With Google local maps, your clients can see at a glance where you are and how to get to you. This is invaluable, especially when local clients are looking for the nearest store or service to get what you sell.

If you aren´t already on Google local maps, it´s definitely recommended. Local searches will turn up quite a bit of information and maps only help your cause. Getting direction to your store is an excellent way to convince customers to actually use your offline business. They find you online and come buy offline. It´s a commonly known fact that those searching locally are more ready to buy than those searching in general for products, so make sure you take full advantage of this and get your business on those Google local maps.

In addition, you may want to provide a link to Google local maps on your business website. This allows visitors to get directions and see where you are nice and easily, since a simple address is often not enough for someone to visualize where your business is. So, take advantage of Google local maps and make them work for you.

There are many business owners who realize the value of local online advertising and Yahoo Local provides a great way to get started in this area of advertising. It´s a simple system to use and for anyone just starting out, this could be an excellent way to go. Yahoo Local offers quite a range of benefits, despite attempts by Microsoft to buy the company.

Recent expansion means that there are even more opportunities for publicity with Yahoo Local advertising. They have been making deals left, right and center in an attempt to improve the quality of the advertising for their clients.

If you are looking for a place to get started in local online advertising, consider looking into Yahoo Local as a jumping off point. It is definitely a good way to go for anyone who is just beginning to venture into the waterss of this type of advertising.

Now that the Yellow Pages are online, many people wonder if they really have the same impact. After all, there are an awful lot of places to search for a business online! However, it´s always a good idea to make sure that you have the opportunity to reach as many people as possible, so listing your business in the Yellow Pages is a great way to go.

Just think, even if only a small percentage of online searchers look specifically at the Yellow Pages, that is still a huge number. The fact of the matter is that we like convenience and the Yellow Pages are definitely convenient, providing businesses instantly in your area and all the contact information that goes with them.

If you aren´t advertising on the online Yellow Pages, perhaps it´s time to start thinking about it. It could end up being one of the best investments you´ve ever made. The Yellow Pages is a trusted brand and getting your business on those pages can really help boost your credibility as well as you customers.

It´s commonly known that Google and Yahoo are two of the biggest local pay per click networks around and many people use them. However, these two advertising giants aren´t the only ones out there and you may find that there are quite a few advantages to advertising with another local pay per click service.

In general, you will end up paying less per click with a smaller advertising network than you would with Google, particularly with the more popular keywords that often end up in bidding wars. This means you can save a lot of money, stretching your local pay per click advertising dollars out a lot further.

When looking for an alternative to the PPC giants, it´s a good idea to find one that fits the following requirements:

• Has been around for more than a few months
• Offers a banning system where you can decide which sites your ads should NOT appear on
• Has good to great reviews
• Offers quick replies to any questions or problems you may have
• Gives you an easy to use layout

Finding the right local pay per click alternative will take some research, but in the end you could save quite a bit of money and end up gaining a lot more visitors to your website. After which, it´s time for your landing page to do the work!

A major staple in the world of local online advertising these days is the 125 x 125 image ad. You see it everywhere, from blogs to websites and there is a good reason this type of ad has gained popularity in the past couple of years.

First of all, if you have a blog, there simply isn´t a lot of space for advertising and the 125 x 125 image ad fits perfectly in the narrower columns.

For local online advertising, there is another advantage to these square ads. They are far more eye-catching than a text link, yet don´t cost much. Some sites don´t even raise the rate for a 125 x 125 ad, it costs the same as a text link. These smaller ads also offer great impact for far less than a big banner ad.

If you are doing local online advertising, it is well worth your while to look at picking up some local 125 x 125 ads.

Google has just announced that they are going to start hosting mobile image ads. This could mean a huge step forward for all advertisers interested in local mobile marketing since it allows you to now use images as your ad, much as you might with a banner on a regular website.

For advertisers, mobile image ads serve as a branding tool and have shown to have good clickthrough rates. Advertisers using mobile image ads will also benefit because we only show one image ad per mobile page. For publishers, mobile image ads provide added flexibility. They can now choose to show text ads, image ads, or a mix of both and Google will dynamically return the ad that we expect will perform best at the time the ad is shown. Publishers who are already using AdSense for mobile content just need to update their AdSense code to start displaying mobile ads on their site.

Local mobile marketing could end up being a lot more practical and responsive as mobile image ads become more popular. You can check out samples of these new image ads here.

With image ads appearing in local mobile marketing, you can expect the competition to pick up a bit, since only one mobile image ad will be shown per display. All in all, it could be a great new way to reach your potential customers.

Local pay per click offers a narrower field of competition simply because not everyone can advertise as being in your area. No matter what your product or service, you will benefit from local pay per click and narrow down the amount of competition you have to deal with.

If you aren´t already using it, local pay per click is also an excellent investment and will often end up being cheaper in the long run. The reason for this? People who see your ads will be looking for your products or services locally. That means they are more likely to be in a buying frame of mind, too.

Try local pay per click if you aren´t already using it. You can save money, while getting higher quality clicks! This is definitely a good deal for anyone involved in online business.

With local mobile marketing taking off, there´s been talk recently of setting up mobile coupons, much like the coupons that are available online for many online stores. You can also currently find online coupons that are available to print off so you can use them at real life stores and restaurants, etc.

Local mobile marketing could easily go in this direction in the near future and Local Mobile Search has a post on how likely this is to happen:

Nobody has solved coupons on the desktop but mobile has a chance to deliver an opportunity that has forever been associated with but never realized by the Internet (if only to be a way for people who’ve forgotten paper coupons to redeem them in the store).

Digital out-of-home ad network RippleTV told me last week that they’ve had tremendous response from people seeing one of their screens prompting: text for a discount or coupon (at a specific store). Accordingly, I think that consumer demand is not the issue, notwithstanding the 70% figure above. That’s really a fear of spam.

Using coupons as a local mobile marketing method could be a good one, since it´s completely mobile. People would very rarely forget their coupons which would be right in their mobile as they walked into the store.

What do you think? Are mobile coupons a good way to go?

When bidding for local pay per click keywords, being the highest bidder isn´t always a good idea. In fact, it can cause you to run out of advertising money pretty darn fast! It´s often better to come in with a lower bid and here´s why.

• You´ll save a lot of money by bidding lower.

• A lower position won´t necessarily give you better results.

• Getting into a bidding war will just drive the price up and everyone loses.

It simply isn´t worth fighting for the first position in local pay per click, the majority of the time. If there is little competition, go for it, but otherwise you end up paying far too much for just a few clicks and it really isn´t worth it.

Not all businesses that use local search engine optimization are actually local. They also can be larger companies that aim small in order to eliminate much of the competition. While this is a useful technique, it can also be used as spam, so you do have to be careful.

When a bigger company uses local search engine optimization, it is often used to help bring in extra traffic from local searches. There is often too much competition for general keywords like “amusement parks”, but if you go with “Vancouver amusement parks” you will have a far better chance of being ranked.

This is a technique that many businesses are using these days to increase traffic to their sites. Some use specific local search engine optimization on the whole website, others focus on a different area per page and still others actually set up separate websites for each area. Whichever technique is used, it can really help boost your traffic.

There are so many options for local online advertising, but often the most effective method is to simply use more than one method for maximum results. One great way to go about local online advertising is to just find local community websites and find out if they offer advertising.

Local community websites have a huge advantage in that they often have a lot of repeat visitors. Most of them will simply charge a per month fee for placing an ad, so there´s no stress about payment or anything like that.

With local online advertising, you will find that community sites are often the best for gaining a large local audience. You will find the prices are usually very reasonable, as well. If a site doesn´t offer an advertising page, contact them and make an offer. The worst that can happen is that you´ll be turned down, but most sites will either accept your deal or will make a counter offer.

Local online advertising is often done on a fairly small budget, but that doesn´t have to be an issue. If you don´t have a lot of cash to spend on local online advertising, you simply need to shop around. Here are a few ways to boosting your advertising without spending a fortune.

• Look for local sites. Contact the local bloggers adn website owners that you find and ask if they would be interested in letting you place an ad.

• Place free ads. There isn´t really any reason not to take people up on free offers! Sites like Craigslist can help you get your advertising off to a good start without spending any money.

• Experiment with sizes. There´s no rule saying that you have to set up a banner ad. In fact, you can and should try different types and sizes of ads to find out which works best for your site.

Local online advertising doesn´t have to cost a fortune and the diversity of trying new methods of marketing can end up being very good for your business in the long run.

The comprehensive book is a valuable resource for brand managers, marketers, and businesses alike. It gives you information on how to design and write effective ads, how to budget your online advertising, how to measure the effectiveness of your online campaigns and more.
The Advertising Research Foundation’s experts have compiled research from over 1,200 documents on internet advertising and have put the most up to date and pertinent info within these pages which solidifies facts for those looking to be successful in this advertising medium.

The authors are Joe Plummer, Taddy Hall, Robert Barocci and Stephen Rappaport. Plummer is the Chief Research Officer at the Advertising Research Foundation, Hall is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Foundation, Barocci is the President and CEO and Rappaport is a consultant on electronic communication and advertising strategy. The authors together are an undeniable source of quality internet advertising information and truly set a benchmark for this type of book.

Local mobile marketing is a rapidly growing industry, but it is still in its infancy, making it the perfect time to jump in. At this point, the options are still somewhat limited, but you might find that these techniques are most effective.

• Use text. This can be a very effective method of reaching people via local mobile marketing.
• Target a market. Rather than send out general messages, take the time to do some research and target a specific market.
• Stay on top of things. Subscribe to blogs on the topic, stay on top of the cutting edge and you´ll be a lot better off than your competition who sits back after a successful campaign.

Local mobile marketing is the wave of the future and you can find your success there now without running into too much competition.

Many business owners know that they will have better luck with long tail keywords than short, general search terms. Now, Google local (maps) advertisers can choose their very own categories, and make use of long tail category names if they wish.

This is something that could potentially add a lot of value to the Google Local ads. The ability to figure out which long tail keywords people are searching for in order to find your type of business can greatly increase the chances of them finding you. Just use that long tailed keyword as your category.

Not all the pre-made categories on Google Local are actually appropriate for some businesses, so if someone feels the need to place their business in another category, a custom one, it can be very useful in searches. You might want to make use of this great new feature if you are currently advertising or plan to advertise on Google local ads.