We've already covered in past blog articles some of the basics about how webmasters can use a file called robots.txt to control how search engine crawlers (aka bots) crawl their websites. But there is so much more to talk about with bots. So let's take a bit of a deeper dive into the subject. Topic 1...

You've seen it. So have I. Nearly every person who has actively browsed the Web for more than 15 minutes has seen it. I'm talking about the dreaded 404 File Not Found error. When it occurs, users simply abandon their search on that site and go elsewhere. That's a potential lost sale, subscription, or...

We've been really busy here at the Bing Webmaster Center blog team, pumping out new content on a regular basis to create a nice library of content on issues that matter to webmasters and online publishers . I thought I'd take a moment to catch my breath, pause on creating a new thematic article (or yet...

OK, so I totally geeked out with my recommendations on how to better secure your webmaster computing environment. As a result, I had too much material for one post and thus had to split it up into two pieces. Let’s wrap up this long series of posts on malware by finishing up with the last of the security...

We’re going to diverge a bit from our regularly scheduled programming. Normally this column discusses search engine optimization (SEO) and related elements of search engine marketing (SEM), but we’re knee deep into our multi-part series on malware and we’re going to begin the wrap-up with a talk about...

Malware infections are no laughing matter. When they afflict your website, they can infect your customers, who won’t appreciate your sharing, intentional or not (and I’m guessing it’s not)! And if Bing discovers malware on your site, your listing in the Bing search engine results pages (SERPs) will either...

The Web is an incredible place, filled with amazing media, fascinating content, and wonderful social opportunities, and there’s more of each than anyone can possibly ever consume. But unfortunately, it’s not a benign place. There are more than a few malefactors out there who actively seek...

When I attended both SMX Advanced in Seattle back in June and SES San Jose just a couple of weeks ago, I heard a lot of questions from webmasters about Bing, especially pertaining to search engine optimization issues. Typically these included: I want to do SEO for Bing—where should I start? How is Bing...

We recently published a non-SEM 101 blog post on controlling the crawl rate of MSNBot , the Bing web crawler (aka robot, or simply just bot). That got me thinking about robots. Naturally, that led to The Robot on Lost in Space . Will Robinson , the show’s precocious youngster who was a whiz at 1960s...

We recently published a popular blog post called Get detailed site analysis to solve problems that highlights the function and capabilities of the new, beta search engine optimization (SEO) Toolkit from the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) team. The tool works as an extension to the latest...

Have you ever noticed how pirate treasure maps are like Sitemaps? While your website may not contain a treasure of gold and silver (unless it’s a metals commodities trading site!), if you have good content, that is certainly treasure to someone who is looking for it. Unfortunately, it’s buried...

Last week I discussed common site errors that can inhibit the search engine crawler (aka bot). I pointed out common areas of concern and recommended a few tools to help diagnose such issues on your site’s pages. This week, I wanted to introduce a new tool for your collection that will be of great...

Imagine being a content developer for a website. You write a bunch of clever and informative articles, which should deliver a good dose of new visitors and ranking potential to the site. You submit them to the IT department for publishing online, and wait for good things to happen. But instead, it all...

The old adage that was once attributed to a Chinese proverb tells us, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” But John McCarthy , a noted mathematician and computer science pioneer, stated conversely, “As the Chinese say, 1001 words is worth more than a picture.” Perhaps McCarthy...

Much of what constitutes a well-architected webpage is never displayed in the page itself. The contents of the <body> tag are what you see in a browser. But a webpage consists of two major elements, the <body> tag only being one. The content of the <head> tag (and for that matter, the...