IAB: Small businesses can afford sponsored listing

19th October 2007

Paid search listing is "realistically affordable", says the Internet Advertising Bureau, although it warns that prices will increase in more competitive sectors.

Keywords, link networks and quality content are central to a company's Google rating, advises the IAB.

"Search engines are built to recognise quality. Ensure copy is written by an expert in the topic to make the content the best it can be," says Jack Wallington, programmes manager for the IAB.

He stresses the importance of understanding exactly what the target audience will be looking for and incorporating descriptive words around that. Building relationships with busy websites by directing traffic to their site may also earn approval with search engines.

Data measurement company comScore's research shows that search engines were used by 209 million unique European users in August 2007. Each user searched an average of 85.1 times.

The study also revealed that Google is the most widely used engine, searching over eight billion web pages for 81.9 unique visitors in August.