It's vital now to have a website being viewed as a tool or resource, rather than simply an online business brochure. We've moved past the days of having 3 main tabs of "About Us, Our Services, Contact Us."  Users are expecting more...they're expecting for you to engage and interact with them on equal footing. Do you want to be heard above the competition? This means, understanding who is coming to your site and how they would potentially use it. The website needs to provide these pathways, whether through promoting online web services or tying into social media outlets.  These pathways will add value to your service or simply organize your content in a way conducive to your users to find information rather than just for yourself. This creates real dialog between customers and business and takes the board of directors out of the ivory towers. It lets your customers become your advocates and your sales increase because of it.

Even from an information architecture stand point, if you continue to use internal terminology that only your employees would understand, then how are you reaching your target audience? Think about how your website is currently organized. Is it setup according to your own internal business practices, processes, and organizational hierarchy? Will your customers understand that?

Your content needs to be organized and more importantly, thoughtfully written in such a way that a person coming to your site immediately knows who you are, what you can do for them and where to go to find out how to get their problems resolved. The web has evolved past the point of pure selling and wants, to..."Reach out to your customers who are anxiously waiting to find answers." They're much smarter than you give them credit for and will see through gimmicky marketing jargon, flashy sales pitches and will abandon an unorganized market-y website. Honesty, openness and trust are the new ways of doing business. Time to get on board! Your customers may already be leaving the station.