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In the last few days Windows Live / MSN have switched off functionality of their advanced search commands such as “link:” and “inurl:”. From a search engine optimisation point of view this isn’t so bad, just a little annoying for those of us who like to get a measure of how their site’s strength is seen in different search engines.

MSN have done this as they feel the tools have recently been greatly abused by automated scripts used for data mining. They say they are striving to re-introduce the tool as soon as possible, albeit in a more secure manner.

The number of backlinks a site has gives a reliable indication of how strong a website is, and is the measure most SERPs are still fundamentally based upon. A backlink can be seen as a sort of “vote” of confidence from one website to another. Obviously not all backlinks are seen as votes of confidence; there are many websites made up entirely of links, providing little quality content to any visitors, including search engine spiders, who will flag the site appropriately.

This recent step by MSN isn’t anything to worry about, they are still keeping track of people’s backlinks just not making them publicly viewable.

Rik Weber
SEO Consultant

To make the most of your internet marketing campaign through paid advertising such as Google Adwords, it is important to realise the power of your adverts "quality score".
Google’s mission is to make your ads relevant to the search query entered by a user, they introduced a quality score process into the adwords system to act as a marking scheme for your ads relevance. The higher your quality score the higher you will appear in Google’s listings, this score also has the potential to reduce your CPC (cost per click).
The quality score algorithm is constantly updated by Google, but there are some factors that remain the same. A few of these factors are:

• Ensure your adverts are optimised (Titles, keywords, display URL etc)
• Utilise Adwords keyword matching options to get directed traffic
• Ensure your landing page is relevant to the search query
• Split keywords into more targeted groups

There are countless other factors required to increase your quality score within Google. Increasing this quality score will help reduce the amount you need to pay for a click on a certain keyphrase, whilst keeping your desired position within the listings. High quality scores throughout your campaign will lead to a better ROI (Return on your investment) on your advertising costs.

Paul Spreadbury
SEO Programmer