The yellow pages and phone books are no longer the main way consumers locate businesses. With computers, laptops, netbooks, mobile phones, and other web ready tools, the Internet has now replaced the yellow pages and most consumers now turn to the search engines to find what they need.

Consumers aren’t just searching for broad terms either. Consumers are searching for local businesses and resources just as much as global businesses.

When your target market searches for your business online, do you show up on the first page of the search engine results? If not, you really should invest in a website upgrade and work with a marketing savvy web designer who not only understands how to visually present your information, but how to market your products and services as well.

You need to show up when someone searches for you online because your target market can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist!

At minimum, you need to have a simple, clean, well designed website with good, informative, helpful content. This will ensure that at least you have a professional presence when someone searches for you.

What I recommend, is consistently adding new and fresh content to your website. Some people through a blog update their site every day. Some once or twice a week. Some business owners only update their site once a month. Obviously the more you update the content the better, but even one update is better than zero updates.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

What bothers me the most is that most smart business owners blindly turn to a graphic designer or web designer to design them a site that makes them “look cool” to their competitors.

Here’s the problem with that approach: Your competitors aren’t going to buy from you or hire you.

Website design isn’t about your designer adding another edgy piece to their portfolio that pushes the boundaries and makes them look cool to other designers.

Website design isn’t about using all of the programming tricks and capabilities available. Remember, custom animation was popular in PowerPoint when it first came out, but now you’re sort of a dork if you use it. Some of those website features work the same way.

Website design also isn’t about jockeying for the coolest site award among your peers. This isn’t high school and no one cares what stickers you have on your binder or what patches you have on your backpack.

What people do care about is that they can find the information they are looking for quickly and easily. It also helps if your website isn’t ugly and doesn’t look like your “friend’s husband who is good with computers” built it for you.

With that said, here is what designing your website should be about:

Your business website has nothing to do with your competitors. It’s sole focus is your target market and serving them to the absolute best of your ability. It should focus on providing useful, valuable information quickly. Your content should be easy to find and should take as few clicks as possible to reach it.

The website development should include the integration of automation tools that make your job easier, make the visitors’ experience better, and streamline your processes.

The web design should focus on organizing and presenting the information clearly. It should make the content easy to read and should guide the user through the site. The design should also help reinforce and enhance your brand, position you as an expert, and build your credibility.

Think of your website this way – the website is the movie, the content is the leading actor, and the design is the supporting actor.

Your goal is to create a synergy between the overall site, the design, and the content that helps create chemistry with your visitors so they keep coming back.