Microsoft’s search engine product Bing was a year old on Sunday. Setting aside the question of whether we’ve got any more used to its rather silly name (no), has it become a proper contender in Search during that time?

Well, according to Thinq, Bing has managed to grow Microsoft’s search share from eight to almost 13 per cent over the past year but has barely made a dent in Google’s dominant position. Microsoft’s gains have largely been at Yahoo’s expense.

Does this mean we can largely ignore Bing, and Yahoo for that matter, and optimise purely for Google? Absolutely not. 13% may not sound like much, but given the vast quantity of searches being conducted at any one moment, we’d be fools to let it go.

Don’t forget, too, that these figures relate purely to UK usage. OK, fine if you trade purely within these shores. If you don’t, be assured that Google’s dominance is by no means replicated across the world: in Japan, Yahoo has it. In China, Google has all but given up and Baidu is king. In the States, Bing is much more commonly used than it is here.

Many SEO firms will talk of Google as if it is the only search engine worth optimising for. It’s easily done, especially when the word ‘Google’, like ‘Hoover’, has become a verb describing the very act of searching. But the savvy optimiser will know that the best benefits in all search engines will be found by putting high-quality, relevant content on your web pages, signposting it clearly, and attracting decent links from the sites that matter. That way, no matter which search engine is dominant at any one time, you’ll be properly represented.

Adidas are. Virgin are. Proctor and Gamble and Toys R Us are… are you? Using Facebook for advertising, that is.

A recent Business Week article reveals that advertising on this social network has quadrupled since 2009. Clearly that oft-repeated mantra, ‘go to where your customers are’ is having some effect in the marketing offices of these major companies. And with Facebook currently beating even Google as the site we spend the most time on, that’s where you can be sure to find them.

All indications are that the Facebook userbase is expanding. Need proof that even the silver surfers are embracing this 21st century phenomenon with the best of them? Well, you might just find it in the fact that a certain 64 year old is now getting to grips with wall posts and silly trivia quizzes. And even the recent Quit Facebook Day seems to have dented the ever-expanding userbase by very little indeed.

We’ve posted before about the ability to reach localised or highly specialised audiences through Facebook’s advertising network. While the big companies we mention above no doubt enjoy a massive budget and blanket coverage, you can do just as much with far less money. Like us to show you how? We’d be delighted.

Google makes over 400 small changes to its search algorithm per year, on average, so why is the Search community all abuzz with the recent Mayday update? Simply, it seems, because many of them have seen their rankings suffer, especially when it comes to the ‘long-tail’ results we were talking about only last week.

As ever, Google is striving to make a better user experience: it seems that the losses will largely be felt by gargantuan e-commerce sites with thousands of automatically-generated pages and little content. Ultimately, that’s got to be good for the consumer – and good for you, the small business.

Matt Cutts, increasingly the voice of Google, especially when it comes to addressing concerned webmasters, toes the party line (as you can see in the video below): concentrate not on your rankings, but on being the authority for that product (or service, or topic). Add great content, that’s all you have to do. Admittedly, for a party line, it’s a pretty good one.

Vanessa Fox on Search Engine Land has some practical tips for those wishing to find out if the Mayday update has affected their sites for the better or worse – and what to do about it if it’s the latter.

It’s quite labour-intensive though, so if this is new ground for you, or you simply don’t have the time, we would be very happy to take it on for you. Just drop us a line.

Now here’s that video.

The whole point of the Internet, some might say, is that you can reach the whole world – so small businesses, serving a small local area, might be excused for thinking they don’t need a website at all. Well, you’ve only got to search this very blog for the word ‘local’ to see that we think otherwise.

We’ve looked at local trends on Twitter, local ads on Facebook, and Google’s ‘in stock nearby’ feature, just to name a few. Read through those posts, and the conclusion can only be that all sorts of websites are leveraging the internet very successfully to speak to customers who may only be a few miles – or even metres – from their premises.

Being a small business ourselves, we are quite passionate about what a local approach can do for one’s own community. We always try to shop local ourselves, mindful that money we put into our own neighbourhood will, most likely, enrich our own customers, and, in turn, increase our trade. That may sound like a selfish kind of altruism, but we prefer to think of it as good karma!

It was the same approach that led us to offer free websites for local companies: we like to see our neighbourhood’s start-ups succeeding, and are happy to do what we can to help. After all, today’s small businesses can easily become tomorrow’s thriving enterprises, bringing higher rates of employment and enrichment to the community. Just don’t forget us when you’re at the top!

It’s very tempting, sometimes, to have all the latest bells and whistles on your website. Everyone likes novelty, which is probably what led to the many sites that used to play music as soon as they started up, back in the last decade. Thankfully, that’s a trend that has largely now gone the way of the dodo, but, human nature being what it is, there is always something else to replace it. Heavy animations, videos, or just tricksy fonts – they can all add to a site’s “weight”, and you might not even notice it.

The chances are that you visit your own site often, and your browser will be caching certain elements to make them faster to load. What’s more, you almost certainly visit predominantly on the same browser and the same operating system, so you simply might not be aware that what takes a few seconds to load on your own set-up is taking an unacceptably long time on someone else’s.

If you market abroad, stop to think about the distance between your server and your customer’s machine. Not everyone has broadband, and, globally, there are many users who may be used to long page loading times, but still unwilling to wait for your snazzy animation to load.

Not long ago, Google announced that page speed had become one of the many factors in their increasingly-complex ranking algorithm. In other words, it’s no longer just a courtesy to your customers that your site loads quickly, but a real business imperative for those who rely on top search engine rankings. Fortunately, at Notting Hill Internet Services, our best practice policy means ensuring, among many other things, that your site is always as streamlined and efficient as can be. Why not follow the Google link given above, where you’ll find some tests you can do on your website – and if you find it lacking, give us a call.