Awards Worth Winning
Everyone likes to have their efforts recognised and how better to have the effort that you put into building your website recognised than through the receipt of awards.
There are lots of web awards out there that you can "win" for your site. Many of these are yours for the asking, you ask for it and it is given to you. Not much recognition in that is there? Other web awards require that you meet certain criteria in order to receive their award and will take the time and trouble to check your site to see if it meets their criteria. Awards like this may well be worth applying for.
Even these web awards are not all created equal with an assortment of criteria and methods for determining whether your site is suitable for their award. Some are more professional than others, some require a higher standard than others, some lay out their criteria and other information in an easier to follow format than others. If you have what you consider to be a quality web site then you don't want to downgrade it by displaying awards that don't meet your own standards of excellence.
Does an award rating mean anything? Not necessarily, from what I have seen ratings appear to be based more on the information supplied on the award pages rather than being a proper indication of the value of the award. While having a whole lot of specific types of information about the award on the award pages gives an indication of the effort that has gone into creating the award, it is not everything. There are top awards that are not rated. There are also highly rated awards with awards that have poor appearance or where the award owners do not live up to the standards of their own award specifications. Therefore while an award rating may be a guide to the value of the award it is only a small part of what you need to consider in determining if an award is really worth winning.
So what do I consider important when it comes to determining whether an award is worth winning or not? There are a number of aspects to this only some of which are reflected in the ratings given by the award rating sites (which is why I don't think ratings are so important). Here is my list:
- Posted criteria to let you know what the award is about. There are three aspects to creating a web site - functionality, design, and content - and various awards give different emphasis to the three areas. This web site concentrates on functionality and content so there would be little point in my submitting this site for an award that was mostly concerned with design.
- The award site should have posted ethics and privacy policies. Most Ethics policies are public domain and so can be readily copied from another award site and modified to suit so the award sites have no excuse. Also you need to know that they actually comply with their policies. This is harder to check but I would remove an award from a site that failed to meet their own policies in this regard.
- The site associated with the award is also important. This is what helps you to determine the judges qualifications for presenting the award in the first place. The site should be to a professional standard that demonstrates that they have a right to judge sites in accordance with their listed criteria. If their site couldn't win their award then what chance has your site got?
- The name of the award issuer can also be important, it sounds better to have received an award from a professional association than one issued by Joe Somebody
- The appearance of the award is important. If they can't take the trouble to create a nice looking award then they obviously can't spare the time to properly evaluate your site.
- The submission process needs to be easy to follow. If you have to go around the world to submit your site then why would you bother?
- Finally, the most outstanding award sites would provide you with feedback. Whether you win an award or not they would let you know what they think of your site and how you could improve it. These awards would not just be worth winning, they would be worth applying for even if you don't win.
We will be adding quality awards that we consider are worth winning to this page when we find them so you have come to the right place if you are looking for quality meaningful awards to apply for (and not just looking to fill a page with hundreds of meaningless "award" icons).
 | The World Famous Golden Web Awards, the Most Popular Website Award in the World. This award is available from the International Association of Web Masters and Designers. It is presented to those sites whose web design, originality, and content have achieved levels of excellence deserving of recognition. If you win this award, you can even buy an award certificate that you can frame to put up on your wall so that even those not on the web can see your achievement. |
 | The American Association of WebMasters awards provides formal recognition to Webmasters and Designers who have shown outstanding achievement in web design content and clarity. The awards can be earned at three separate levels - Gold, Silver, and Bronze - and there are a number of alternate award logos available to choose from. If you win this award, you can even buy an award certificate, plaque, or trophy so that even those not on the web can see your achievement. |
 | There are three aspects to a great web site - good content, attractive design, and user friendly construction. Having not found any awards that deal specifically with the construction aspect, we have decided to introduce our own web award. The bronze, silver, and gold "Ask Felgall" website Construction Awards will recognise well constructed user friendly web sites. |
Note: Displaying web awards on your site that you have not won is not only "cheating" but it also breaches the copyright on the award image and you may find yourself subject to legal action by the award owner. You should only display web awards with the permission of the award owner. If you want to advertise web awards that you have not actually won for your site you should get the permission of the award owner to display a clearly marked sample of the award.
