How to stay pegged in MSN?

[Boston Condo Guy]

I've been hanging around spots 5-10 (MSN), mainly hovering around 5, and late last week, jumped all the way to number 2, was at 2 for a couple of days, and now I am back at spot 5 again, and have been for a couple of days.

I used some information found at seoguy to tune up my index page, and I definitely saw a marked improvement, be that short tern, in implementing the thoughts in that thread.

I'm confused as to why the rankings shift so dramatically between days, 2 to 5 seems like a big drop. I'd really like to peg myself at number 1 (obviously) for Boulder related keywords, any tips and tricks on how to make that happen - I notice that the number one site for Boulder Colorado Real Estate is consistent in his spot.

[beachgal]

I'm no SEO expert, but both my websites rank well on the search engines. I took a quick look at your website and have a coupe of tips for you.

Firstly I would try and add some more content to your index page with the odd keyword thrown in here and there.

Secondly, when I pulled your index page up in source, your title is just Boulder Colorado Real Estate. I would try expanding on this a bit too. You could try something like "Boulder Colorado Real Estate: For all your Boulder Real Estate needs in Boulder Colorado"

As I said, I'm no SEO expert, but stuff like this works for me.

[Boston Condo Guy]

Thanks!

I would try expanding on this a bit too. You could try something like "Boulder Colorado Real Estate: For all your Boulder Real Estate needs in Boulder Colorado

What do folks think about the above suggestion of putting more words into the title?

[judyo]

My newest site, Cook County Real Estate, has 1st & 2nd positions in MSN and hasn't fluctuated. I only have Cook County Real Estate in my title. I have a longer description & use meta tags (I think MSN still values them but I can't remember between MSN & Yahoo). I certainly have the keywords in my home page & most of my anchor text with link exchanging was for Cook County Real Estate. I am now targeting other keywords with link exchanges although it also comes up in top spots for many other kw's and it didn't take that long.

For my Oak Lawn real estate site I have 2 separate sites in positions #1 & #2 (#2 is my Cook County site again showing my Oak Lawn page). That has been there without moving, too. The title of my Oak Lawn site is a bit longer: Oak Lawn Illinois real estate, Cook County home sale & this site also comes up for Cook County Home sale at #1. This site comes up at #2 (my other Oak Lawn site is #1) for Oak Lawn home. I'm not sure what other kw's I come up in top spots for with these 3 sites.

Even my other new site that I haven't spent much time on & very little link exchanging is #1 for several main kw's (my Orland Park site).

I have 4 sites that I've worked on myself & have top MSN positions, many at #1 for different kw's, but I truly am amazed at that feat myself. The reason I am amazed is because I keep reading about those that are having problems. I don't consider myself that knowledgeable about SEO & much of it is using what I've learned here. I can't look at your site & tell you what should be fixed.

And although it's great having top positions in MSN & Yahoo, I'm still trying to get up there in Google as that's where the most traffic comes from. There's no doubt that some of my niche sites don't have as competitive kw's as I'm assuming a Boulder Co site but my Cook County site has about the same amount of competition based on results.

Maybe someone else can give you some basic fixes that will help even more.

[Boston Condo Guy]

Thanks for the input Judy, it's much appreciated!

And yes, I would love those basic fixes to get me up there for Boulder Colorado Real Estate.

[HHI Golf Guy]

What do folks think about the above suggestion of putting more words into the title?

The text that was suggested is very spammy.

You don't need to repeat "Boulder" and "real estate" over and over again. Your title tag for each page should target the primary phrase that you are optimizing and possibly a second phrase that you are trying to optimize.

Adding too many words to your title tag can dilute the importance of the phrase that you are targeting. Repeating the phrase or words from the main phrase is just spam.

[beachgal]

Boulder Realtor ... I did say I wasn't an expert in SEO, I only know what works for me. I learned everything I know about SEO either from this forum or from the book Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, which was a great investment. Yes the title tag I suggested probably is a bit spammy but it doesn't hurt to repeat your key word phrase a couple of times, just as Golf Guy has done buy repeating the phrase "Real Estate" 3 times in his title tag of his web design site.

[HHI Golf Guy]

... just as Golf Guy has done buy repeating the phrase "Real Estate" 3 times in his title tag of his web design site.

There is a huge difference in what I have done and what you suggested for title text - and it is a very, very important difference. I have repeated "real estate" because there are [i]three distinct targeted phrases[i], each that happens to contain the word pair "real estate".

This is an example of one of the many nuances of SEO as oposed to using spammy repetition.

[kensmith]

MSN is bs. If you have your KW in your URL you will rank better than if you don't. Their results have been jumping around as of late, but who cares they don't actually send any real traffic. #10 on G is better than #1 on MSN IMO.

[Jade456]

I have to agree with Ken. Although 20 on G is better than 1 on MSN traffic wise. I have a top spot on msn for las vegas high rise condos and get virtually no traffic from that term, whereas google with the same term at 5 give me quite a bit. I would target ranking in google only, the other se's will rank you as well and that traffic is just gravy. IHMO