Google recently wrote a blog post on ad placement, aimed specifically at Blogger blogs. There are quite a few people who want to make a quick buck and just do a very simple site and use AdWords as content. Not only is this confusing and misleading for visitors, it also hits Google local advertisers where it hurts, in the wallet.

With the latest regulations, things are looking up. There will hopefully be less of this type of non-blogging going on and therefore fewer useless clickthroughs that Google local advertisers are paying for. There´s nothing worse than ending up with clicks that aren´t going to do anything for you because people are looking for content that just doesn´t exist on the blog.

According to Google, there are several types of bad ad placement that will be banned.

Ads shouldn’t be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads.
For example, ads shouldn’t be placed under titles such as “Dallas Business Opportunities” or “Today’s Hot Deals”. Placing ads directly below titles such as these implies to your users that the links in the ads are publisher-created content.

Ads should be easily distinguishable from surrounding content.
Similarly, you should not place an ad unit by a group of links that has identical colors and line spacing. Doing so may cause users to think the ad unit is content created by you.

This could drastically reduce those extra clicks that you as a Google local advertiser can´t use. While it may mean a loss of income for some spam bloggers, it will certainly be a step forward for Google´s advertisers.

When you are planning and researching local online advertising, you´ll see plenty of free offers. These may be ads or blog posts, but they are literally everywhere, offering free local online advertising and hundreds or thousands of leads for absolutely nothing. It can be very tempting to go with one of these spectacular offers, but that is not necessarily a good idea.

You´ve heard the saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is?” Well, that fits right in here. When you see an amazing offer to give you thousands of leads for nothing, you have to wonder what the company is getting out of it. It all depends, but there are plenty of scams out there and you really need to be careful.

Many of these free local online advertising schemes give you nothing more than the information of other suckers who have signed up for free advertising. Others will send you dozens of ads a day once you have signed up and in the end, you get nothing for nothing!

Most of the time, you are far better off just paying the extra amount to get real leads for your local online advertising. That way you can be sure you are getting legit leads that will have far more likelihood of responding to your campaigns.

When you are managing your local pay per click ad campaign, it really is worth it to take a look at the tracking information available to you and find out how things are working out for your ads. You should be able to see where they are appearing, on which sites, as well as how each site performs with your ads. This is fairly specific information and you may be tempted to just skip it, but that would be a major mistake!

Knowing where your local pay per click ads are being placed will help you make your campaign more efficient. You can eliminate those sites that are not helping you out much, of course. Google AdWords has a site elimination option where you can choose NOT to place your local pay per click ads on certain sites. However, this isn´t just for keeping your ads off non-performing sites. In fact, there are better ways to go about this.

One huge benefit of being able to see which sites your local pay per click ads are on is that you can check to see if they are relevant. Let´s say you have a business that sells molds for soaps and candles. Unfortunately, your mold is spelled the same as the mold that grows in homes and makes people sick. You don´t want your ads appearing on those sites, since they aren´t relevant, so if you notice this happening, just let the ad program know that you aren´t interested.

This can drastically reduce the number of useless clicks that you are receiving (and paying for). If your local pay per click ads are only appearing on sites that are relevant, you´ll find that your click rates and conversion rates go up. Which is always a good thing!

Everyone knows that local online advertising is the new wave, but did you realize that video has a huge impact on how people respond to you? With Google starting to include videos in their search results, video marketing could become even more useful to local advertisers!

At the moment, it would seem that Google is taking things slowly. According to Search Engine Land, the first few videos have been spotted just recently, despite reports of this back in February.

These were announced back in February but only now appear to have really gone live.

Searches that triggered this result for me included cell phone or smart phones or phones. It seems like BlackBerry and AT&T are testing the new AdWords video ads.

Like other new Google features, we can expect to see this one growing. So, at some point in the near future, local online advertising might be done almost entirely through videos that are actually included in the results as ads. At the moment, it´s mostly the bigger companies that are using this new technology, but it could be a great leap for a small business, too!

Have you ever slipped while typing in a search engine? It´s easy to do and the results you get back can be drastically different. However, you can use that to your advantage. You´ll need to change your local search engine optimization for a page or so of your website, but you can bring in quite a bit of extra traffic.

You´ll need a good misspelled keyword in order to pull this trick, however. It´s something that will need a little research. You want a keyword or phrase that has little competition and a lot of searches per day. There are some words that are just more commonly messed up than others.

Once you have done your research and have narrowed your local search engine optimization down to just one or two misspelled phrases, incorporate them into your website. You still want the real word to be the primary keyword, and you shouldn´t have the misspelled ones on your home page, but you can still use this technique to your benefit.

If you are learning about local pay per click as you go, you might want to consider taking Google up on their latest offer. Google is offering seminars, Inside AdWords, to help their users improve their advertising campaigns.

Introduction & User Training - designed for those who want an introduction to Google Analytics, setting up Analytics, exploring the user interface, and analyzing reports.
Here is a list of topics that will be covered:

* Introduction to Google Analytics
* Reports Interface
* Administrative Interface
* The Importance of Goals
* Real-world Case Studies
* What Do You Want To Track?
* Optimizing AdWords and PPC Campaigns
* Introduction to Experimentation and Tracking

The seminar should be extremely useful to anyone needing more information on how to use AdWords and make it work for them. It is a local pay per click nightmare if you don´t know what you are doing and learning directly from Google could be the perfect solution.

If you are interested in attending the Adwords seminars to improve your local pay per click campaigns, you have a choice between Dallas, San Diego and San Franscisco at the moment, though there may be more in the future.

Did you know that getting listed in Google local listings isn´t necessarily left to chance? You can list your own business, set up your profile and edit your information. This is extremely valuable because you don´t even have to pay!

When you list your business with Google Local, you will be sent a PIN via snail mail to the address you put for your business. This is to prevent people from scamming the system and setting up multiple locations for their supposedly local store when none actually exists. So, as long as you are legit, you should have no problems at all.

The next step, once you have your PIN, is to log into your business profile on Google Local and set up your profile page. This is where the real value comes in. When a business appears in the local listings, there is a little “more” link beside or below it. This will take people to your profile, so you want to sell your business here. Include photos, carefully written copy and anything else that could help promote your business, including location and operating hours.

Google local business listings can be invaluable. Being listed right up at the top of the results page is undeniably the best place to be for free and it isn´t that difficult.

When you think of local search engine optimization, chances are that you think of text content on your website. However, that´s not the only place you should be looking to work your SEO magic! Images also play a very important role in local business websites and their ranking on search engines. Google offers an image only search which many people take advantage of, particularly when planning a trip somewhere. It´s in your best interests to have your photos appear in local searches.

When someone types in the name of your town in Google Image Search, having your image pop up can be a great way to get people to your website. When they click on the thumbnail, they will be taken straight to the page where that photo is on your site.

This type of local search engine optimization is very useful and is quite simple to implement. You just need to add alt tags to all your photos. Alt tags just give a description of your photo and you should always use your keywords in the description. On top of that, make sure that there is more than just a photo on your webpage. Add something to grab people´s attention. This could be a special offer or hotel discount advertised below the photo, or offers of a free map, etc.

The idea is to create multiple methods to draw people to your website. The internet is a very visual place and is something that really lends itself to local search engine optimization via photos. Make sure your photos are working for you.

Local pay per click ads don´t have to be based on just one or two words. In fact, research has shown that more searchers type in more than one keyword. The more keywords you use in your local pay per click ads, the better your matches will be, though obviously you don´t want to overdo it.

It makes it easier for your ads to show up on relevant searches and pages that are specifically geared to your keywords when you use two or three words in your phrases. Imagine how many irrelevant hits you could get if you just used “Pizza” as your keyword, as opposed to “Vancouver Burnaby pizza”.

Using more than one location keyword can also be helpful in getting people who are looking for a business in your specific area. While you may want to also run local pay per click ads with less specific territories, this will ensure that you turn up for anyone looking for a “laundromat on Maple Avenue”.

Think very carefully about which words you want to use in your local pay per click campaign and consider using several words in order to target very specific traffic. This can really help lower the number of useless clicks that your ads get and boost your revenue.

There has been a lot of talk lately about allowing people to opt out of receiving a print copy of the Yellow Pages, but it looks like it might actually happen, at least in some places. In fact, just such a proposal was passed in Cambridge recently, though the process of actually phasing out print Yellow Pages is still in the planning stages.

“We don’t use Yellow Pages anymore. Most people use the Internet to look up a phone number,” said Seidel.

Seidel said an environmentally friendly constituent was concerned about all the paper wasted to print the books and approached him with the idea.

Although the City Council unanimously passed the proposal, the scheme is still in its preliminary stages, and it’s unclear how the city would enforce such a measure.

If one area ends up allowing opt outs for print versions of the Yellow Pages, this could easily spread. It´s great for the environment and may even encourage more people to use the internet for their communication needs. With the online version of the Yellow Pages being far more ecologically friendly, some groups will be pushing for this anyway.

For anyone who has struggled with finding a category for their business on Google local maps will be pleased to hear that things have changed drastically and for the better. Mike Blumenthal recently reported this on his blog:

This upgrade comes in response to 18 months of complaints in the Google Maps for Business Group. The all too common refrain: Why can’t I be in the same category as my competitor, will no longer be heard. The very limited and limiting system previously used by Google forced unusual workarounds for businesses that did not fit into the small number of categories. In a February 22nd interview with Carter Maslan, Maps Product Management Director, he indicated that this category upgrade was in the works.

The new features that Google local maps has incorporated are quite useful to all businesses. You can now choose from a wider range of categories, with Google even suggesting suitable categories as you type. If you aren´t sure where your business fits, this is a great feature. You can also now add a listing the maps, which will probably be taken advantage of by some spammers, but could be quite useful in the long run.

Local mobile marketing can be an excellent way to get some publicity, but it can also be an excellent way to lose money if you aren´t careful. That´s why it pays to start your campaign off slowly and gradually build up to the point where you can really determine which marketing techniques work best for you.

Rather than leaping into paid downloads and such, start your local mobile marketing campaigns a bit smaller. Text messages are perfect for this. Sending short text messages will catch people´s attention (consumers aren´t immune to these yet, unlike emails!) and give you the opportunity to make contact and possibly turn it into some sales.

When writing your short text messages, you´ll need to keep it snappy and make sure that people will want to respond just by reading them. As you progress, moving on to banners and proper ads can be more profitable, but still a step down from the full on downloads. Getting your bearings in the new world of local mobile marketing is a great idea and you´ll have better results in the long run because you´ll know what you are doing by the time you start shelling out some real cash.

Local online advertising is apparently good for business . . . so good, in fact, that national advertisers are starting to break their campaigns down and are advertising locally these days to pick up extra customers. In fact, this technique is so useful that more national advertisers are flocking to the local scene.

What does this mean for the little guys who are just getting started in local online advertising? We can probably expect to see them triumph since most people are going to recognize the national brands fairly easily. While they may gain some extra clients (all odds indicate that this would be the case, or they simply wouldn´t invest in local online advertising!), smaller, local businesses still stand to profit greatly from local online advertising.

Local online advertising works with those who are looking for local places of business and if national advertisers keep jumping in, it´s likely that people will get tired of what they will see as spam and new regulations will have to be made. OR new websites will pop up with only real local businesses being permitted to advertise. Whatever the future of local online advertising, it is a constantly changing world and you need to make your move fast if you want to stay on top!

Local pay per click is being used by many small businesses these days, but the market is still far from being saturated, so it´s a good time to start using a local pay per click campaign. Even if you have already been dabbling in this area, there are a few techniques that will boost your results and up your response rate.

Local Pay Per Click Ad Techniques

Use negative keywords. These are keywords that you do not want your ads to appear on when searched. By selecting the words you don´t want associated with your local pay per click ad, you can control where your ads appear.

Test different modes. Text ads aren´t the only options available on most local pay per click services. Test images and animated ads as well, if you can, you may be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Choose multiple keywords. This will allow your ads to come up on all searches or websites that relate to it, using several different keywords. Many online entrepreneurs use this technique to expand their influence.

Higher responses to your local pay per click ad campaign will automatically result in higher sales, which is really the whole point of ads in the first place! Use these tips to boost your response rate and watch how quickly your numbers rise.

Local online advertising is a key technique in gaining publicity to your website and business. When it comes down to it, local online advertising could really be the best way for you to draw in new clients and many directories are the ideal place to be doing your local online advertising.

Directories are usually free to get listed and that is just fine. Except that your listing can easily get lost with all the rest of the chaff. In order to make your local online advertising really work, you´ll need to invest a bit of money and get a premium listing.

Boosting your listing by paying a fee is very common and most directories offer this option for local online advertising. You may even be able to choose from several different levels of advertising, which makes it easy to find something that fits your budget.

Premium listings in directories will put you at the top of the list and there may be other features as well. Depending on the directory, you could end up with your ad in a box, or with bold lettering. Some featured listings even include logos or photos of your product. Check out all the options and go with the one that is closest to what you can afford and will give you plenty of publicity.