Comparing MSN And Yahoo! Optimization - The Keys to Keywords and On Page Content
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Because of the importance of keywords to the search algorithms, you will want to consider the many ways that keywords can be used judiciously for the benefit of your site. Because keywords can be used much more heavily in Yahoo! and MSN, there will be a temptation on the part of many website owners to resort to keyword stuffing. There are other proven methods to utilize your keywords frequently without making that mistake. Always keep in mind that you want to achieve high search rankings with all of the major search engines.
A proven technique that will offer benefits across all search engines is the wise use of keywords in your page title tags. As with Google and Yahoo!, MSN prefers a separate and unique title for every web page on your site. Include one or two of that page’s most important keywords in the page title. Don’t simply list strings of keywords, however, or the search engines will discount your pages for spam tactics.
It’s well known in the search engine community that Google’s algorithm gives only very minimal weight to meta tags. On the other hand, the Yahoo! search engine seems to value them fairly highly. As with Yahoo!, the MSN algorithm appears to place some solid weight on the use of meta tags. To take full advantage of meta tag use, be sure to have some unique meta tags for every page. Do not use the same meta tags for all of your web pages.
Use only the three to five most important meta tags for that web page. Make certain that those meta tags actually appear as keywords on that page as well. If the keywords do not appear on the pages, don’t place them in that page’s meta tags. Any use of meta tag keywords that have no connection to the web page will probably be counterproductive and result in lower search rankings.
Title tags are very important to both the Yahoo! and the MSN search algorithms, as they are for the Google search engine as well. Spending some time on creating keyword rich descriptive page titles will pay enormous dividends in all of the search rankings. Make certain each page has a unique title tag. By giving each web page its own title tag, you remove the chances of being guilty of keyword stuffing.
Having keywords in your domain name will certainly pay off with MSN. A keyword rich domain name appears to have real value in Yahoo! as well. Be careful not to stuff the keywords or you could trigger a filter in any or all search engines, including Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. If you have a choice, err on the side of fewer keywords in the domain name, as too many will cause you problems.
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