Getting British Business Online is a joint initiative by Google and Yola to help SMEs create their first website and help them understand the opportunities offered by the Internet. We helped 100k UK SMEs get their first website easily and for free in 2010 and we plan on helping just as many in 2011.

Google and Yola the core partners on this initiative.

Any organisation that has an active and supportive relationship with SMEs. We'll be partnering with both national and regional SME interest groups including business and trade associations, chambers, councils, enterprise and development agencies, and many more to ensure that we can reach as many UK businesses as possible and help them get online.

We need the support of partners with day-to-day contacts with small businesses for this initiative to be a success. You could promote the campaign to your members or clients, host events, or mention the initiative at existing events or training sessions, for example. These are just a few of the ways you can help your members and local businesses. Register to download a Marketing Toolkit with more ideas and instructions for promoting your involvement to your members.

We estimate that there are at least 1.5 million businesses in the UK that don't yet have a website. We aim to help change this.

Many businesses of all sizes and from a variety of sectors aren't yet online, but more importantly their customers are - with over 41m people in the UK using the Internet.

A business website can take any number of formats: it can simply be a page displaying a business's contact details - almost an online business card, it could be a showcase of pictures and videos of your products, or it could be a site that allows customers to order and pay online.

Businesses without a website will be able to claim a free .co.uk website address and use our simple wizard to create their own website customised to their business needs. They'll then automatically have their site registered in Google's search engine, Google Maps and other popular sites where potential customers search for businesses. Businesses that already have a website can use our self help tool that will recommend ways in which they can either improve their existing website, understand more about their customers or simply discover ways to get more potential customers visiting the site.

We're working with a number of training providers at the moment to develop training materials and courses for businesses and individuals that need a bit more help getting online. Also as new partners join the campaign we'll be able to offer more assistance.

To take full advantage of the campaign partners and businesses will need to be based in the UK. Businesses and partners from outside the UK will be able to use the free self help tool, but may not be able to take advantage of all products the tool recommends. The offer of free websites is only available to businesses based in the UK.