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MSN Loves Blogs Too
September 05, 2006
We (and our ilk) often talk about how Google favors, at least algorithmically, the blog format. But MSN is right up there in terms of giving preferred treatment to blogs.
"Preferred treatment," of course, is a misnomer and a bit of a joke. After all, the preferential nature goes both ways. Well optimized blogs give engines what they like, and engines respond in kind.
A client started a blog recently that contains posts built of press releases, industry news, pointers to other articles across the web that highlight how his industry's technology is utilized around the world, and occasional links to new content on the main client site. All new material - nothing reprinted.
This client also retains the services of a very smart host/web dev consultant who wrote some nice code to query the blog database, pull the five most recent posts, and link to them statically from the main site's home page. (Often, a "syndication" technique like this would use scripted links to pull the blog's most recent entries.)
The blog began pulling long-tail Google queries within a couple weeks of its first post. But a month later, MSN was out-referring people to the blog. In fact, the blog had taken over MSN's very top spot for a two-word phrase that the client's main site had formerly held.
Too many times, site owners leave it at that - "Search engines love blogs" - and don't grasp that the logical next step is to treat all sites, not just blogs, like blogs. Constant content generation. Generous linking. Smart, keyword-based nomenclature. Be sure to give your "bread and butter" content - everything about your business - the benefit of an archetecture that gets the engines' attention.
see all posts by Erik Dafforn
posted by Erik Dafforn at September 5, 2006 11:54 PM
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