According to a recent report by Hitwise, searches on the major search engines basically held steady. Google stayed at 71%, Yahoo at 14%, and Microsoft Bing at just under 10%.

This isn't particularly good news for Bing which had been rising steadily since its inception. While the Yahoo/Microsoft search partnership will soon be taking effect - with Microsoft Bing powering Yahoo search results - this will still represent somewhere between 20% and 30% of total searches. Google still gets nearly three times the amount of search that this new partnership will bring to the table.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

Despite the large difference in the reach within the world of search, it will still be worth it for Denver advertisers to have advertising campaigns established with Microsoft AdCenter. While it won't quite have the reach of Google AdWords, AdCenter does have some benefits that I highlighted in a previous blog post. Denver small businesses should first invest time and effort in AdWords to learn about the Search Engine Marketing process as well as their customer behavior online. Once you have a fairly mature, well optimized campaign - take the AdWords campaign and port it over to Microsoft AdCenter.

Recently, Google has undergone on algorithm change which has made life much more difficult for those who engage in SEO for products associated with popular brands. The good news is that the algorithm change could be beneficial for those search engine marketers who advertise with AdWords.

The official Google webmaster central blog mentions that a change has been made in the ranking algorithm:

That's bad news if it isn't your site - and it probably isn't. The result is a huge shift in rankings. As an example - let's say that someone entered a search for "Microsoft Office". As shown below, Google now shows 8 results from the microsoft.com domain on the home page. 80% of the first page results go to microsoft.com.

If you're a retailer who sells Microsoft Office - and you've spent a lot of time and money to develop content that will get your domain high up in the search engine results - this is a disaster. Even compelling, legitimate content which performs well for SEO purposes can be completely wasted in the blink of an eye when Google makes an algorithm change.

What about PPC with AdWords?

Google is always changing its ranking algorithm for organic search results and sometimes these changes really shuffle the rankings. This algorithm change had no real affect on PPC for the search term. As you can see below, only one of the paid search terms resolves to a Microsoft site. It is built into AdWords that a domain can appear only once for each search engine results page (in the paid results). So, if you're a retailer looking to compete on "Microsoft Office", and you want to appear on the first page of search results, it is time to invest in PPC with Google AdWords.

Advertising with AdWords isn't foolproof, and your ad position within AdWords isn't completely insulated from outside influences. You need to make sure your website is well constructed with a terms of use and privacy policy. You need to make sure that your website has compelling, relevant content. You also need to make sure that your properly construct your ad campaign with solid keywords and good ad copy. Even then, competition can enter the picture and make life more difficult for you.

The really nice thing about AdWords though is that an algorithm change isn't likely to come along and turn your world upside down.  

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

As a Denver small business owner, you need to be exploring advertising online using Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter. It provides you with a very quick, usually very effective way to generate leads for your Denver business. It also is much more insulated from algorithm changes than SEO methods.

If you are engaging heavily in SEO practices, be aware that your hard work can be undermined with a single algorithm change. Investigate AdWords as an alternative way of promoting your business rather than leaving all of your eggs in the SEO basket.

Entrepreneur Magazine recently did an article which discusses the pros and cons of investing your marketing dollars in Bing vs. Google. I don't want to ruin the whole article, and I encourage you to read it at the link above. I've highlighted two of the most important reasons to try Bing - as well as one that I have a slight issue with:

• Search traffic is about to grow - With the pending partnership with Yahoo, ad coverage provided by Bing will likely triple. Bing traditionally has covered around 10% of the search market, with Yahoo around 20%. This means that ads served by Microsoft AdCenter will now reach around 30% of all searches.
• You Should Diversify - I absolutely agree with this point. It allows you to show your ads in numerous places - your results on one platform may be slightly better than the other. What you learn in one campaign, you may be able to apply to the other. Now that AdCenter ads will be serving approximately 30% of all searches, it makes it worth your time to diversify.
• You can Import AdWords Campaigns into AdCenter - This is not a compelling reason to move to Bing in my opinion. I've gone through this process numerous times, and it is not easy - to say the least. I come from a database background, so I feel comfortable moving data from one format or system to another. Still - it isn't easy getting Google campaigns into AdCenter. I have it down to a system where time is minimized, but it is by no means a push button process - and Microsoft AdCenter could do a much better job with illustrative exapmles of how to successfully perform this action. A novice PPC marketer would likely have great difficulty porting AdWords campaigns into AdCenter using the AdCenter import process.

Should my Denver Small Business Advertise on Bing?

Absolutely - as long as you've tried AdWords first. Get your campaigns set up on AdWords - get your campaign optimized - and then move on to a search engine like Bing. Local businesses need more volume to learn about their markets - and Google's AdWords is the place where you can learn the most and then apply it to other search engine ad platforms.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

As a Denver small business owner, you need to be aware of the various online advertising options that are available to you. The overriding factor is to make sure that you're getting a good return on your investment on the search engine ad platform that you choose. I would advise that Denver small business owners start with Google AdWords, learn what you can. Get the campaign optimized to the point that you're getting a good return on investment.

Once you've been able to achieve success with AdWords - port the ad campaigns to Microsoft AdCenter. You'll reach a large audience. My experience with Bing is that search volume has been low, but conversion rates have been good. Surprisingly though, in my experience, ad spend isn't that much less than AdWords for similar keywords.

I've been meaning to get to this post for quite some time. Chris Silver Smith put together a great post over at Search Engine Land which discusses how restaurant owners can effectively market their restaurant online through proper use of menus.

It seems like I'm frequently online looking (or trying to look) at restaurant menus, and I'm often times frustrated. Menus are hard to find, and hard to read. Some of the tips from the article include basic things like:

• Link to the menu in an obvious manner from the home page
• Avoid Flash menus - especially since mobile devices often times have problems with Flash
• Display Prices - don't frustrate your site visitors by not giving them an idea of how much dinner is going to cost.

He also recommends having pdf menus - which I think is fine to have as an alternative. I think a lot of visitors are probably browsing with mobile phones, and .pdfs can be a bit of a hindrance for mobile phones if they are the primary method for you to display your menu information.

It seems like the majority of restaurant websites are doing this wrong. I encourage you to check out the original post - which is full of good menu ideas for Denver restaurant owners.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

Denver restaurants are hit as hard as any sector during a down economy, and need to make the most of the available online resources at their disposal.

Be certain to own your listings at local search sites like Google Places, Yelp, CitySearch, Bing and Yahoo. Also, take advantage of websites like Groupon to help in promoting your restaurant and building your brand.

Finally - restaurant owners more than almost all other local businesses really need to be exploring mobile advertising opportunities. It is likely that a disproportionate amount of searches for restaurants occur on mobile devices when compared to other industries.

I recently came across an article in the August Edition of Website Magazine about something I've been meaning to investigate for quite some time, but haven't yet researched in depth until now. Foursquare is a mobile application that allows people to "check in" at local businesses and other locations. When a user checks in, they can see if their other Foursquare friends are around, and they can also earn points, badges, and other rewards from Foursquare. Someone can even become "Mayor" of an establishment if they visit the location enough.

So, I went on the Foursquare website and searched in my area (Lone Tree) to see just how popular Foursquare was for local businesses. The answer was... not all that popular. Not a huge surprise, since Lone Tree isn't all that large, and the demographics skew a bit older than I would picture for a fanatical Foursquare user.

Searching for Denver businesses, yielded quite a different story. Below is a screenshot of the Foursquare page for Breckenridge Brewery. You can see that they have a total of 240 people who have checked in the last 60 days - a total of 319 times. Users that arrive at the location can check in and see if they have friends who are present at the Brewery. They can also leave tips for other visitors to Breckenridge Brewery.

Note that many (if not most) users of Foursquare will publish their Foursquare updates through Facebook - so this provides an even larger potential audience exposure for local business owners. As a local business owner, you'll want to be as accommodating as possible to these Foursquare visitors.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

Well, to start off with, exploring marketing through Foursquare may or may not make sense for your business. I would recommend that retail businesses and restaurants that receive a high amount of traffic - especially traffic that caters to a younger demographic (under 30) - explore Foursquare as a marketing tool for the Denver business.

Claim Your Business Listing on Foursquare
Most businesses that I viewed in Denver may have had a lot of visits, but they didn't actually claim their listings. I would advise all businesses to claim their listings - whether or not they plan to actively market on Foursquare. You can claim your Foursquare business listing here.

Here's why you should claim your business listing (from the Foursquare website)

"you can use foursquare to engage your increasingly mobile customers with foursquare "Specials," which are discounts and prizes you can offer your loyal customers when they check in on foursquare at your venue ... you will be able to track how your venue is performing over time thanks to our robust set of venue analytics"

Foursquare offers a variety of specials to take advantage of - Mayor specials, check-in specials, Frequency based specials based on visits and wildcard specials. Combined with the analytics and the fact that you should always be aware of what is being said about your business on the Internet, you'll want to claim your listing. You'll also want to periodically check your listing as well as tips that visitors are leaving about your business.

Is Foursquare a Great Marketing Opportunity for My Business?

If you have a younger demographic, a retail presence, and a decent amount of traffic coming into your business, you should definitely explore Foursquare. The businesses that have hundreds of checkins and haven't claimed their listings are missing out on an incredible opportunity to market to their patrons and let them know that they "get it" (Foursquare) and that they appreciate their business. Most Foursquare users are likely heavily engaged in social networks and their opinions and experiences reach a large amount of potential customers.