Yahoo! this week launched a new version of its free Web site development and hosting product, through Yahoo! Small Business. Although it previously had a free tool for small businesses to establish a Web presence, this is an improvement because of its simplicity and better site design tools.

This comes weeks after Google made enhancements to its Local Business Center. Both are meant to bring more small businesses online, which is the first step toward evolving them into paid search advertisers, and essentially expanding the addressable market of online advertisers.

This is a key strategy in the online marketplace right now  the Webification of SMBs  as we’ve pointed out in the past. Others that have gone down this road in various ways include WebVisible, Affinity Internet, Smalltown (microsite development) and vFlyer.

Search Engine Land has more details on the new Yahoo! tool.

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