Get in front of local search results for a price

For an annual fee of $249, Local.com guarantees that advertisers' paid search ads will appear above organic search results. Promising placement is a new tactic in the paid search wars as both providers and advertisers rally to get the best placement. Having a ranking within the first page of search results is the best way to drive new traffic to a website because users don't page through results to find the best option. Instead, they opt for the search results at the beginning of the list.

The problem is that with more advertisers jumping to get a piece of paid search, there is greater competition. By appealing to advertisers wanting to place ahead of organic results, Local.com is hoping to draw new and better advertisers to their stable. According to some reports, Local.com pageviews number is about one-quarter of one percent of Google pageviews.

Local search is the fastest growing online ad resource, with more than $14 billion in ads in 2006. By 2011, experts estimate that paid search will account for roughly $16.1 billion.

Tags: paid search, search marketing