Forget the Phone Book. How to Generate Leads for Local Businesses These tips will get your local business the online attention it deserves.

A big, fat Yellow Pages landed in my driveway the other day with an audible whomp. I promptly picked it up and deposited it into the recycling bin with a second whomp. Harsh, right? But when I'm searching for something local--be it a snow shovel or a cinnamon roll--the last thing I'd do is flip through the phone book.

Chances are, you feel the same way. A study last year by Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 51 percent of U.S. adults get information about local businesses from the internet, rather than from newspapers, word-of-mouth, TV reporting or those tragic phone books.