Go into Google and search for a pub and more often than not you'll find a Beer in the Evening (BITE) listing near the top of the page.BITE was founded in 2001 as a website where customers could list and comment on their favourite pubs. There are currently around 34,000 pub pages on there, which makes it the most comprehensive website of its kind.
In January it attracted 1.35 million unique visitors and there are 250,000 links to it from other sites. Each week, for instance, 5,000 people click through from social networking site Facebook, checking out a pub to meet in in real life.
As Chris Hughes, who bought the site last autumn, puts it: "If we were a supermarket we'd be Tesco's" - but with more expensive drinks, presumably.
Chris took it over because he believes BITE has untapped commercial potential, and it seems he's being proved right. Guinness is running a three- month banner campaign on the site which enables visitors to search for their nearest pub serving Guinness Red - and review the new beer once they've tasted it. Apparently other brands are interested in doing something similar.
Yet with certain exceptions Chris has found it difficult to convince the pub trade of its value to their business.
"Most licensees just aren't aware of how the internet can help them," he says.
"They have spent money on websites but say it hasn't brought them new custom."
As a lot of pubs have discovered, having a great website isn't much use if nobody visits it, but that's where web portals such as BITE come in. In fact, it's quite likely that without you even knowing it your pub is benefiting from this kind of web marketing.
Chris recently ran a test with 10 busy London pubs giving them each a premium 0871 number exclusive to their listing on BITE. This enabled him to track how many people were being steered to the pub through the site, and the results amazed even him. "Some of the pubs were receiving 100 calls a day via the website," he says. "That shows the power of web marketing."
None of the 10 pubs had paid for upgraded listings which Chris believes can produce an even bigger response. For £100 a year licensees can include a picture, tailor the information on the page, update it with the latest events and menus, see who's visiting and invite feedback.
Some 2,800 pubs have upgraded their listing, a decent number, but one he wants to grow further.
"We are getting more and more people coming through to us searching for events such as Mother's Day, but it's only the pubs that have upgraded that will get results from that.
"Licensees should be actively taking control of their web marketing, rather than just letting it happen," he says.