MSN prioritizes high-quality content that is timely, engaging, and optimized for its platform. While all content must comply with video content guidelines and publishing requirements, some issues—though not explicitly prohibited—can significantly reduce how often content surfaces to consumers. This page outlines the most common pitfalls that can impact discoverability or user engagement on MSN. Use it as a checklist to ensure your articles and galleries are set up for succe
Evergreen content may be republished on MSN, but the publication date must reflect the original publish date or clearly indicate when updates were made. Using future-dated timestamps, assigning the current date to older articles, or including an invalid or missing date can lead to content demotion or reduced visibility. Read more about acceptable date formats here.
Watch out for:
Content published on MSN should be designed to engage readers on the MSN platform, not redirect them elsewhere. Posts that serve primarily as gateways to the original site—especially very short articles or those with early outbound links—are likely to be demoted.
Watch out for:
Best practices:
"Related Links” sections—such as “Read More,” “Recommended,” or similar—should only appear at the end of an article or in the right-hand sidebar (as displayed in the MSN layout). Placing these links mid-article or within the first few paragraphs can disrupt the reading experience and reduce the article’s visibility.
Watch out for: