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If your site is absent from the local listings of Google and Yahoo, you are missing the Internet's version of a Yellow Pages™ ad. These services allow searchers to request information about products and services within a geographic area--your area, just like a telephone directory, only faster.
For those accustomed to--and relying on--the web for information, these local listings are a quick search method. In addition, the growing ranks of mobile device users allow for a directory anywhere search on web-enabled phones without hauling around the 8 pound yellow book.
And Google added a third reason for joining their local listing service with their "dial for listing" search using short message service (SMS). Google SMS lets you send text-message queries to Google and receive local listing phone numbers and addresses. And because it is not website driven, you do not have to have a website in order to have your contact information listed. (Of course, your professionally designed website will enable you to offer coupons and product information that will help you sell.)But best of all, it's free!
To get listed, visit Google's or Yahoo's submission page. Or call us!
ThunderBits are ideas on website design, custom software applications, and Internet marketing. Changing monthly (okay, maybe just once in a while :), we promise to offer useful principles that build better businesses. 
