Earlier today, OfficeMax made an unexpected announcement about a newly-minted partnership between itself and GoDaddy that would bring a line of small business website services to the retail level. Thanks to the partnership, OfficeMax is now the exclusive retailer of GoDaddy website services nationwide.

Services available via the partnership include domain name registrations, professional-grade website creation, and search engine visibility improvement tools as well. Services are commonly available in one-year bundles, thus there's only one recurring bill a year for those companies who look to launch a website with GoDaddy. OfficeMax staffers, specifically trained in GoDaddy's operations and offerings, are also on hand to provide information and extra instructions for those who find themselves having problems getting the services up and running.

Teri Dhooge, the vice president of marketing for GoDaddy, summed up the move: "The Internet is at the heart of today's economy. If you're not building an online presence, you're missing opportunities to capture new customers, yet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly seventy-five percent of businesses don't have a website. Partnering with OfficeMax means we can help more people leverage the power of the Internet – people who may not realize how easy it can be." OfficeMax's executive vice president and president of retail joined in a note of assent with a bit of elaboration, saying "Having a digital presence is instrumental to business success, as it's increasingly where consumers and businesses go to research and shop. Together with GoDaddy, we're offering a complete array of products and services to help small businesses boost their online visibility, reach customers and drive sales in the digital space."

Some may call this too little, too late as more customers are making moves toward mobile sites rather than the more standard Web, but there's still plenty of room, and plenty of users, online to reach. That OfficeMax would offer the full range of GoDaddy services, including improvements in search engine visibility, is a smart move indeed and dovetails nicely with OfficeMax's recent push into cloud services.

Better yet, there's more than a little overlap between GoDaddy and OfficeMax's customer bases; while GoDaddy boasts almost 11 million customers worldwide, 70 percent of them are small and medium-size businesses. Thus, GoDaddy gets access to a new customer base, and OfficeMax gets a new service to offer that customer base. Given that OfficeMax has more than a few competitors in the market--Staples (News - Alert) and Office Depot just two major names--having an extra service helps differentiate the brand and makes it more valuable to the current customer base.

Having a Web presence is important for most any business. Being able to get out word about new products and services, take orders for the same as the case merits, and reach a new class of users that would otherwise be unavailable are all great reasons to have that online presence. That's a move that's been made a whole lot easier thanks to the combination of GoDaddy and OfficeMax.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.