MSN Live Search Ranking Factors

Ziya Genceren Gives it Up

Eric Enge’s recent interview with Microsoft’s Ziya Genceren provides some pretty unique insights into Microsoft’s involvement in local search, thorough Live Search Maps.

MSN Live Search Maps actually has an edge over Google Maps in my opinion, both in usability and innovation with features such as the birds eye arial view, and live traffic updates. From a local search perspective, the listings actually change based on the area you’re hovering around on a particular map.

No one has paid much attention to live search maps, but it is a contender in local search for those who brace internet explorer. And with IE still capturing close to 70% of what I know, that makes positioning on Live Search pretty lucrative to businesses that don’t have a particularly tech savvy audience.

Ziya’s Top Factors for Live Search Rankings

There are 300+ factors that determine local seo listings for live search, although these are the most important as indicated by Ziya Genceren in the interview with Eric Enge:

1. Keywords in the business name Eg: Joe’s Pizza Shop, Toronto, Ontario.
2. Category membership based on meta data. Eg: ABC Optometrist, Category: Optometrists, Eye Doctors, Eye Clinics.
3. 3rd Party Vendor Data based – Hours of operation, Payment accepted.
4. Distance from query location (local centroid).
5. Business reviews are currently not taken into account.
6. Yelp, Zagat, UGC content will be considered in the near future.
7. 3rd party vendor information from Info USA, Yellow Pages, and Axciom is trusted more than UGC.

Read the entire interview to get more scoop on Live Search Maps ranking over at the STC blog.