Making backlinks actionable again

In 2007, we shut off the linkdomain attribute in the advanced query syntax, but promised to make link data available to you as soon as possible. Last fall when we launched the initial beta of the Live Search Webmaster Center, we offered a limited look into backlink data. But we soon realized that for you to be successful, you really need more and better backlink data. That’s why we’re really excited about the updates that we a have...
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Robots Exclusion Protocol: joining together to provide better documentation

As a member of the Live Search Webmaster Team, I'm often asked by web publishers how they can control the way search engines access and display their content. The de-facto standard for managing this is the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP) introduced back in the early 1990's. Over the years, the REP has evolved to support more than "exclusion" directives; it now supports directives controlling what content gets included, how the...
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Increasing customer engagement with custom 404 error pages

If you’re the owner of a large website with lots of content, you’ve probably noticed that up to 10% of your traffic ends up on a “webpage not found” error page due to broken links or misspelled URLs. There are a lot of reasons users who visit your site might reach a 404 page, but how do you keep those customers from abandoning your site? Today we’re announcing the Web Page Error Toolkit, a customizable web...
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I'm not ranking in Live Search, what can I do?

That’s a good question, and you’ve come to the right place.  If your site is not performing in Live Search or you are not being indexed by Live Search here are some steps you can take to change course and improve your rank.  First and foremost at Live Search ranking is free and you can’t pay to boost your website’s relevance ranking.  We have a completely automated ranking process which takes into account a...
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