Demand Media results beat the Street

Demand Media handily beat Wall Street expectations in its first-quarter results today after the markets closed.

The company reported revenue of $79.5 million and 6 cents a share in adjusted net income.

Wall Street was expecting the company to report about $69.6 million in revenue for the three months, with 4 cents a share in adjusted profits.

On a GAAP basis, net loss per share was 13 cents compared to 94 cents a year ago.

The decent results could boost Demand's stock, which has been hit hard, since Google launched "Panda," an overhaul of its search algorithm to improve results and remove poor-quality content.

In a conference call this afternoon, most paid more mind to what the online content company's top execs had to say about the impact of search algorithm updates at Google to its various Web offerings. (For a rundown of what was said during the call, click here.)

Some of its execs briefed the media earlier today on efforts to improve the quality of its content--you can read the official press release here.

Demand said it will remove some posts that were substandard and created under a now-suspended writers compensation system. It is also improving reader feedback tools and adding more substantive stories to its sites.

Those are all good ideas, since Google's tweaks have been chewing away at a range of Web sites--such as those owned by Demand--which rely heavily on search engine optimization to bring in huge traffic.

One big hit for Demand, due to Panda, has been to its flagship eHow site.

All the mishegas has hurt the Santa Monica, Calif., company's stock. It's down just over 30 percent since its public offering in late January, as bearish investors fret over the implications of Panda.

Still, in its report, Demand said its content and media revenue was up 72 percent to $51.9 million, compared to $30.2 million last year.