News on Google Marketing, according to Search Engine Land: Google released the 20th Panda algorithm update, which is named the Panda 20. This update isn’t just a data refresh but an algorithm update, that impacts 2.4% of English search queries and is still rolling out.
Google also announced that the chances of a low-quality exact match domain ranking well will be reduced with an exact match domain update. However, a drop in rankings was noticed by a lot of non-exact match domain site owners.
Over the next 3-4 days, Google promises more to come with this Panda algorithm update.
Google’s Matt Cutts said that “Google began rolling out a new update of Panda on Thursday, 9/27. This is actually a Panda algorithm update, not just a data update. A lot of the most-visible differences went live Thursday 9/27, but the full rollout is baking into our index and that process will continue for another 3-4 days or so. This update affects about 2.4% of English queries to a degree that a regular user might notice, with a smaller impact in other languages (0.5% in French and Spanish, for example).
The only problem now is that this Panda update or the EMD update has affected many sites and it is difficult to identify which of this updates are affecting these sites.
Read more at Google Panda Update 20 Released, 2.4% Of English Queries Impacted
News on Social Marketing, according to Brafton: thoughtful guest blogging is a good thing for brands. However, Google’s Matt Cutts suggested that sharing low-quality content through guest blogging has increased and a lot of web writers and marketers abuse guest blogging as a way to boost link building without offering quality site content.
That is why Cutts gave a word of caution to those hopeful guest bloggers.
“It used to be the case that guest blogging was a very respectable thing. You’d hand write something really thoughtful,” he said. “There are a lot of guys who are now writing one article and they’ll make 50 copies of it, changing a few words and they’ll ask to do a guest post on your blog. They’re just doing that to try to get links.”
Cutts also said that manufactured content is not helpful for readers and links detected around low-quality guest blog posts are targeted by the search giant’s quality algorithms.
Penguin, which targets links schemes, will try to eliminate this gray hat practice.
Carson Ward, SEOmoz blog contributor, encouraged marketers to use guest blogging as part of their content marketing strategy and apply the same editorial and SEO standards they use for all site articles and blogs. If the posts are low-quality, links may result in Penguin issues and sites will be punished for using dishonest practices to drive inbound links and boost search standing. A loss in traffic for sites relying on guest blogging to drive inbound links may be an indication that the endorsements from these pages are being discounted by Penguin.
Read more at Guest blogging: The good and the bad for SEO
News on Social Marketing, according to Marketing Pilgrim: Apple, the usually near flawless company, is experiencing problems with their new mapping system. Bad directions, terrible images and generally bad information have made Apple Maps a bit amusing.
All Things D Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller has this to say:
“Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features including Apple Maps, our first map service. We are excited to offer this service with innovative new features like Flyover and Siri integration, and free turn by turn navigation. We launched this new map service knowing that it is a major initiative and we are just getting started with it. We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a cloud-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get. We’re also working with developers to integrate some of the amazing transit apps in the App Store into iOS Maps. We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better.”
This is going to be terrible mobile experience for users as they will be used as maps lab rat while upgrading to the new iOS 6 for an awfully imperfect product. It is simply the fact that Apple’s Maps product is a poor substitute for Google Maps.
Read more at Apple’s Response to Map Flap: Just Use It and It Will Get Better
Other Social Marketing Articles of Interest
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