I've got a few different approaches for deployments.

For static sites, which are built from templates, or by hand, I just deploy via rsync. This is nice and efficient, and is carried out over SSH which allows me to be secure in-transit and avoid having to enter passwords.

For dynamic applications I've tended to write simple recipes via fabric (http://fabfile.org/) which allows me to bundle up the local state of a repository, transfer it over SSH, and run a few commands.

For some things in the middle I use git pushes to different environments, but I'm trying to move away from that and into more scripted deployment via ansible, fabric, slaughter, etc.