Jakob Neilson is a well-respected website design and usability consultant. He summarizes the top three priorities for website design in his Alertbox newsletter (highly recommended).

1. Communicate clearly so that users understand you. Users allocate minimal time to initial website visits, so you must quickly convince them of the site's worth.

2. Provide information users want. Users must be able to easily determine whether your services meet their needs and why they should do business with you.

3. Offer simple, consistent page design, clear navigation, and an information architecture that puts things where users expect to find them.

Get these three right, and you'll enhance your site's credibility, ease a user's way through the site, and thus do far more for the site's business value than any fancy tricks or hype.