Part IV - Getting Your Site Indexed in MSN

Althoug MSN is lagging behind both Yahoo and Google when it comes to the ways you can get your site indexed, it is still one of the top three search engines, and it should not be ignored.

The tips that you will find here basically apply to optimizing your site for any search engine, but they are definitely worth the read so that you focus your search engine optimization efforts in a way that will get your site indexed.

Getting indexed by MSN is really very simple. You can either submit your link to your homepage to MSN, or the link to your sitemap. However, keep in mind that if you have a blog, and you want to be included in MSN, then you'll need to submit to Moreover. That will get your blog in MSN too.

Submitting to MSN is actually submitting to the MSN spider. Rob Benwell, of "Blogging to the Bank" fame, said that he used MSN for his searches when looking for niches, because  MSN updates more quickly than either Yahoo or Google, and this was why he used MSN to test his results.

This may be good advice. However, I believe that you should submit manually to MSN for the following reason: this is the number two website on the internet. It gets an enormous amount of traffic, and the traffic that this site brings you can help you with both your rankings, as well as being found by searchers.

ComScore Networworks reports that 48 percent of MSN searchers are more likely to buy, whereas Google searchers are 42 percent likely to buy. Yahoo users are 41 percent more likely to buy. Although these statistics were released in 2005, you can get more information from this site on demographic buying habits of searchers: Comscore.

Now, you can use the link below to submit directly to the MSN spider:

Submit to MSN

A word of caution here: when submitting to MSN, make sure that you understand the characters in the verification image on this page. You must type them exactly as you see them, or your site won't get submitted.

If your submission is successful, you will see a message that tells you your submission is successful and will ask you if you want to submit another site.

Once you have MSN crawling your site, you shouldn't have to resubmit.

If you follow these steps carefully, you should have no trouble getting your site accepted. Create great content, build links back to your site, and target the correct keywords, and you can get very high rankings.

Jinger Jarrett will show you how to optimize your site for the search engines and do it for free. You can get her free ebook, "Internet Marketing for Free: The GUIDE", when you visit her site at http://www.jingerjarrett.com