I have been making web sites for businesses almost since before Al Gore invented the Internet, and my latest project really brought some fundamental issues into focus and addressed them pretty well, if i do say so myself. I have read about and seen dozens of "the new technologies" (of the moment) that will "revolutionize the way your company does business" over the years.
It seems to me though, my small business clients are still asking two questions which are much more foundational than the use of any individual web site technology. "How will people find my web site?" and "How can I change my own web site?"
The first question is answered in a variety of ways, all of the good answers boil down to creating a quality web site, and promoting it. As a web developer, I strongly believe that a business person knows their own customers better than I do, and so while I can guide the business owner in developing a quality site, the second question is really the interesting one.
I wont bore you with the details, but lets just say, that even though I could edit HTML pages with notepad in the early 90s, for some reason, that method never caught on with a single one of my customers. About 6 or 7 years ago, I developed a site where I suggested to the user they could use a certain WYSIWYG page editor, but that was a disaster too. If I could have lived with the ugly code the product produced, the customer couldn't really use the software very well, it was too complex.
My latest project for SilverHill Rottweilers, "The Home Bred Rottweiler of Exceptional Temperment", was done using Movable Type Publishing Platform. The client created and input all of the content, including the photos of her dogs.
This client has a business advantage over many other breeders because she has been doing this longer and produced more Champion animalss. This is an ongoing process, and the site must be updated many times per year for a variety of reasons.
By using MT, and creating several sections of the website where she can enter and edit various content, she is able to more closely manage her own web site. I supplement this self-service site management with technical skills and guidance about feeds, templates, and other doohickeys, but she gets to build and maintain her own site. Which ultimately she knows more about than I do, because she knows her products, industry and customers better than I do.