Google has launched a new advertising platform geared toward businesses targeting consumers in their local areas. The program, which is rolling out in the San Francisco and San Diego areas, differs from Google Adwords in that businesses are charged a flat monthly fee based on their categories and locations rather than having to shell out dollars for every visitor who clicks their ads.
The listings will appear above unpaid local listings when users conduct searches as well as in Google Maps. With the listings, advertisers get a basic ad displaying their company's information, address and contact details, a unique phone number that Google will use to track calls and regular reports on conversion. It's unclear what the pricing will be for businesses in New Hampshire and New England, but it'll likely be based on search volume.

Make no mistake about it. This is clearly a first step toward Google doing what we've expected they would for years: charging local businesses for inclusion in the first page of search results. For now at least, small businesses with tiny marketing budgets can have some visibility in Google by creating and maintaining listings in the Google Local Business section. Now, we suspect, that section of free local results will continually be phased out in favor of paid listings. It might not be tomorrow, but it'll happen. If you're a business owner, it's important to not rely on something that may soon be irrelevant, even if it is free for the time being.

It seems that small and medium-sized businesses are finally coming around to the fact that they must invest in Internet marketing if they want to stay competitive. But too many of them dedicate most or all of their resources into Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns that fail to lead to inbound sales leads and wind up costing much more than they generate.