Beta MSN Search Gains Submit Tool & Webmaster Info
Worried the new MSN crawler isn’t picking up your pages? Now you can submit to the service. As with most add URL
pages throughout the years, there’s no guarantee pages will actually be added, however. But fear not — as with most crawlers, many of your pages will naturally get picked up.
The MSN Search blog also points out the new submit page along with other submission tips for
site owners in its new Site Owner Help section
One worrisome note from a quick review of the material. On the
page about site descriptions, the example for the meta description tag shown the has both http-equiv= and name= elements, rather than just one or the other. I’m fairly
positive only one is required, and it’s the name= element that I’ve long suggested using.
My memory is dusty on this, because it was an issue that came up sooooo very long ago. But I think the http-equiv element is for meta tags that are substituting for info
that is normally given by a web server, like redirection or language encoding.
I’ll check with MSN on this, as well as if there’s any limits to follow for the new Add URL page. By the way, there’s also a fast page removal option, should you need it —
basically, sending email to a special address as outlined here. And
for more about the meta description tag, see my long-standing page: How To Use HTML Meta Tags.
Postscript:
MSN has told me the http-equiv format shown for meta description tags on its help pages is an error, and they plan to correct.
I also asked about submission limits. My general advice to people for submitting is to submit home pages and maybe one or two inside pages for a brand new site, then let
the crawler do the rest. I also sometimes tell people to submit brand new pages if they are really worried or to submit pages that for whatever reason aren’t showing.
MSN said this is good advice for its service. They didn’t say there was any limit for those who still prefer to do a “deep” submit of all pages, but that’s probably not
going to help those who do so.