James Hebdon (https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-hebdon-055a30/) is our special guest on today's episode of Traffic and Leads Podcast (https://trafficandleadspodcast.com). He's the founder of Paid Search Magic (http://paidsearchmagic.com/) with his wife, Amy, James is a Google AdWords and paid search expert. Together, he and I talk about what his agency has to offer for other businesses, the algorithms that Google is currently running when it comes to keywords and earning your place on the Google search list, and how small businesses can benefit from the use of Google AdWords in order to maximize how often they’re seen by people in their local area. Let’s get started! IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN: * How James got started! Paid Search Magic was founded by him and his wife, Amy, and together they run what he calls a boutique agency where they run paid ads for clients. Additionally, they’ve started a training program to teach other business owners and digital marketers the ins and outs of paid search! There’s plenty of options for everyone, from consistent training to sessions that last a couple of weeks. * James tells us how they got into the training scene, stating that it comes from his wife! Amy got thrust into doing training and loved it so much, that she started pursuing it. It’s a labor of love between both of them. In addition to these training sessions, James and Amy also offer free advice in their Facebook Group, Google Ads for Savvy Digital Marketers. * James gets into the discussion surrounding the changes that Google has made recently that affect the digital marketing scene. Since AdWords are based in an auction type setting, where you bid on keywords to see how high up you can get in the ranks, it’s important that your quality score plays an equal part as the monetary value, making it possible for all businesses to have a chance. Google has since changed this, and James goes over the details of what we can do to make ourselves stand out and climb the ranks. * James also gets into the changes around long tail keywords and shorter keywords. They don’t want people bidding on long tail keywords, because the competition and the stakes for shorter keywords are higher and more expensive. This means that when people focus on using long tail keywords, they aren’t seeing as much traffic as their competition.  James also highlights how small businesses can benefit from this as well. * James goes into the details about Google MyBusiness, stating that it’s a must-have among digital marketers and small business owners! It’s free to set up, and you can do it by yourself with how simple they make the controls. Once you have a MyBusiness setup, people will be able to find your business through local searches that include “near me” in their sentence, which puts you on the board against the competitors in your area. * James talks to us about how Google can help small businesses reach a larger audience. If you have a storefront, Google is going to consider you to be very relevant for people who’re looking for local services. There’s not much competition on a local level, so you’ll find success with ease! Local pay per click might get tricky, he warns, but Google is working systems that appeal to small business owners, and it’s good to keep this in mind going forward. * James wraps it up by talking to us about Bing, and why people should be using Bing Ads. It’s the next place people will go from Google, and even though they only have 10 - 20% of the search market, it’s still enough to put stock in. Bing makes it easy to import Google settings, and Bing can often be a better opportunity for local business owners due to fewer people competing.