Google AdWords are a type of search result created by Google that are paid advertising based on a number of factors that Google takes into account and then has the impacted advertisers "bid" on the ranking of how they are displayed. You commonly see AdWords content displayed to the top/right of the main search results listings. If you are a business person who wants to use AdWords, you choose keywords that mean something to your content and you rank them yourself as to how important they are for your business. When those keywords are used by someone local to your business, Google looks at how high you and others rank that keyword and this is essentially the "auction" that is happening behind the scenes. The business with the highest ranking for that keyword "wins" and is ranked at the top of the AdWord content results. The one with the second highest ranking comes next and so on. AdWords are typically just a few deep - rarely more than a dozen show up at any one search.
If you are going to use AdWords, you might be tempted to use every one you can think of, but really it is better to concentrate on just a few. This will heighten the effect when they are used. One of the advantages of using AdWords, since it is a pay-per-click when a user searching the Internet clicks on your AdWord link, you can find out if the keywords you have chosen are working well for you. Sometimes the first words you've chosen might not be the best for you overall due to a high bounce rate. But if you are using standard SEO, you might not realize this for a long, long time. This means you could have wasted effort on a keyword that does nothing for your business where as you would see that much faster with AdWords - it shows up in what you pay for them.
When using AdWords, it is important to remember that your ad title and description play a big role in how well you do for turning clicks into money for your business. The better your ad title and description, the better your CTR or click thru rate. CTR means you are ultimately making money because of your listing instead of being stagnant or going backward.
Using Google Maps or Bing Maps to boost your SEO remains some of the most highly rated ways to drive business. People are going to look to give you business traffic if they know where you are and know you can provide what they want. Backtracking all the similar links/rankings/review listings and sites for those listings contribute to your ability to rise in the search results rankings. Since Google is going to various domains to pull information for businesses in a search, you could find that you need to update your information in various ways in those other domains to rise in the rankings, as well.
