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.