Looks like Live.com (New MSN Search) is banning sites that use ’spammy’ technologies, like participating in link-exchange programs or using the services of link farms. An email from The Live Search Team was published in a Search Engine Watch forum that confirms the accusation:

Your site is acquiring links through posting to or exchanging links with sites unrelated to your site content. Techniques which attempt to acquire unrelated spam links in order to increase ranking are considered spam and your site has been excluded from our index as results. Please contact us once you’ve removed these links and we will reevaluate.

Live Search

I’m not sure if those ultra strict measures are fair, and in respect to sites honestly exchanging links I feel a just penalty shuold be a ranking decrease. Penalizing the site for the behavior is enough to punish them - banning them is another issue. However, considering that spammy techniques used in link farming dramatically affect the search results as a whole; some still feel Live.com’s measures could be fair.

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