Alan

 

[link8r]

You should notice Yahoo is different too. MSN puts completely different emphasis on what it considers important. They all pretty much use inbound links and authority/voting mechanisms but they probably have different weights.

If you take a look at their blog, you can see many similarities between MSN and Google, like how they calculate "GEO-Targeting" (confirming that the locale of inbound links afects this too), the canonical fix, but many differences, such as their openness on certain aspects that Google isn't as explicit about.

MSN Live blog: Live Search Webmaster Center Blog

 

[Hsekhar]

It is because each search engine has its own, unique algorithm to follow when delivering SERPs. BTW, From what I see MSN SERPs are not that good, they don't give you good SERPs. MSN occupies third place in delivering good SERPs after Google and Yahoo.

 

[MickyWall]

From most of the site that I look after MSN and Yahoo send neglible traffic.
I just work on the basis right or wrongly that if I develop a site to do well in Google it'll do well in the other search engines.

 

[paintballer.ie]

I aim purely for google results and as 80% ish of my traffic from search engines is from google. The rest is mainy from smaller search pages that seem to be powered by google i.e. eircom, ask.com etc.

Also,more people use google for searching. I know people that google a url instead of just typing it into the address bar - lazy buggers

 

[letsmove]

thanks all. ya i havent been receiving to much traffic from MSN etc. Only ever target sites for google. just got to spend another couple of hours and get it to the top of google!! if only.......

 

[mneylon]

Google appears to be driving most of the traffic, but if you can get more from other sources I'm sure it would be welcome

Though traffic alone is useless

 

[link8r]

Capital Stuff BK - traffic alone is useless.

MSN has less than 15% of the search market, so if you're as highly ranked in MSN as you are in Google, how can you expect more traffic?

Modern quip on Sales, Profit, Cash.

SERP's are Vanity, Traffic is sanity and cash is reality
​

 

[mneylon]

You need sales.

Everything else is useless

A simple analysis is to look at what happens when a site gets slashdotted / dugg / techmemed

You'll see a massive spike in traffic, but you won't see an equivalent growth in sales (or clicks if you're using adsense etc.,)

 

[elchefe]

I don't even bother with MSN search. Most of my traffic comes from Google, and then a little from Yahoo.
I noticed that my sites rank better on Google than on MSN and Yahoo. You go figure. I have no idea what I am doing that causing my sites to rank so well in Google, but so poorly in Yahoo and MSN. At the end of the day, Google is the only search engine that really matters.

 

[link8r]

I don't even bother with MSN search. Most of my traffic comes from Google, and then a little from Yahoo.
I noticed that my sites rank better on Google than on MSN and Yahoo. You go figure. I have no idea what I am doing that causing my sites to rank so well in Google, but so poorly in Yahoo and MSN. At the end of the day, Google is the only search engine that really matters.

Well your view is naturally biased - you just said you get more traffic from Google and have higher rankings on Google. If you had a business with 10,000 visitors per month or 5,000 paying visitors per month and Google + Yahoo made up 25% of your traffic through high-SERP's, wouldn't you be interested?

 

[bosmolskate]

different algorithms result in different rankings