Troubleshoot MSN publishing quality and formatting errors

Low-quality formatting and editorial errors can prevent your content from being promoted on MSN or lead to poor user engagement. This page outlines common issues like invalid dates, poor media formatting, and misleading links that may result in content demotion or rejection.

Why was my article rejected due to a formatting issue?

Articles with broken HTML, missing media, unescaped characters, or missing paragraph breaks may be flagged as low-quality. Clean up your formatting and ensure valid HTML to improve visibility.

What are the accepted date formats for publishing content?

Only RFC 3339 and RFC 822 date formats are accepted. Dates must be in the past and no more than 365 days old. Incorrect or missing dates will cause ingestion failure.

Can I republish old content with a new date?

Only evergreen content may be republished with updated context. Republishing without indicating updates or justification may lead to content rejection or demotion.

Related links should only appear at the bottom of the article or in the designated right-hand panel. Related sections at the top or within the first three paragraphs will be flagged.

Why is my content not displaying media correctly?

Missing, irrelevant, or broken media embeds—like video tags or slideshow elements that fail to load—can trigger display issues and cause content to be skipped or demoted.

What causes low-quality image rejections?

Images that are blurry, poorly cropped, too small, or uncredited may reduce content visibility. Ensure proper resolution and attribution. Learn more about MSN content guidelines.

Why was my article flagged for excessive linking?

Content should avoid three or more consecutive links in the article body and should not include backlinks to the original source within the first three paragraphs.

What are common readability issues to fix?

Articles that lack paragraph breaks, contain special character encoding errors, or are difficult to read due to formatting will underperform and may be suppressed.

Why was my content marked as duplicate?

Articles with identical or near-identical text to another published post may be skipped during ingestion unless clearly updated with new context or tagged as a repost.