Local Search Ads Go Mainsteam
Local search advertising is exploding with a projected 1 billion dollars in paid advertising this year. With everyone on the internet, local businesses are finding the internet as a great way to reach potential customers.
If you have used any of the major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or MSN lately, you probably have seen a great deal of local business advertising. You normally see the local search ads as blue text ads either at the top or side of your search results. The ads are only displayed if you (your IP address) is within a given driving distance of the advertiser. It is reported that one in three search results ads are localized ads. For some search terms such as real estate the local search ads, local search ads comprise over 50% of ads served on search engines. See WebProNews’ postingLocal Search Ads 1 Billion In 2006 for the full story on local search advertising.
If you are a small business that is interested in online advertising, you can either work directly with major search engines to run your own local search advertising campaigns or you can have a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company do it for you.