Google is luring small businesses to two relatively new advertising services that might compete directly with its Adwords.

The first is local small business pages. A page that you set up to help your primary website or as a first website. The results show up on the search engine rankings giving you a boost in traffic for those very specific words. T

he second is a new Enhanced Listings service the NY Times discusses in this article. Google highlights your listing on maps to add another point of reference for local customers.

That is great if you can drive profitable traffic for a specific word like Houston Skateboard Shop.But what about Santa-Cruz Skateboards Houston.

This is a very brand specific keyword search, and if you are into skateboards very relevant to your sales. As a Santa-Cruz dealer you want local customers to find out that you carry this product.

Neither of these new Google services will do for that you. Only an Adwords campaign with the Santa-Cruz keywords will!The New York Times sees Google battling Yellow Pages for business.

I think Google might be battling their own Golden Goose Adwords by giving small business two inferior alternatives.

Your thoughts?

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