Running a business is never easy, but building an effective web site can often make a huge difference.

We'll use this site to introduce our business and explain the goods or services we have to offer. People don't want to spend time figuring out what a business does, so our home page will highlight the most important features of both our business and our web site. We'll think of the home page as a kind of portal, giving customers the information they want at a glance, and offering lots of links to draw them in to the rest of the site.

For example, we might feature a different item on the home page each month, along with a link to our products page so people can get more information. Or, if we're running a contest to attract business, we might include a link to our contest page.