Google holds the top spot in paid search, period.Any small business owner who wants to get more attention from searchers probably should get ready to work with Google.
Whatever ones opinion may be on the dominant search advertising company on the Internet, Google would not be in such a position if they didn't deliver results.
As a small business owner, one should consider that competitors probably use Google already. Plenty of customers do so today, as do the entrepreneurs seeking them. An eMarketer report on search marketing found over $8.6 billion spent on it in 2007.
That report noted Google pulled in an estimated 75 percent of the US paid search advertising spend in 2007. Yahoo grabbed a 9 percent share, and everyone else split the other 16 percent.
Google continually reaches out to small businesses with various initiatives, all focused on bringing them into the AdWords fold. One example: local targeting, a method of emphasizing a geographic focus for ads, to reach the most likely local customers.
The competition probably knows this strategy already. Join in, and you will be one more voice vying for attention. The key is to separate from the other guys by targeting a searcher's interest as well as their geography.
It's called dynamic keyword insertion, and it's available on Google as well as Microsoft's adCenter and Yahoo's Search Marketing. A specific search for a term, like apple pie, will pull up your ad where the main keyword may be 'bakery', for example.
Always keep in mind other options exist for paid search advertising. The prudent businessperson should at least explore what Yahoo and Microsoft have to offer. Google's dominance merits attention, always.
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On-Page Optimization - Local Targeting
Similarly, there are so few competitors for certain phrases - towns around me have names like Lutz, Dunedin, and Carrollwood.
When designing your site in the first place, you can make sure that you have pages set up with at least an utterance of the town names in the local area you service. Sometimes, you'll be the only one that comes up and it doesn't cost much more than making the web site in the first place.
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