Ask the Experts, Question 1:

What are website awards and why do people want them?

by Heidi Walsh, Webmistress, Heidi's Sammelsurium
28 September 2001

Print Version

Míc Miller, Webmaster Beehive Awards

Editor's Choice

Web site awards first appeared in May, 1994, and were originally intended to be a form of recognition for those who produced extremely useful and/or innovative Web pages (not sites). Shortly thereafter, dozens of "badge sites" appeared on the Web, presenting graphic images declaring "hot" and "cool" sites. As HTML and Web development tools improved, so did Web awards, which soon evolved into many "general" types with varying purposes, criteria, and processes. These types of Web awards ranged from extremely difficult and prestigious "elite" awards to meaningless "giveaway" or "junk" awards.

Other types of "general" Web site awards could be classified as: "professional recognition" awards sponsored by those whose vocation was designing and developing Web sites as well as avocational, but accomplished, webmasters and webmistresses; and "promotional" awards offered by Web sites who either desired to promote others' Web sites or gain attention for their own.

In addition, there were "people's choice" awards (more like "fan club" or "lobbyist" awards) where site visitors would vote for their preferred choice (or because they were asked to by a participant); "everybody wins" awards given out by site owners who only wanted to increase traffic to their sites; "fellowship" awards that were freely given to, or exchanged with, other Web sites in their genre; and "noncompetitive" awards usually given away to encourage young and aspiring webmasters and webmistresses who demonstrated a basic command for Web site design and construction.

Another group of Web site awards that emerged later were the "special" awards, which included "cumulative," "composite," "editor's choice," and "special recognition" awards. "Cumulative" awards recognized sites solely by the number of awards won. "Composite" awards were similar to the "cumulative" type except they required a qualitative requirement such as a minimum number of top-rated or world-ranked awards. "Editor's choice" awards were presented to the best resources in a given topic or category by editors working for Web directories. "Special recognition" awards also appeared and were usually presented to individuals, not Web sites, for their distinguished service to the Internet community.

Since their appearance, Web site awards have been coveted, aggressively pursued, competed for, and earned by thousands of webmasters and webmistresses for their public recognition values, placement on winners' lists, top-listing positions in Web directories, increasing their sites' link popularity, and the personal gratifications of being told their Web work is excellent, receiving uplifting praise delivered in award notifications, and simply because award seeking is a fun activity!

Today, the better types of Web site awards and their Web Awards Community are the only segment on the Internet that inspire and motivate webmasters and webmistresses to pursue "Web excellence" while offering positive feedback, cultural growth, personal self-improvement, and emotional self-satisfaction, as well as creative and intellectual challenges to those who commit tremendous amounts of discretionary time, effort, and resources to not only preserve the original Netizen vision of "an Internet by and for all," but shine as beacons for the rest of the world in the way of high-quality Web communication.

Jan Sopshier, Webmistress
Circus World Awards

You've created a superior masterpiece and want recognition signifying approval from others but not sure how to accomplish this goal. You believe your website is top-notch and you want acknowledgement of this fact. You have this dream, whereby, others will experience the same feeling about your site. Website awards can help you carry through with this dream.

Website awards are similar to gaining a victory in a contest or competition with a prize (the award graphic) being presented. By meeting or exceeding stated criteria, awards symbolize approval from others and are bestowed on the basis of merit. Criteria is the foundation of award programs. Simply stated, criteria is the reference point in which award seekers base their websites to those offering awards. Meet or exceed criteria and chances are you will receive a website evaluator's award.

Reasons vary amongst award seekers as to why they want evaluators to approve a submitted website for awards. Perhaps award seekers want to win Don Chisholm's Superb! Website Award or become one of the select few who qualify for Award Sites! Halls of Recognition. Both being outstanding accomplishments should an award seeker win either. Maybe one of the biggest reasons to apply and win awards is simply self-satisfaction knowing others approve your online masterpiece.

Will Harbeson, Webmaster
The Medals Of Excellence

Simply put, website awards are those little graphics that you may have seen on someone's website stating that they have qualified for and won an award for their efforts. Why would anyone want one? Well, who among us doesn't want an award? It allows for confirmation of all that hard work you've done and bottom line is it makes you feel good to be a winner! There are some practical reasons to want an award however.

I feel that a second set of eyes on any site is almost a requirement in any design effort. How many times have you spelled a word wrong or have poorly chosen a phrase and had someone finally tell you, "dude, that don't make any sense!" It happens to me all the time. Applying for an award for your site does a couple things for you. First it sets in motion your own careful scrutiny on each and every link, word, phrase or graphic you've placed on your site and secondly it provides positive or constructive feedback for you as you win or don't win the award you have applied for.

Serious applications for website awards, in my opinion, are a pathway to critique for the efforts you have made on your own websites. Any serious designer or anyone for that matter that has made the effort to produce and upload a website, needs feedback beyond that of friends and family to see how they have done. Awards for your website is a great way to do just that. By careful reading of criteria and comparison of the winners list on award givers sites the feedback is almost instant.

Websites that give awards come in all shapes and sizes. You got a site about your dog? There are serious award givers that award sites about dogs. You are the web designer for a major corporation and need feedback on your efforts? There are award sites with the designation of "World's Top Awards" for you to get some serious eyes on your work. No matter the level of your expertise or your time invested in your design training, there are sites that can help you learn and grow.

I am very happy you have taken the time to learn about website awards. The best thing to do is read the criteria for the site to which you intend applying to, carefully and send off your application. Get started today!

Karen Pimtzner, Webmistress
petalperfect Digital Photography Gallery (site closed)

A web site award is like any other honor bestowed on an individual or organization. Put simply: It is "tangible" proof that they have excelled at their craft ... in this case ... web site design, art or any of a wide variety of web-related areas.

There are as many reasons why people want them, as there are people themselves. But, I think mainly ...

On a personal level, a website award is the ultimate symbol of achievement for a webmaster. It is acknowledgement for all of the hard work, long hours (and, let us not forget, talent) that goes into creating an award-winning website. It is the ultimate "thank-you" for making a positive contribution to the World Wide Web.

On an academic level, awards are the bar by which a webmaster is judged against other webmasters. As the level of award achieved goes higher, so goes the bar.

On an elementary level, a novice webmaster might see an award as a learning tool, an indicator that he or she is moving in the right direction. With each award, they feel they have learned something new about website design and about their own website. Many see the criteria of various awards as "guidelines" or "pointers" to compare their website against and, ultimately, use to improve their website.

On a more superficial level ... some see awards as "collectibles," toys, if you will and, you know what they say: "He who has the most toys ... WINS!!!"

Jef Peace, Webmaster
PeaceWork Certified Sites (site closed)

To me, serious website awards (awards which are backed by carefully planned criteria and an ethical award giver) represent invaluable critique from folks who really care about website design.

It logically follows that these remarkable men and women are also very good at website design and their opinions are crucial to the evolution of my websites. Granted, it feels good to receive an award, especially a top-level award from a high-rated program. For example, I opened a 14-year-old bottle of Mouton Cadet Bordeaux to toast the WebPix I received from the Beeline and I won't even try to hide the fact that my ego is sufficiently stroked on such occasions. However, the main reason I apply for awards is that each one I receive, or fail to receive, is indicative of how well the website I submitted will serve its purpose to the Internet community.

As a businessman trying to present my "best face," the value of these critiques can not be measured.

Rainer Klein, Webmaster
Webmaster Central Awards (site closed)

Website awards serve two different purposes.

Firstly, they are a great way to promote a website. Winners receive a link on an award giver's website that will directly improve the amount of traffic through free advertising. They also increase the ranking in search engines through a mechanism called "link popularity." This will also result in an increase of visitors to the site.

Secondly, and more importantly for website awards, they are the recognition a designer receives for creating a superior website.

For professional designers awards can serve as a reference for the quality of their work. Awards can be of great help to them when it comes to acquiring new clients. For personal websites it is just a little pat on the back, which rewards us for our work and motivates us to become even better designers. We all need some encouragement from time to time.

For me, it was a great way of seeing how much I had improved my skills.

Kim Cole, Webmistress
World of Knowledge Awards (program closed)

Website awards are often first noticed as pretty graphics gracing a website. However, upon a closer inspection of individual programs, and of the Web Award Community, they are seen to be much more. They are a way of discovering the best sites on the web, those with the greatest range of accessibility and with the most useful information. Depending on the focus of the award, it may identify the sites with the best graphics, the sites with the best content, or both. Naturally, everyone wants to be the best.

It is important to remember, though, that not all programs are the same. You can almost always tell an awards program by its winners list. An ethically run program will have a list of winners that clearly reflects its criteria. Criteria, in case you do not know, are the rules by which a program decides which sites may earn the award and which may not. Most awards program will have a criteria listing, a listing of things which will disqualify a site from winning, and sometimes a self-test or list of tips for winning. It is always a good idea to pay very close attention to these things, if you wish to win an award.

Another aspect of web awards is helping to improve web sites. Some people are such good webmasters that their very first efforts are award worthy. The rest of us are able to use the wonderful resource of the Web Awards Community to help us improve our sites. Trying to win a respected award program's top honor is a wonderful motivation for constantly working and expanding your knowledge.

Alberto Paronetto, Webmaster
Sinapsis Award for an Intellectual Attitude

Website awards are a reward for the effort, the excellence, the creativity, the merit, the dedication, the devotion, the talent, the intelligence, and the quality of a website or webmaster.

People want them (in order of importance), because:

Tasha St. John, Webmistress
The Sheer Perfect Web Award

Website awards are, at the most basic level, a process of interaction between an award program and an independent website.

This interaction is initiated by an application from the independent site owner to have his or her website evaluated by the award program with the aim of earning that program's award. The awards dispensed are (by tradition) a graphic that can be proudly displayed on the successful applicant's website.

Award programs are, oftentimes, vastly different in both theme and criteria, and certainly no two programs are exactly the same. Some website's give out awards freely, but these are not considered as legitimate award programs. Viable award programs, themselves, apply to award organizations for an evaluation and a rating level. Usually, the higher a program's rating, the more professional its presentation and the more demanding its evaluation criteria.

People seek web awards for different reasons. Commercial websites devoted to web design consider awards a testimonial to their professionalism. For most personal website authors, awards are a visible acknowledgment of both technical and contextual creativity.

Heidi Walsh, Webmistress
Heidi's Website Awards (program closed)

A website award is a small pixel image about the size of a postage stamp. Just like stamps, too, some award images are prettier than others, in fact some are real graphic masterpieces. People like to collect them as they collect lots of things like bottle tops, matchboxes, sugar cubes or — postage stamps.

Well, that is a very easy definition, and there is much more behind it. Website awards are not only collectors' items, because it's not that easy to collect them — you have got to earn them (in most cases that is). There are a number of web awards that can be won by anybody who applies for them. These are "Give Away Awards" that serve only one purpose — to provide links for the site that issues them.

Awards that can be taken seriously must be earned by creating a website that is good enough to earn them. You can find out if your website qualifies for an award by reading the criteria of the award program. The criteria will tell you if your site is eligible. They are different in every award program, so it is possible for you to win a gold award from one program and a bronze award from the next one.

Also, some awards are much harder to earn than others. It depends on the reputation of the program, or the rating they get from Award Sites! or if they are even rated a World's Top Award. These are the awards that are sought-after most. But there are many others that are very popular.

People apply for awards for different reasons. One of them is a certain passion for collecting pretty little images that can be displayed on one's website. Another reason might be the fact that you will be listed in the winners' list of that award program which gains you a free link to your homepage. But the most important reason is the fact that people desire recognition for all the work and the enthusiasm they have put into their website. Winning an award doesn't only make people happy, it also assures them that they are on the right track with what they have been doing.

Applying for awards even helps people to improve their websites. It's great to win a silver award, but a golden one would be even better. So lots of people keep improving their websites and do not rest until they have reached their goal.

Website awards motivate people to keep learning, to become better, and yes — to strive for excellence.

Maggi Norris, Webmistress
Nem5 Awards Program

Website awards are like the Oscar's of the Internet. They are like a star on a kindergarten homework assignment for a perfect score. They are like a trophy for winning a sporting event. They are like a pat on the back from a mentor for learning an exceptionally difficult lesson. Website awards are a new part of life that has been with us since recorded time began; a part that rewards mankind for a job well done; a part that mankind has learned to crave like water when he is thirsty. The web awards part of life is new, only because the Internet is relatively new.

In literal terms, awards are usually a graphic, that can be almost any size, that one gets to show on their site if the award is earned. Many award graphics are simply text on a solid background. Many are elaborate works of art that may represent almost anything. Many award graphics are very beautiful.

People want awards for many reasons. With web awards there are a few specific reasons. The more links a site can get from other sites, the higher the popularity of the site getting those links will rise in search engines. Earning awards helps a site get links. It is a form of advertisement.

When a site earns an award they are also earning the endorsement of the award site that gives the award. There are often rules that are very difficult to meet in order to earn the awards. The rules are usually known as criteria. The rules that are in place to earn the awards will be used to check the site to see if the site is "award worthy." The award giver is saying that they believe winning sites meet those rules and that the winning sites are worth looking at. This is also another form of advertisement.

Since most award programs are different, and are judged by different people for many different things, it will be difficult to earn a lot of them. Websites that are able to earn awards from many different programs show that a very large audience will enjoy surfing their pages. This is another form of advertisement.

Once a site has earned awards, the Webmaster can say "Award Winning Designs by" on their business cards and flyers. This is a form of advertisement that will very often impress prospective clients and help the Webmaster get paying work.

There is also the personal satisfaction a Webmaster or site owner feels when another person shows they like the work on a site enough to give an award along with their professional and personal endorsement. Earning awards feels good. It makes people smile. It helps them feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. That's one of the best reasons I know of to apply for website awards.