I’m sure you’ve heard the news – it is Facebook after all – that Facebook has acquired Glancee for an undisclosed amount of moolah. Speculation is still stirring on what they plan to do with the ‘friendly stalking’ app, but it’s quite simple. And while Instagram was purchased because its popularity and skyrocketing user base was starting to scare the social networking giant, Glancee has been gliding relatively under the radar since its inception in 2010. Let’s take a look at some numbers…

• Facebook = over 840 million users
• Instagram = over 35 million users
• Foursquare = over 10 million users
• Glancee = over 20 thousand users

Facebook vs. Instagram vs. Google+

By acquiring Instagram, Facebook eliminated its largest mobile competitor for photo sharing. Since one of the cardinal reasons people use Facebook is to share photos and creep on others’ albums (I didn’t just say that…), it only makes sense that it would buy its main competitor in that arena before it was too late.

Although Google bought photo editing site Picnik back in March of 2010, it has just recently fully integrated it with Google+. Now, while Facebook is still unclear on what they ultimately plan to do with Instagram, here is what I’m guessing.

1. Add photo editing (lens adding) options to photos when you upload them to Facebook.
2. Make Facebook the default sharing option for Instagram.
3. Create overall seamless integration between the two networks so that people can easily connect with and navigate between them and thereby have all social networking (Like, Share, Comment, etc.) and photo sharing options in one convenient location.

If Facebook ends up doing these, they will essentially be eliminating the need for anyone to go on Google+, because most of what people do on social networks will be available in one place. Granted this is not counting the obvious search engine optimization and social media optimization requirements that will motivate businesses to maintain Google+ activity, but it is definitely important to note.

Oh, and for those who still believe Google+ is going to somehow take off and one day overturn its dictatorial adversary, here’s another thought. While it’s fun hanging out on Google+ and all, can anyone say Facebook-Skype integration five times fast?

Facebook vs. Foursquare

Okay this isn’t as epic as Facebook vs. Google, but this is where Glancee comes into play. With Foursquare, you need to check in to different places to earn points, win awards and ultimately become mayor of that location. With Glancee, however – the ‘friendly stalking’ app – you don’t need to check into anywhere. Instead, while you don’t even realize it (Facebook Privacy issues, anyone?), Glancee finds people with similar interests in your area based on Facebook and Twitter profiles and let’s you know who’s around.

Not only is Facebook making a clear statement of its intent to improve both its strength and reach in the mobile world via the acquisitions of Instagram and Glancee, but it’s also looking to reverse the downfall of Facebook Places and ultimately become the most relevant mobile app for connecting similar people in similar locations. There is no word on whether or not Facebook will include a points system based on ‘check-ins’, but regardless – this is a major step for the social media gargantuan to corner the mobile market and truly be the all-inclusive social network, a statement that seemed practically impossible two years ago.

Where are my iPhone fans out there? Is anyone else as addicted as I am? Ever since the iPhone 4S came out last year, Siri has been causing quite a stir in the smartphone world, and has made an impression on millions of people worldwide. But what many are failing to realize is Siri’s enormous potential for local businesses.

I know I’ve told Siri, “I’m hungry for some delicious (whatever) food around here” countless times, and every time she instantly delivers a list of restaurants with ratings and reviews. And after going through the top 5 or so listings and checking out their listing and what other people had to say about them, I choose one and get on with life. For local businesses, Siri holds the key to getting new customers into your location and really capturing the mobile market in your niche. This is especially true for Internet marketing in Orange County because people are always on the go and it seems like everyone has an iPhone these days.

Here are some ways to get Siri on your good side and influence her to get prospective customers into your business.

Check YELP!
When it comes to finding local businesses, Apple has made it pretty clear to Siri that she should stick to Yelp listings when giving advice to iPhone 4S users. And with the most recent iOS 5.1 update, Siri is even more fused with the review site. This means three things:

1. Make sure your business listing is claimed, complete, current and optimized.
2. Encourage customers to share their experiences with these 3 Sure-Fire Tactics to Get Reviews.
3. Respond to both positive and negative reviews on your account.

Basically you need as many good reviews as possible, but having 200 reviews with an average of 4 stars is better than 20 reviews with a 5 star average. The more activity, the merrier.

Siri also looks at other local listing sites like Citysearch, Super Pages, YP, Insider Pages, etc., which are also important for your local search marketing campaign. But with the iOS 5.1 update, Apple has made it pretty clear that Yelp is the most important.

Talk with Siri Like You’d Talk to Your Friends

Siri enables a new style of mobile search because you can talk to her. Instead of typing things into your iPhone and looking for local businesses that way, you are speaking to her and asking her for advice. What does this mean? Long-tail keywords.

In your listings you should not just be including the strict keywords and short key phrases youre optimizing for in your Local SEO campaign. You should also be including phrases long-tail keywords- that would appear in colloquial conversation. Heres an example..

Traditional SEO: “web designer Orange County“
Getting SIRIous: “looking for a web designer in Orange County”

The great part about this is that even by adding both to your local listing, it doesn’t mean that you need to do more work for your Internet marketing campaign. In fact, you’re actually cutting down on time. When you humanize and naturalize your listing, you will not only be helping your mobile search efforts, but you will also be improving your overall local search marketing campaign because Google, too, is getting smart by the day.

In the ‘social media for business’ realm, there are constantly an abundance of tips and tricks being thrown around. From all aspects of both offline and Internet marketing in Orange County and across the globe, we constantly hear different perspectives on how to increase Likes/Followers, induce more activity from our fan base and ultimately enhance our business presence online. However, when it comes down to it, all of these ideas come back to four main social media marketing concepts:

• Monitor
• Respond
• Interact/Engage
• Humanize Your Activity

One thing people fail to realize is the importance of brand advocates. In order to grow your brand, one of the easiest and oldest tricks in the book is to reward those who like you and talk you up to their friends. Lauren Carlson, a CRM Analyst for Software Advice, has written a great blog post on the topic and has included an interview with Duke Chung, founder of Parature, which also appears below.

In the video, Mr. Chung gives 5 tips for businesses to flourish in social media. Pay extra attention to the fourth and fifth tips, as these are unique ideas that you might not have thought of for your business.

How many times have you looked at reviews to get more information about a product or service” Wait, let me rephrase that. The last time you bought an app for your phone or searched for a restaurant in your area, did you happen to glance at how many stars it had or what people were saying about it” The answer for most is a resounding “YES”!; and sometimes you probably look at ratings and form opinions without even realizing it.

Whenever I’m looking to buy a new app for my iPhone and can’t decide which one to get – especially because there seems to be 10 apps for everything nowadays I’m always looking at how many stars they have and how peoples experiences with them have been. And when I finally narrow it down to 2 or 3 that have similar ratings, I usually go with the one that has more of them because it’s more trustable.

I’ve been on both sides of the review game. A few years back during my college days in Madison, WI (Go Badgers!!), I was a server/bartender/self-appointed GM (long story) of a restaurant and lounge, where I found that online reviews brought in a lot of new customers and dramatically increased sales. Now working for GMR Web Team, we are always trying to think of new ways to get our clients’ customers to share their (always positive, of course) thoughts on them. And trust me it’s not as easy as it sounds. But that aside, here are 3 tactics that have worked very well for me and can be used for virtually any type of business.

RESPOND
When’s the last time you checked your Yelp or Google Places/Maps listings? How about local review sites to see what people are saying about you? If you have, excellent; if not…. you know the drill.

Whenever you are reviewed you need to respond within a couple of days. This shows your customers (reviewers) and prospects (readers) that you genuinely appreciate their feedback and care enough to take the time and respond. You can simply drop a ‘thank you’ line, or, preferably, turn it into a conversation by asking them more questions, saying something about the product/service they reviewed, etc.

What you say is important- very important- but if you’re unsure exactly what to write, or somehow become enveloped by some unexplainable euphoric haze that clouds your mind and renders you speechless (too much?), just make sure you say something. What will take you 5 minutes can increase your business fivefold. Its that easy.

WHAT YOU REAP IS WHAT YOU SOW

1. Next to the Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc. icons on your website and blog, you should add new icons that link to all of your review sites.
2. Include a “Review us on” line in the About sections of each of your social networks.
3. Every couple of weeks, make a Facebook status update/tweet asking your fan base to review you and provide a link to the site. When wording the content, make sure you are genuinely appreciative of your customers and are always touched when people take the time out of their busy schedules to write a review of you. And when you are reaching out to your Friends and Followers, it is very unlikely that they will post a negative comment about you.
4. Do the same as above, but in an empathetic and short email to your email list. This is both highly targeted and is a simple process for possible reviewers, as all they have to do is click the links in the email and they will automatically be redirected to the site.
5. When it’s time for them to check out, either online or in-store, feed the information directly to them. If its online, provide customers with links to review their purchase, along with way to connect to your various social media accounts. If its in store, hand them a flyer, look at them in the eye and say something like, Thanks so much for coming in. It would really mean a lot to me if you would write a short review online whenever you have a moment. Its also a good idea to get their email information so you can follow up with it as well. Chances are that they’ll probably forget about it by the time they get home.

INCENTIVES

And by incentives, I really mean free samples. Think about it…..

1. Who doesn’t like free stuff?

And

2. WHO DOESN’T LIKE FREE(!!!) STUFF?!?!

By giving out free samples of your products/services, you are one step closer to making some new friends. And what do friends typically do to other friends” Support them. Exactly. In this case, your support for them was the free sample, and their reciprocation is the review that you so innocently asked them to write when they were paying their bill.

I did this so much when I was a server it was insane. I’d give them a free appetizer for a variety of very random reasons…

“Hey, it’s cold outside… Here’s some flamin’ hot Kasseri (Greek cheese) to warm ya up!” (*cue music from Ferris Bueller* *chika*chikaahh*)
-OR-
“Happy Friday! Here’s a little hummus platter on the house to start your evening off on the wild side.”
-OR-
“You know what? You two seem like really awesome people. Whats your favorite appetizer on the menu? It’s on me.”

Okay I usually said that last one to cute, non-married women; but hey, it’s the thought that counts, right? And while those are just examples, you can do the same for your products/services as well. In the grand scheme of things, food costs on appetizers were small and we would usually end up throwing some out every night because they had to be fresh. The opportunity to get a customer for life who will be your word of mouth advocate, bring their friends to their newfound hotspot and increase your list of regulars is priceless.

For your business, give out something that doesn’t cost a lot but still provides value and encompasses your operations. Also look to give out any new products you’re launching, as this will both increase their exposure and encourage people to write about them, with the latter further reinforcing the former.

Here’s some dessert to end things on a pretty sweet note..

• Traffic increased 158% last year to the top 10 review sites (Compete.com)90% of consumers who trust recommendations from people they know (Ecoconsultancy, July 2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics)
• 70% of consumers trust recommendations from people they dont know (Ecoconsultancy, July 2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics)
• 92% of people have more confidence in info found online than they do in sales people/other sources (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 2009)
• 70% of people look at reviews/ratings before buying a product/service (BusinessWeek, Oct. 2008)
• 7/10 who read reviews share them, increasing their reach (Deloitte & Touche, Sept. 2007)

Now take a minute to digest that. Yep, reviews are important folks. What are your experiences with getting reviews? What has worked and what hasn’t work” Lets brainstorm!

If you haven’t heard the name Flixel, take note of it now, because in a few months it’s going to be huge. This innovative photography iPhone app allows anyone to create beautiful pictures that have lives of their own.

The interface is simple: you take a picture, and with a few simple taps and swipes on the screen of the Flixel iPhone app, you can manipulate the picture and add motion to the image. Candles can flicker, hair can gently blow in the wind, and pages can flutter. All this in a matter of minutes. In the past, such images would take hours to create, and usually required familiarity with Photoshop. Now, the power of beautiful, subtle image manipulation is at everyone’s fingertips.

This is the time when small business owners should utilize Flixel – right now, before it becomes a household name. Currently, there’s nothing like it available on the web and it creates lovely, eye-catching images. For example, a website design firm that uses Flixel-made images will show that they possess not only good taste, but an eye for technology trends. For a local search marketing company, advertisements using Flixel would undoubtedly catch the reader’s eye, and help them think of the advertised businesses in a very positive light. There are endless possibilities, it’s really a lot of fun and you could be a leader in the next wave of app stardom.

For past two weeks, the Internet has been ablaze with news of Facebook’s purchase of Instagram, which I’m sure you’re sick of just like myself. People were furious about the buy-out and vowed to leave Instagram if changes were made to the site or their images. But they may leave anyway – Flixel features color manipulation templates that are comparable to Instagrams’, but Instagram can’t compete when it comes to the beautiful movement of cinematographic Flixel images. While there are many iPhone apps dedicated to editing images out there, this is one that requires and inspires creativity at the point of capturing the shot, not just after the shot by applying filter effects.

Internet marketing can be boring, BUT it can be fun, too. Add some jazz to your campaign and watch as your customers get out of their seats and join in on the action.

Get Your Social On
Social media is quickly becoming one of the most important ways of introducing your business to and engaging your customers. While Facebook has been getting all the attention in this regard, Twitter has picked up steam fast and Pinterest is gaining ground too. By posting tweets relevant to your niche, it is more likely that those who follow you will have an interest in your business.

Make sure to use relevant #hashtags to reach out to a wider spectrum of potential customers, but #do #not #use #too #many, as recent research suggests that hashtags are one of the least attractive/annoying things a Tweeter can do. Use a fun hashtag occasionally – one that isn’t about business – to show people that there is a face behind the logo and you are capable of intelligent quips. (I find that both random and sarcastic hashtags are the best at the end of tweets, but they must be friendly.)

Whatever you do, make sure you’re outside the box when brainstorming. Upload a birthday video to YouTube with cake splattered all over your boss’ face. Plan a ‘Wear a Prom Dress to Work Day’ in your office, take a photo of your team and upload it to Pinterest. Create a new photo album on Facebook that tells the history of your company, with each photo/description being a new chapter in the story. Just remember to have fun… it’s supposed to be.

Run a Crazy Cool Competition
Have you tried running a Leapfrog Contest? It’s fun! What about a crazy hair day contest at a retail store? A rain dance competition? Yeah these are a little quirky, but they’re fun! And people always love tapping into their inner child. Use a platform like Facebook to get participants and rouse excitement for the campaign.

Social networking sites provide the perfect platform for running competitions. You should structure your competitions so that they encourage users to visit your website and Like your homepage. An intriguing competition can get your Facebook page over thirty thousand Likes in a day if planned and executed well.

To run a successful contest on Facebook, utilize both online and offline resources and marketing strategies to tap into all audiences. Also make sure to invest in it. Spend a little extra money on cool prices and even economic incentives so people have a reason to participate. If it’s worth doing, its worth overdoing, right?

Make it YOURTube
The most viral videos on YouTube are the funniest/whackiest, and those that people connect with on an emotional level. (For now, let’s focus on the latter.) Tickle your audience’s funny bones and make people smile. They will definitely spread the word around. Some whacky video ideas could be creating a video collage of pranks pulled on coworkers; having a ‘Role Swap Day’ where your turn your office into a daycare center and invite your employees’ kids to come and watch over things for the day; or dressing up like a superhero – and I mean in full costume – and freaking out employees/customers throughout the day. It’s comic timing that matters, along with the priceless expressions that are captured.

Internet marketing campaigns based in viral YouTube videos can be great success. Creating viral YouTube videos for your campaign is a long-term strategy that will increase traffic to your site. It has proven very beneficial for some companies in their website marketing in Orange County as well. Since you can leave videos indefinitely on YouTube once they have been posted, your website will continue to enjoy traffic for years after the end of your campaign. You can make these videos go viral by following other tips, like running contests for comments and views.

Also make sure to optimize your YouTube videos and profile/channel. Incorporate your targeted keywords as much as you can, making sure they are relevant to the video and seamlessly integrate. Add keywords to the video’s title, description and meta tags. It’s also a good idea to create a background for YouTube that highlights your brand, includes key information and is both visually appealing and professional to boost your presence as well.

Me” Identity Crisis” Noooo…
Make a slogan or create a mascot that will make people remember you, or become a pirate! (Yes, I just went there.) People will remember you brandishing your sword and running around in your boxers forever. Top it off with a catchy slogan, like “ARRRGGHH you interested in virtual office solutions?” Okay maybe not a pirate for all companies, but nonetheless, be different. People will remember you.

Your slogan should be catchy enough to draw people’s attention for a long time. Mascots may not always be ideal for Internet marketing campaigns; however, there are many situations when having one can potentially bring your campaign to the next level. Your mascot should be intriguingly designed with certain visual elements included, such as your company’s logo, to ensure that people both remember it and associate it with your business. It’s all about brand recognition and awareness. Once you achieve this, you will have effectively captured your niche market and can have more freedom to try different marketing strategies to see what works.

Think Outside the Box
Numerous techniques have been applied in online marketing campaigns, especially for some focused on Internet Marketing in Orange County for example (hint, hint). For a new business, it can be quite difficult to get people’s attention using more traditional means. Thinking outside the box means you have to come up with a unique marketing strategy so as to create your own identity in the online community. For example, you can put a new twist on free giveaways for new customers and rely on their referrals to drive up your traffic.

No matter what you do, make sure it makes business sense and is possible, but is something that nobody has ever done before.

“….since the past few months some of your online scope analysis report has been added with don’t take this site. May I know why I should refuse a site when you have identified it as potential scope for online business’?” My boss’ email went on to give a few references.

In fact, I did not even know that I had done this (selective amnesia?) or was doing this often (split personality?). I was stumped. Why was I doing this?

NOTE: I never meet the client or communicate with them personally before preparing the online scope. I just get all information through a form email. Hence personal like or dislike was out.

FACTS: In our company when you get a lead the first activity we do is to ascertain that the business has online marketing scope. This is a part of my job and I have to make the assessment along with the help of some tools and trudge through all the data. It mainly includes the following-

1. Find out the product or service and then find out how many people are searching it online and where?
2. Examine the website design of the business and suggest stuff to make it better.
3. Suggest workable strategies for the business and develop a broad outline of the campaign.
4. Make sure the client can pay. (Oops that should have been at the top!)

THOSE BUSINESSES FULFILLED ALL CRITERIA; YET I SAID NO

Panic gave way to puzzlement. I am generally tagged as being too objective. Six years of website marketing and I have seen quite a lot. Could my instincts be telling me something? Suddenly I recalled a book on snap judgment; Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Some of my confidence came back.

ANALYSIS: I sat down to do some serious thinking. I thought of successful campaigns and what made them successful.

1. Great product or service: A great product or service encourages word-of-mouth marketing. It gives us confidence.
2. Large number of relevant searches: Search numbers matter despite long tailed and short tailed keyword search theory. Correct selection of conversion keywords like ‘web marketing company’ instead of ‘web marketing’ which is generic drives targeted traffic to a site making conversions higher.
3. Good Customer service: If a company gives good customer service people naturally leave reviews which makes the job easier for us.
4. Feedback from client: Very important and most underestimated. Correct feedback makes us know what worked and what did not. It also keeps the team morale high. (At this point I digress to point out that feedback differs from interference. Interference is negative and messes with timeline).
5. Timeline expectations: This makes a huge difference in terms of budget and expectations and delivery. Competitive businesses and keywords take longer. A relatively weak site takes longer, strong sites move faster.

Now I had it!

REASON #1 FOR NO: The product was useless and lousy.

REASON #2 FOR NO: The timeline suggested by the client wasunrealistic despite the amount of money he was offering.

REASON #3 FOR NO: Overbearing attitude in email suggesting highly interfering client.

REASON #4 FOR NO: Search numbers though large did not make sense when viewed with other data.

REASON #5 FOR NO: Web reviews showed the business had a large number of reviews complaining about the customer service and yet the product use required assistance as indicated in communication data. That was sheer indifference.

REASON #6 FOR NO: Oh well, it may have been a lousy judgment.

CONCLUSION: Snap judgment it was. But I can be logical about it in my response to my boss. I wonder if he would understand if I said it was snap judgment… I just wonder!

In the first week of March, on a Sunday evening I got a call from Ajay, the president of GMR Transcription. It was not a friendly call. As per him a single post by a transcriptionist on scam.com was costing GMR Transcription both in terms of reputation and money. He posed a simple question-If we can get pages on number one why cannot we remove scam.com from the listing” A reputation management company was asking for $10,000 and a years’ time. In a moment of total recklessness I told him I could do it in 3 months and for $3000. (You have to be raving mad to make a stupid commitment like that!)

Monday morning at the table I just wished I owned scam.com and Google. But I did not so I set down to plan and strategize. I am lucky about that, the other unlucky ones in office actually work hard for me.

PROBLEM: Type GMR Transcription (auto suggest comes up) and the listing causing pain came at #2 right above the fold. Aw, that hurt. . I knew they were there at that rank for the past 3 months but never got around to actually working on it.

Research into analytics showed 105 visits in a week from that search phrase. Did it matter? Of course it did; 400 brand searches for a small company. Now I know why Ajay was annoyed.

So here’s what I did.

Strategy 1: Find listings that are below scam.com and find the ones that we own like Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare. Work on them.

Strategy 2: Build the brand better. Start building brand keywords.

Strategy 3: There’s a blog on the site, find out why it’s not popular and work on it.

Strategy 4: Work on inner pages on the site.

RESULT: The irritant listing is now at #10. There is 3% rise in visits via brand name

CONCLUSION: Mission accomplished at halfway mark and just $231 spent.

ANALYSIS: Why we could do it? We were lucky. Most listings after #2 were owned by us. We just worked on them.

You may not be as lucky and a brand reputation can easily be made or destroyed. We had the basics right and hence with focus could partially rectify listing results.

While designing your website your main concern should be your audience. The people who visit and interact with your website are the reason that you are creating one in the first place, right” While designing your website strategy, these are the aspects you need to keep in mind:

LOOK

Predefine the look and feel of your website in terms of the color palette, imagery and visuals. What kind of impression do you want your audience to have of your company” How is your website enabling that” Look at both your competitors websites and those of some of your favorite brands. Write down the pros and cons of each it will really help you come up with an idea for your site. If you’re on the West Coast, it is a good idea to contact a company that specializes website design in California to help you out and at least give you some ideas.

LANGUAGE

Different companies have different languages while communicating with their audience. This is not only language in the literal sense, but also the kind of language that you use. Do you want to be more casual” Should the content of your website be more formal” Or is it mixed with local slang and the use of imperfect grammar” It all this depends on your audience and the ethos of your business.

LAYOUT

Your sites layout is the way things are arranged on your site. Research will tell you that people are most likely to look from left to right and up to down; most sites are designed accordingly. Try using Heat Map analysis to see exactly where visitors eyes are focusing when first opening your webpage. In those positions, put the most important information and information, and don’t forget a strong call to action. How you design and determine your layout will also depend on your overall Internet strategy, as you need to align all aspects of your online campaign to build your brand.

INTERNET MARKETING & SEO

We all know that Search Engine Optimization helps you increase the popularity of your site. Everything you put on your website and I mean EVERYthing will add to your online marketing and website strategy. From URLs and toolbar headers to metatags and image descriptions, all content is indexed by search engines and will determine how your business and website pop up for selected keywords. Make sure to do the relevant research, pinpoint 5-10 keywords to target and include those in all facets of your website. Don’t go too overboard, but do at the same time.

For example, suppose you run a surfboard retail outfit and are looking to retool your strategy and overall Internet marketing in Orange County. After selecting 5-10 relevant and useful keywords to target after your research and analysis, include those throughout your site and vary them. You dont want to only incorporate 2-3; you should incorporate all. However, it is a good idea to focus on the 3-5 most important ones in your website design. Further, because the overall trend for Heat Map analysis is that users first focus towards the upper left of websites (like focusing on Profile photos on Facebook). In that corner, it is a good idea to include your name and logo and a slogan and/or call to action that best summarizes who you are and why you’re great.

There’s a lot involved, but this she be a good starter guide to help design your websites to bring that oomph to knock your audiences socks off.

Google shutting down AdSense for domains

As of April 18, 2012 Google will be shutting down AdSense for domains. This only applies for domains hosted by Google. It means that you will no longer be able to generate money from your undeveloped domain. While AdSense was based on quality content, many domains that opted for Adsense had no content whatsoever. This led to great dissatisfaction amongst advertisers, thus resulting in Google pulling the plug on this service.

Google Panda 3.1, Panda 3.2 and Panda 3.3 Update

The aim of Google Panda is to penalize sites that are trying to fool Google into improving their ranking i.e. that have no real content, just incredible amounts of text and links. Here are the recent updates:

Google Panda 3.1 This minor update affected less than 1% of all Google search queries and was aimed at the problem of duplicate content.

Google Panda 3.2 Like 3.1, this was a minor update that Google termed a data refresh. There were no additional signal or algorithm changes.

Google Panda 3.3 This update made data in the Panda system more accurate and more sensitive to recent changes on the web.

Cookieless domains have NO direct SEO effect

In response to a thread, Google has said that there is no direct SEO impact on cookieless domains. However, site speed may be seen as a ranking factor. Since cookieless domains take longer to load, this may reduce their ranking in search engines.