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So MSN Search Switched to Live.com the other night. Guess what... Live.com is not passing referer data. I.e. you will not know what type of traffic you are getting from live.com. You won't know you got 10 or 100 or 1,000 visitors from Live.com. You won't know what keywords they searched on in Live.com to find you in the free results. You won't know!
MSN Search did pass referer information, but Live.com is not, at the moment at least.
I verified this with my stats from yesterday, nothing from Live.com and I know I used to get some MSN Search traffic (which has now been replaced by Live.com).
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.
Comments:
martin - webseo
09/15/2006 02:43 pm
I just checked and I don't see any referrals from MSN (or Live.com) since 09/12/06. I just made a test search there and it doesn't have a referrer. Interesting. I wonder how long it will take them to fix this. ooops! martin
Andrew
09/15/2006 04:41 pm
Search Industry to MSN: <em>JUST MAKING YOUR SEARCH ENGINE PRETTIER DOESN'T MAKE IT NOT SUCK.</em> Spend some time making your algorithm return useful results, <em>THEN</em> work on its candy-licious-ness. You'd think the massive drop in MSN Search usage since the last redesign would be a little hint. But, alas, no. They continue to be morons up in Redmond.
webmama
09/15/2006 05:07 pm
Confirmed by my clients. MSN has been showing some great results with respect to PPC lately and not being able to track how many visitors we get through Live means I can't show revenue from organic traffic. [We usually just use the same conversion rate as the PPC campaigns even though I believe organic converts at a higher rate - a whole n'other topic.
Tim
09/15/2006 06:12 pm
I'm seeing HTTP_referer data now. I wasn't able to test earlier, but as of 2PM EST I'm getting referer info.
Everfluxx
09/16/2006 12:26 pm
If you see a referer from live.com in your logs, chances are that: a) the user had JavaScript support disabled in his/her browser; OR b) the user was using Opera, the only browser I've tested so far that is able to pass referer information through the JavaScript code used by Windows Live Search for SERP click tracking.
Tim
09/16/2006 06:12 pm
Well, the user was in fact myself using Firefox without no JS or other odd disablings... However, using a different PC this afternoon I cannot see referer info. Then again, a moment ago via remote access, I was able to repeat the same exact search and see referer data of http://beta.search.live.com/results.aspx?q=... (same as yesterday) The only difference in setup is ISP.
Aaron Shear
09/17/2006 04:26 pm
If they actually passed any measurable traffic this might be important.
Kichus
09/20/2006 05:37 am
Hmm... Today I saw a referral from MSn...in my stats,.... Did they fix that,,,..???
webmaster
09/23/2006 09:18 am
Is there only referer diffrence or any thing else between MSN and live.com ?
Sergio
11/04/2006 07:38 am
MSN and live.com support?
Abdul
01/25/2007 12:22 pm
I've found some interesting entries in my website's logs. Today "something" has entered from 131.107.0.95 and 131.107.0.96 (Microsoft) and what is in referrer? Yes, search.live.com an queries with keywords like: lesbian, chevrolet etc. My website is of course not connected with such a keywords. Do you know something about it? Maybe some worm?
optimizer
01/29/2007 01:17 am
I too just got a hit from 131.107.0.96 which is a search for "BMW" on Live.com. I don't know what is going on but my website is not even indexed yet.
SEO Hacker
05/16/2007 09:40 am
I also got a lot of "noise", check my post here: http://www.seohacking.com/2007/05/16/is-live-going-to-crash/