Comments on: Past Time For MSN To Pony Up To The Real Truth About Referrer Spam http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/ SEO insiders share all on SEO news, tips and theories. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:32:30 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Ernie http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-8348 Ernie Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:14:15 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-8348 Jim - I am in the same boat - I never noticed the increased traffic and was always wondering why I ranked much higher with MSN. I have to look at my analytics and see if i can follow the traffic. Jim – I am in the same boat – I never noticed the increased traffic and was always wondering why I ranked much higher with MSN. I have to look at my analytics and see if i can follow the traffic.

]]> By: A Site Admin http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-7634 A Site Admin Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:12:47 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-7634 I suspect there's a simple explanation for all this ... just follow the money. I think M$ is trying to convince people that their live.search.com is sending you all kinds of visitors ... and, of course, that means you should be advertising with them. It's possible that search.live.com is not only showing people the search hits BUT also visits (at least) some (large!) number of pages in that list. E.G., when I look at the referrers for the last 3 days for one of our sites, I see entries like: - 10 hits : http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=license - 1 hit : http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=licenses - 1 hit : http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=upgrades - 7 hits : http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=contacts ... and on and on. So, if they're hitting our pages for these kind of search terms, you can imagine that they're hitting hundreds of thousands of pages -- possibly for each person's search. That way it looks like there are "sooooo many people" visiting your site because they've used search.live.com ... and, of course, that'd mean you really should be advertising with them. When all this started, we suddenly saw referrals go from about 3% of the number of Google search referrals to more than the number of Google-search referrals ... all within a few days. Analyzing the resulting traffic from these referrals makes it fairly obvious that they're not real people visiting. In the end, I just attribute this to the normal kind of business behavior that's consistent for Microsoft. What sleazebags! I suspect there’s a simple explanation for all this … just follow the money.

I think M$ is trying to convince people that their live.search.com is sending you all kinds of visitors … and, of course, that means you should be advertising with them.

It’s possible that search.live.com is not only showing people the search hits BUT also visits (at least) some (large!) number of pages in that list.

E.G., when I look at the referrers for the last 3 days for one of our sites, I see entries like:
- 10 hits : http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=license
- 1 hit : http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=licenses
- 1 hit : http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=upgrades
- 7 hits : http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=contacts
… and on and on.

So, if they’re hitting our pages for these kind of search terms, you can imagine that they’re hitting hundreds of thousands of pages — possibly for each person’s search.

That way it looks like there are “sooooo many people” visiting your site because they’ve used search.live.com … and, of course, that’d mean you really should be advertising with them.

When all this started, we suddenly saw referrals go from about 3% of the number of Google search referrals to more than the number of Google-search referrals … all within a few days. Analyzing the resulting traffic from these referrals makes it fairly obvious that they’re not real people visiting.

In the end, I just attribute this to the normal kind of business behavior that’s consistent for Microsoft. What sleazebags!

]]> By: MSN/Live Ponies Up About The Referrer Spam | SEO News - All The SEO Scoop http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-3096 MSN/Live Ponies Up About The Referrer Spam | SEO News - All The SEO Scoop Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:26:49 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-3096 [...] 3 weeks ago, I said it was Past Time For MSN To Pony Up To The Real Truth About Referrer Spam. Now, they [...] [...] 3 weeks ago, I said it was Past Time For MSN To Pony Up To The Real Truth About Referrer Spam. Now, they [...]

]]> By: Microsoft funding bankrupt Live Search experiment with porn spam http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2804 Microsoft funding bankrupt Live Search experiment with porn spam Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:42:14 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2804 [...] Webmasters across the globe weren’t that excited to find promotinal messages from Live Search in their log files, so a somewhat confused MSN dude [...] [...] Webmasters across the globe weren’t that excited to find promotinal messages from Live Search in their log files, so a somewhat confused MSN dude [...]

]]> By: This Week In SEO - 11/16/07 - TheVanBlog http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2800 This Week In SEO - 11/16/07 - TheVanBlog Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:49:22 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2800 [...] Past Time For MSN To Pony Up To The Real Truth About Referrer Spam [...] [...] Past Time For MSN To Pony Up To The Real Truth About Referrer Spam [...]

]]> By: Jim http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2784 Jim Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:23:58 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2784 Hmmm... I never noticed this traffic before, have to go and check it out now. Hmmm… I never noticed this traffic before, have to go and check it out now.

]]> By: vic berggren http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2783 vic berggren Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:38:19 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2783 I'm glad you brought this up because I'm having the same issue and the "quality checks" are increasing to the point where this is playing havoc with the Referral Traffic Numbers for the site I manage at my office. I would prefer that they not do this. Why can't Microsoft perform the quality check against the data in the crawl bucket right after it gets fetched? I’m glad you brought this up because I’m having the same issue and the “quality checks” are increasing to the point where this is playing havoc with the Referral Traffic Numbers for the site I manage at my office.

I would prefer that they not do this. Why can’t Microsoft perform the quality check against the data in the crawl bucket right after it gets fetched?

]]> By: » Microsoft still referral spamming, jacking Adsense 14th Colony http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2775 » Microsoft still referral spamming, jacking Adsense 14th Colony Wed, 14 Nov 2007 08:38:33 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2775 [...] reports that MSN has acknowledged this odd behavior and requests that webmasters not block their bots. It’s not happening on any of my sites, but if it were I’d be inclined to tell MS to [...] [...] reports that MSN has acknowledged this odd behavior and requests that webmasters not block their bots. It’s not happening on any of my sites, but if it were I’d be inclined to tell MS to [...]

]]> By: MSN Ban Me, I don’t Care, Stop Sending Spam Referrals : SEO India: Kichus - SEO KiD http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2773 MSN Ban Me, I don’t Care, Stop Sending Spam Referrals : SEO India: Kichus - SEO KiD Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:44:58 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2773 [...] Spam referrals. Pierre: Yell if Microsoft’s Live.com Spammed You Too - Updated Dazzlin Donna:Past Time For MSN To Pony Up To The Real Truth About Referrer Spam Michael Vandemar: Microsoft Needs To Quit Fucking With My AdSense Scripts - this is something [...] [...] Spam referrals. Pierre: Yell if Microsoft’s Live.com Spammed You Too – Updated Dazzlin Donna:Past Time For MSN To Pony Up To The Real Truth About Referrer Spam Michael Vandemar: Microsoft Needs To Quit Fucking With My AdSense Scripts – this is something [...]

]]> By: kichus http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2770 kichus Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:18:12 +0000 http://www.seo-scoop.com/2007/11/13/past-time-for-msn-to-pony-up-to-the-real-truth-about-referrer-spam/#comment-2770 Making Live Search error free is not my pain... Don't threaten me with a ban if I block these spam referrals... I never depend on you for my food... Do you think MS allow me to spam them with an excuse of 'quality check'? Give respect and take respect... Monopoly won't rule... Making Live Search error free is not my pain… Don’t threaten me with a ban if I block these spam referrals… I never depend on you for my food…

Do you think MS allow me to spam them with an excuse of ‘quality check’? Give respect and take respect… Monopoly won’t rule…

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