Microsoft launched its first major update to Live Search Webmaster Tools since November, adding crawl issue feedback, backlink data, improved filtering, and the ability to export data in CSV format to Excel for offline analysis. Update: Five minutes after publishing, the Live Search Webmaster Team let us know they were delayed a little, and that the update should go live at 5: 00 EDT.


We got a sneak top of the update from Live Search ‘ s Jeremiah Andrick and Nathan Buggia, who imply, ” search has be reformed undertaking critical ” for websites. This update to the Webmaster Tools service is intended to helping hand webmasters work out more appropriate rankings in Live Search, and to turn out a two - road dialog between webmasters and Live Search.

In other words, real answers a lot of FAQs, provides a lot of data, and eliminates a lot of theorizing in terms of penalties and/or achieving higher progression. ” No other search engine provides this data, ” Buggia assured us.

The update revolves around a few frequently posed questions about cooperative a website ‘ s nearness tuck away a search engine. Is my site being crawled and indexed? Did the Live Search bot encounter scrap issues era crawling my site? Retain I incurred portion penalties? Who ‘ s linking to my site? Is my robots. txt file configured properly?

Naturally, in response to questions, Live Search identified four informal ” crawl issues ”

  • Broked links / File Not Fix ( 404 ): Webmaster Tools will list URLs Live Search tried to crawl but was unable to due to weak words or misspelled fit.
  • Robots Exclusion Protocol: Obviously, if robots. txt, a meta mark, or HTTP lick characteristic is used to obstruct a search crawler, actual ‘ s often on aspiration. On the erase arise a URL is blocked inadvertently, Webmaster Tools leave afford a catalogue of links not indexed for this reason.
  • Long URL: Live Search flags URLs hush up ” markedly stringy doubt superintendence ” for agitation of an infinite loop plot ( Google calls them ” infinite spaces ” ). The ” King-size Go-getter URLs ” report helps webmasters name links they should regard shortening. How towering is prohibitively expanded? The team suggests that if live won ‘ t fit into an email subject line, essential ‘ s awfully spread out.
  • Unsupported Content Types: Live Search likes content types commensurate HTML, XML, Powerpoint, etc., and maintains a list of acceptable content types. Unsupported content - types, identical. exe files, are not supported and will not serve indexed by Live Search.

Buggia says that, unlike Google, Live Search does not penalize for backlinks coming from shady neighborhoods. Nevertheless, a webmaster likes to know position his or her traffic originates. For that basis, Webmaster Tools momentarily has a filter functionality that allows webmasters to track backlinks from specific domains or subdomains ( digg. com for case ), and from top precise domains (. fr,. uk, etc. ).

Sometimes that loving of data liability appear as fine for websites curtain a lot of pages, which is why the filtering functionality allows webmasters to filter results by up to two subdomains or subfolders.

An winning up-to-date attribute is the ability to export data in CSV ( comma separated values ) silhouette to Excel or other reporting tool for examination offline. You list of crawl issues or backlinks, for example, can now into Excel.

The Live Search team also said they now provide penalty notifications and descriptions.