MSN is fighting hard with Yahoo! to be the most popular portal, and as long as Microsoft has it as the default setting for Internet Explorer, MSN will win. Strangely, when people think of "search engines" they often don't consider MSN. This is probably because, like most portals, its results are a hybrid of data sources.

This gives you more than one bite of the cherry at trying to get your site listed on the front page for your chosen keyphrase. It also means you need to be up in the top three in those data sources to achieve a first page position, not just within the top twenty. At Receptional we recommend only ONE prime keyphrase for any site. Being found under anything else is a fairly lucky bonus.

So - how do you win on MSN?

1. First type into the MSN search box the phrase that you hope to win on and take a moment to look at the environment you are working in. You may find you have been "bumped" to a regional version of MSN. If you are in the US but hope to attract UK surfers, then you may not be seeing the results that your potential clients are seeing. Last time I checked it was possible to fix this by changing the country settings in your control panel to those of your intended audience.

2. MSN initially returns web directory results - better known as Looksmart or, in the UK, BTLooksmart. To get into Looksmart, you will need to have a title and description ready together with your credit card. If you want UK users, get 5% off by submitting through www.receptional.com/looksmart. Believe it or not, if you say what your keyphrase is, the editors will try to help. Looksmart is one of the few search result providers which has decided that their customer is you, not the surfer. When you get into Looksmart, there are a few things you need to check:

a) If your title and description are not to your liking, you must appeal. Editors are often obliging.

b) In the US (so probably also soon elsewhere) you can now buy "premium listings" on specific phrases. You should be aware that there are only four premium spots per keyphrase, so my advice is get in quick. Without paying for a premium position there is no way to guarantee your position, so again - money talks.

c) In the UK, you are only allowed to submit one page per URL (using basic submit a site via www.receptional.com/looksmart/submit.htm), although you can deep link to individual product pages within your site using BT Looksmarts Pay Per Click program. This allows you to have multiple listings that direct users to different parts of your website (www.btlooksmart.com/en/listingproducts.html).

d) If you are submitting your website to Looksmart.com, it is extremely important to note that your Looksmart.co.uk listing will be altered to match your new listing from Looksmart.com. Once the Looksmart.com editor has written a description and title based on the contents of your site, it will automatically overwrite your existing listing in Looksmart.co.uk.

3. After Looksmart results, the rest of the world gets a look in, as MSN pulls its data from Inktomi. It is a pity Inktomi isn't free now either. Before submitting to Inktomi, make sure your whole site is optimised, but in particular, the page(s) that you intend to submit. For your money Inktomi merely promises to spider your page, not rank it highly, but our analysis suggests that an optimised paid inclusion will outstrip an unpaid listing most of the time. Registration is done via www.inktomi.com.

4. In many searches, MSN merges its Inktomi results with a few from the Direct Hit search engine. This engine is excellent if your site already receives heavy traffic and is reasonably optimised for engines. This is because Direct Hit uses a technology that ranks popular sites higher than quiet ones. I have heard of people getting into Direct Hit, finding their site deep in the results and clicking on it every now and then to bump it up the rankings. My time is too precious for that, but who knows?

5. Now before you think this is all too much, what do you think a banner advert would have cost on MSN? Well, Watford Electronics was quoted £250,000 (EUR 400,000)!