This is especially important on home pages and gateway pages. The back button accounts for 30 to 40 percent of all Web clicks. Use a good short tag line and welcome blurb. Rotate site promotions. Remove everything nonessential.
All Web users are unique.
There are no average users. What works is good integrated design that fills a need, that's carefully thought out, well executed, and tested. The antidote for religious debate is to ask specific questions and test with real users. The last three chapters of the book show how to perform testing on the cheap with three or four users. I really enjoyed this book, recommended.