timzaun.com: Web Association of Cleveland Presents: What is Up at Google? Panda? Google+?

On Friday November 4, 2011, the Web Association of Cleveland presented three industry leaders, Chris Boggs, Sage Lewis and Wendy Suto to discuss the latest happenings at Google, Google+ and Panda. Following are highlights from their appearances:

Wendy Suto, president of Search Circus, Inc. led the way by discussing Google's new Panda algorithm.

Panda algorithm is, in its simplest form, Google's latest efforts to discourage shoddy search engine techniques, including scrapers and spammers.

Suto promoted a May 2011 blog post highlighting what constitutes as high quality sites and content ( and yes, original content is still king and does apply).

Regarding content, consider these points:

Does the article have excessive ads (Google penalizes)?
Place the article first, and the ads towards the bottom of the page.
Vary your content when possible, including webinars, white papers, articles, video, PDFs. etc.

In the past, it was ok to submit one article to a variety of article marketing sites. Panda algorithm optimizes submission to one site. Find one site you like and make that your preference.

Sage Lewis, founder of SageRock Digital Marketing Agency spoke on Google +.

Lewis said that, compared to Facebook (800 million users), "nobody's there" on Google + (currently, 40 million users).

Google+ encourages you to create "circles," allowing different groups in your network to view specific content.

Google+ also includes Hangouts and Games.

4 Types of Posts are Possible on Google+:

Link Posts.
Video Posts.
Photo Posts.
Location Posts.

Your Google+ Stream:

Can disable comments.
Lock a post.

"Google+ gives you more control in an easier way than Facebook," says Lewis.

He also says Google+ has a clean layout with good usability. "Facebook is starting to feel cluttered."

Lewis concluded that Google+ has the potential to be the center of all your connections, including:

Blogging.
Social sharing (Facebook).
Business sharing (Twitter).
Email.

Chris Boggs, director of Search and Media Thought Leadership at Rosetta, stated that Google will be increasing its speed of relevant search results.

Boggs summarized the day's presentations and added his own perspective, including:

Panda and other algorithm updates are geared to primarily focus on the user; and Google+ helps to define that user.
The Caffeine algorithm update made things faster, but third parties continued to be needed to provide true, "real time" results.
Instead of having to rely on third parties, Google has more of its own content, or other trusted content.

Boggs highlighted the blog post by Google co-founder, Larry Page: 10 Things We Know to be True.

He also reminded the audience that "Google is more of a marketing company than a technology company."

To download premiere, Boston-based, Hubspot's "How to Use Google+ for Business Guide," as well register for their free, Google+ Business Page Q and A webinar, Friday November 11 at 1pm EDT, visit Hubspot.