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Marketing on Google Also Helps Canadian Small Businesses, Study Shows

After having proven effective in promoting small businesses in the U.S., search engine marketing-particularly on Google-is further extending its reach as more and more Canadian entrepreneurs use the search giant as a cost-effective way to establish web presence.

A study by online intelligence service Experian Hitwise revealed that Google holds more than 80% of the market share for search engines in Canada, a 1% increase from last month. Ask.com, the only other search engine to post an increase in market share, holds a mere 3% of the market.

Experts believe that the rapid growth of online users has made online marketing more valuable for Canadian businesses. However, they added, not many of these businesses know where or how to start a search engine marketing campaign-including how much time and money to allot for it.

The main problem areas, according to them, are choosing the most effective keywords, putting them in the right places, and which search engine platforms to optimize for. Incidentally, these were also the primary areas of focus for successful search engine marketing among U.S. businesses.

The same study found that search engines are the most popular website category among Canadian users, and that most users enter two-word search terms. This means that small businesses should focus on search engine visibility and optimize their marketing for two-word Google searches, the researchers explained.

Social networking is also emerging as a promising follow-up to search engine marketing, as a growing number of Canadian users join communities such as Facebook and Twitter. A separate study showed that 34% of users searched for products or services on social networks, a substantial increase from a year ago.