Many thanks to jellen for this first hand account; I hope that others will feel very free to add theirs. I should also say that in this article (and in other web-related activities) I draw a lot of inspiration from Philip Greenspun's book, Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing. I have a 1999 edition of the "dead trees" version, and even though a lot of the very specific technical advice may no longer apply, it's still a book worth reading from cover to cover. (There are lots of great photos of Alex, as well.) One of the most useful realizations that I derived from reading Philip's book (and also attending one of his web design workshops) boils down to something like this:

The vast majority of first-time visitors to your organization's web site will be looking for either 1) how to contact you offline or 2) an immediate answer to a very specific question, or both. If the information they're seeking is not on your web site's home page (or if it's not completely obvious where they need to click to find the information) then your web site is failing to nurture your relationships with current and potential stakeholders.

As Philip might say, this would make a good article for Duh magazine.