A site for sore eyes

How come there are so many business Websites out there that are digital dross? This is the best value, most ubiquitous marketing tool of our time, yet too many companies have a site that does them no favours whatsoever. Indeed, if their advertising, PR and brochures were as bad they'd be firing somebody. The errors fall into five main categories: the content is dated (yes, already); the content looks as though it was put together by someone the day after he bought Pagemill (it probably was); the content addresses the wrong visitor to the site; using the site is complex, or slow, or both; finally, the biggest fault, the site doesn't have a clear commercial purpose. The author addresses these errors.