2010-02-19 00:04:11 - Reform, an independent research & search marketing firm based in London & New York, has released the second in a monthly series of Search Engine Marketing reports, titled “International Search Review.” This issue looks at search marketing and social networks in Russia.

After releasing the inaugural issue in January focusing on the Chinese search engine market, Reform moves north to Russia and released a review that compiles stats and feedback about search engine usage there.

Often overlooked by internet marketers due to rapid growth in markets such as China and India, Russia is the eighth largest market of internet users globally, and closing in on seventh place UK. And like China, it is a market where Google is not the preferred search engine of choice. Yandex.ru is the main search engine in Russia, with over half of the market share. As a result, both SEO and PPC agencies and companies looking to expand into Russia’s market have a tough time adapting.

Many foreign companies,

such as airlines, opt to just use Google for PPC, with Yandex’s PPC service (Yandex Direct) run on a Russian language interface, excluding the ability for many western businesses to run campaigns. However, Yandex does offer English language support if you let them manage your PPC campaigns for you.

Reform’s team also takes a look at the search algorithms of key players, such as Yandex, and the recent boost in users for Gogo.ru, which now provides the search results for locally popular Mail.ru. Google is becoming more of a factor here though, with market share moving up from only 5% in 2006, to nearly 35% today.

One of the reasons Reform looks at researching these markets and providing the information all in one place, is because the knowledge of such markets is quite dispersed. And more importantly, these are relatively untapped markets, with broadband penetration at only a third of the population – with even urban metropolis’s such as Moscow only reporting a 60% share of internet usage.

On the other hand, Russia is ahead of the pace when it comes to Social Networking, averaging the most hours per month per user on sites like Vkontakte.ru and Odnoklassniki.ru, which far outshine the user figures for US based sites such as Facebook in Russia. It also is one of the top countries for Mobile internet usage.

To get more details on this and everything else, visit www.reformdigital.com/blog/search-engine-market-review-issue-2-r .. - download the full length pdf file of our research, and let us know any comments / feedback. Our next issue will look at the search marketing strategies and algorithms of another country, so contact us and we will send you an advanced copy.

More info about Reform is available at www.reformdigital.com