The Kelsey Group announced a study that found that many small and medium-sized (SMB) businesses are failing to adopt online advertising in a significant way.

"Our most recent research indicates a clear shift in user behavior from traditional media sources to online. National advertisers have been quick to embrace paid-search advertising, as evidenced by Google's recent quarterly results. Yet small-business advertisers have done little in terms of reallocating their budgets to take advantage of the surge in online and search engine lookups," says Neal Polachek, senior vice president, research and consulting, The Kelsey Group.

The Kelsey Group research found that use of search engines to find information about local businesses increased significantly from 47 percent in 2003 to 55 percent in 2005. This represents a 8 percent increase.

"The question is: How do SMBs get in front of these growing numbers of consumers on the internet?" adds Polachek.