3 Comments Written by Andrew Bonar on December 5, 2008 – 6:57 am

You may well have heard about the “MSN Loophole” recently. It is being ‘hyped’ as a big thing at the moment by several people online. It is even quite possible you have received one or more emails on the subject in the last 2 or 3 weeks.

There is at least one site selling the ’secrets to a TOP MSN’ position for well in excess of $50. Well, it isn’t really a secret or a loophole, its not even particularly a new technique, but it is completely real and true. If you know how, then for less than an hour effort and $20 you can get yourself a top position on MSN.

Should I Care About MSN?

Now you might say that MSN has only a small percentage of total search traffic, and you should therefore be concentrating on Google. If you are in the B2B game that is most certainly true, but if you are a B2C, (ie selling to consumers) then think about your demographic - you may well find that MSN traffic converts far better than your Google traffic. In fact, some studies have shown a close to 100% better conversion rate from MSN traffic over Google.

Whilst it may be true that the MSN market share is small, it still drives millions of visitors on a daily basis. As such, it is still a valuable marketing tool, especially when combined with our ultra simple 5 step process to a number #1 Listing (well, to be fair, a position between 1 and 6 is usually the norm using this method).

I am not offering a magic pill which will fix all your SEO worries, and as I said, if your market is business to business then this is probably not even worth pursuing. However if you are targeting the ‘bingo mum’ or the ‘average joe’ then it is well worth considering using this method to rank high on MSN Searches.

Before I go further, I should make the following clarification: whilst people still refer to MSN search it is in fact now “Windows Live Search” from Microsoft. With news earlier this month that Sun Microsystems will be distributing a Microsoft Live Search-powered toolbar as part of Java Runtime Environment, you can be sure of an increase in user numbers and searches per day.

Currently, MSN or Live Search is the third most used search engine in the U.S., after Google and Yahoo, according to Nielsen Netratings.

The Secret to Gaining the #1 Position in Live Search

So I know you are itching to know the secret! How do I get my top MSN Live position? Well, it is relatively straightforward, economical and takes very little time.

You do not need a massive site or Portal, huge amounts of content or hundreds of inbound links to get this to work for you. Basically, you need to identify a key phrase to rank for - this does not have to be a 5 word long-tail search query either. It can be simple 2 or 3 word phrase.

Step 1 - Choose Your Key Phrase

Choose your key phrase, for example, “poor credit rating.” Now, go out and register the domain name “poor-credit-rating.com”

Yes, I am afraid it is really as simple as this. Your key-phrase split up by hyphens. You see, Live Search decides if that if your domain name is the same as a user’s search phrase, it must be highly related and highly relevant.

Step 2 - Choose Your Title

That in itself does not guarantee you a top position of course, so Step 2 is to title your page. The page title *MUST* start with your keywords (no hyphens this time) and then match the number of keywords with additional words, so for example “Poor Credit Rating - Your financial problems solved”.

Step 3 - Your Meta Tags

Step 3 is your meta-tags. Include your key phrase as your keywords, for example:
<Meta Name=”keywords” Content=”poor credit rating”>

You should also include your key phrase in your meta description.

Step 4 - Build a Web Page

Step 4 is to create your web page - yes it need only be a single page site. Be sure to include a few graphics, and the key phrase a couple of times within the text. Every time your key phrase is used on your other pages, hyperlink them back to your own page.

Step 5 - Let Live Search Know About It

Step 5 is to publish your site and let Live Search know about it, you can do that by going here: http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx

Give it a week or so and witness the results - they are indisputable. If you are not happy with your number 3 or 4 position, then get other sites linking to you (they can be your own) using your key phrase as the anchor, this will improve your ranking even further.