Local Ad Link May Butt Heads with Search Engine Marketing

Local Ad Link is a relatively new player in the online local search marketplace, going live in pre-launch in October 2008. But, Local Ad Link has already ruffled the feathers of some search engine marketers (SEM's) as they feel that this newcomer may take away some business.

One SEM has gone as far to file a RipOffReport against Local Ad Link not because of any unethical practices but because of the perceived head-to-head competition it offers. A reading of this report will show that the SEM is simply concerned about losing customers to the lower costing Local Ad Link service.

And, there is some merit to this concern. Local Ad Link advertisements do appear
in the Google and Yahoo paid listing section. They also appear in the organic
listings but pretty far down in the rankings so SEO's aren't concerned - yet.

But, Local Ad Link offers more than just a low-cost monthly fee (as opposed to
a pay-per-click model) as they have a reach of over 200 high traffic websites
and search engines including Google, Yahoo, Youtube, Gmail, Monster, Digg, Facebook,
Napster, iSupply and Boomj to name a few.

In fact, these last two resources are owned by the same company that owns Local Ad Link,
Beyond Commerce, Inc. which is publicly owned and traded on the stock market.
The whole emphasis of Local Ad Link is local search.

Local Ad Link detects a computer's (laptop, desktop, PDA, or cell phone) IP address
in order to determine geographical location. Once this is detected, then Local Ad Link
will serve ads of companies only in certain zip codes.

Now, SEM's who work with non-localized companies that sell products and services
to many different regions and even countries over the Internet need not be concerned
as there won't be much of a conflict here. Also, there won't be much competition
for SEM's who do local search (although they may say otherwise) since they can
easily outbid Local Ad Link, which prefers the lowest cost possible for PPC ads.

Nonetheless, Local Ad Link launches officially in a couple of weeks (it's been
in beta for 6 months) and is expected to be a major player in the market. By
the end of the year, Local Ad Link expects to extend their reach from 200 high
traffic websites and search engines to over 1,000.