The .tel suffix has been instituted as a designation for services connecting telephone networks and the Internet. The template lists contact information links enabling one-click access to web sites, phone numbers, e-mail address, fax, and VOIP. There is also a map and the ability to insert latitude and longitude. The .tel web sites are hosted for free by domain companies where the domains are purchased; the miniature web sites are specially formatted to fit the screens of Blackberries, iPhones, and other wireless devices.

People are now browsing the Web from cell phones, creating a demand for compacted information brought up to the user's field of vision quickly without scrolling or clicking through to locate contact numbers or maps. The numerous keystrokes required to look through online phone directories are prohibitive. Type of business, postal code, addresses, and other search methods have to be entered several times - often without result. Random Google search will usually be two or three keywords to get a variety of matching results. This is where an advantage can be gained with a .tel site.

A universal online directory that would improve on the phone book format was inevitable. Not all businesses or individual have up-to-date listings with Yellow Pages and Super Pages, so many searches come up empty. With random search qualifying terms are used to locate businesses in a geographic area that can supply the product or service being searched.

It is not enough to just set up the mobile .tel site: the domain must be linked up with an SEO campaign to ensure that it arrives at the top of the search results. Like the .com revolution, a race has started among domain supplier companies to buy up the good keyword domains with .tel suffixes. Domains with a company name should be avoided by small companies since the search results are very much keyword-driven. The reason for this is not only due to the limited amount of content describing the market sector, but also the fact that Google retrieves the site directly from the Domain Name Server rather than the Google index. This results in extremely fast retrieval and display.

In an article published in New Scientist, Tom Simonite explains that only contact information and short text blurbs can be viewed on the .tel site, and that the owners of .tel domains will not be able to upload and maintain web pages as they can for other top-level domains." Domain registration choices should be decided based on your major keywords.

The phenomenon began when Google introduced a special search algorithm for mobile devices and the .tel registry was established in the UK early in 2009. They describe their role in a sub-folder on their own .tel web site: Telnic Limited is the UK-based Registry Operator and Sponsoring Organization for the new .tel sponsored top level domain. Kash Mahdavi, CEO of Telnic stated in the London Telegraph: ".tel is your place on the internet, which will act like a switchboard."

If a new company wants an internet presence but has no budget, a domain can be purchased for under $20. Hosting is compliments of the domain name company and a layman can figure out how to set up the site from instructions that are easy to find. This will put company info online within 48 hours; however it can only compete for random search traffic by performing SEO on the domain and loading in keywords. Off-page content must be created to build a large number of links to the .tel web site in relation to the strength of the competitors, just like any other site.

The linking can continue into the sub-folders where each page can be set up with profiles, content, and keywords relevant to the activity discussed on the page. As with the home page the goal is to get the cell phone user to click your company phone number. This real-time lead gathering method will result in many conversions as people will become more habitual searchers on a mobile device Google search bar.