There could be a rise in the number of small businesses looking for search engine marketing support and turning to IT contractors, it has been suggested.

Andreas Pouros, chief operations officer for Greenlight, claimed that the growing popularity of Google Local will create demand for these services and could result in new project opportunities becoming available.

He suggested that the convergence between online materials and offline situations will result in these services growing in demand and becoming more important to consumers.

"Lots of small businesses will also, therefore, require search marketing support and services to help manage their presence within Google Local," he explained.

Mr Pouros asserted that other developments such as the growth of Google Voice will create demand for search engine consultants, with IT contractors providing information on how to maximise the affect of both video and audio media on search rankings.

Recent research by Covario found that Google's current US market share is 72 per cent, with the high-tech sector spending more on pay-per-click advertising than in 2008.