Google Updates "Panda," SEM Expected to Rise 16% in 2011

April 18, 2011 | by | Category:

This week in our blogosphere recap we’ll review four blog posts from last week that look at new updates to Google Panda, search marketing’s expected growth in 2011, adoption rates for Facebook’s comments plugin and more! Below are some of the highlights from these articles:

High-quality sites algorithm goes global, incorporates user feedback

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog | Amit Singhal | 4-11-11

Last week Google announced new additions to their month-old algorithm change (AKA Google Panda) from last month, which aimed to provide “more high-quality sites in search.” Google has now rolled out this change to all English-language users worldwide and begun to integrate “new user feedback signals.” For some queries, the search engine confirms they’re looking at data from their new Google personalization feature that allows users to block certain domains from their search results.

Additional info:

  • Google points out in their blog post that while the original algorithm change impacted nearly 12% of U.S. queries, these new changes will only affect 2% of queries.

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Search Marketing To Grow 16% This Year [REPORT]

Mashable | Todd Wasserman | 4-13-11

According to a recent SEMPO report, search engine marketing will see a 16% increase in 2011, reaching $19.3 billion. Last year, search marketing saw just slightly less of an increase, with a 14% increase. Of the 920 companies polled in SEMPO’s online survey, 84% claim to use Facebook for business promotion, 75% use Twitter and 52% use LinkedIn.

Additional info:

  • The surveyed companies also reported an increase in their use of mobile marketing and pointed to local search as the most prominent new trend.
  • Findings also showed that marketers are increasingly turning to agencies for their SEO and social media.

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Facebook: Our Comments Plugin Increases Publisher Traffic up to 45% [STATS]

ReadWriteWeb | Mike Melanson | 4-12-11

Last week Facebook announced new features and initial metrics around their new Facebook commenting plugin, which rolled out last month. Since the plugin’s launch, Facebook claims that over 50,000 websites have added it to their site. Among the new features is the ability for users to log-in to Facebook comments via their Hotmail account; Facebook hasn’t yet mentioned adding Google or Twitter as options. ReadWriteWeb points out that Facebook cited two different websites who have seen major success using the new plugin, possibly as a response to claims from the online community that the comments plugin will dissuade users from leaving comments since it requires a “real identity.”

Additional info:

  • One success story Facebook points to in their announcement is Townsquare Media, who has seen as much as a 45% boost in Facebook referral traffic since starting to use the plugin.

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Bing & Yahoo Pass 30% Search Engine Market Share, Hitwise Says

Search Engine Land | Matt McGee | 4-11-11

Recent data findings from Experian Hitwise show that Bing-powered search grew beyond a 30% market share in March. This is the highest the Bing & Yahoo Search Alliance’s share has grown since Bing started powering results for Yahoo! organic search in August 2010. Bing grew by 6% and Yahoo! by 5% in March. While Google still remains dominant in market share, the search giant declined in market share from 66.69% in February to 64.42% in March.

Main Takeaways:

  • For the first time since forming their Search Alliance, Bing and Yahoo! rose to over a 30% market share in March.
  • Google’s market share decreased from 66.69% to 64.42% from February to March.

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