So I was checking a few SERPs earlier on MSN Search and noticed they seem to have made big changes, to the appearance of the site and also to the results.

Firstly, it looks different. The search results page seems to have been streamlined with more white and less fuss - I think (it's hard to recall the previous layout from memory).

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly for me, I seem to have been wiped out. Almost total carnage for my sites in the MSN search results. Apart from a few exceptions, many of my sites have lost their page one positions.

But I suppose the funny thing is, I'm not entirely sure when this change happened to MSN, although I check it fairly often so I think it must have been in the last day or two, but despite the whacking I've taken, the impact on my traffic and income has been negligible. That serves to remind me how irrelevant MSN Search is, and how unimportant the changes they make to their pathetic little search engine are (let me know if I'm sounding bitter here).

But seriously, I did test a few keywords to see how good MSN's results are. I searched for toys and was shocked to see a sex toys site at #3, above Toys R Us at #4. I guess there'll always be quirks and anomalies, but any search engine which allows itself to display a sex toys site so highly on a child centric search term like "toys" deserves not to be taken seriously.

Anyway - how the MSN shakeup effect your rankings, and did you notice anyway?

Labels: msn, search engines