| Before you start to apply for awards, it's a good idea to make sure your website is ready for the test. Most of the people who give out awards have criteria for judging the sites they review. Your website must meet their criteria to win their awards. To meet their criteria, you must know what is required and you must prepare your site. |
| The following guidelines were developed to help you prepare your website. They are based on the experience I gained from applying for hundreds of awards, from studying the criteria at the Award Sites, and from many discussions with reviewers at some of the best Award Sites in the world. Follow these proven guidelines, refine your website, and it will be a winner! |
| Purpose |
| You must have a clear purpose for your website, and every element in your site must contribute to that purpose. Remove any elements that do not contribute. |
| Content |
| The Internet was created to share information; and comprehensive, useful content is the heartbeat of an excellent website. |
| Most Award Sites will be using the following criteria, or something similar, to judge the content of your website: |
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the content should be original, concise, accurate, well written, and up-to-date |
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if you're not using original content, give credit to the original author |
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all content must be meaningful to and useful for the intended audience |
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all content should be organized into logical groups |
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sites with sexual, racial, sexist, violent, or abusive content will not be considered |
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| Websites that present a new idea or concept and sites that offer a unique or useful service have the best chance of winning awards. Try to be original, or creative. Some of the best ideas are simply a new twist on an old idea. |
| Graphics |
| Graphics are used to improve the presentation of content. Properly used, graphics can greatly enhance a website and its content. |
| The following suggestions will help you meet the criteria that most Award Sites use for judging the graphics in your website: |
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keep the use of "clip art" to an absolute minimum, use original graphics |
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all graphics should be clear and sharp, without any "jaggies" |
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all graphics should be relevant to the content of the Web page |
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all graphics should be "gif" or "jpg", for most browsers will only display these formats |
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try to avoid excessive use of bevels and drop shadows |
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use the "height" and "width" attributes in your <img> tags to reduce the loading time |
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use the "alt" attribute in your <img> tags for some browsers do not support graphics |
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use animated graphics sparingly, and only if they are relevant to the content of the page |
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| Don't steal bandwidth. All the graphics in your website should be stored on your own server. Linking to graphics in other websites is not acceptable. It's a great way to ensure that you don't win awards! |
| Optimize graphics to reduce their loading time. The file size of most graphics
can be reduced by 30% to 50% or more by using optimization tools
that are readily available on the Web. Try the tools at Image
Crunchers or HVS
GIFCruncher. If you often work with graphics, purchase a
good program, which will optimize graphics in almost any file
format. |
| Design |
| The design of your website, how you combine the content and graphics, can transform good content into a great site. A great site will have a layout that is pleasing to the eye, and all the pages will have a consistent look and feel. It will be well organized, logical, and easy to navigate. |
| Establish a colour scheme for your site and keep the number of colours to a minimum. Select colours that compliment the purpose of your website. The colour scheme will help to create a consistent look and feel, and the pages will flow smoothly from one to another. |
| The following suggestions will help you meet the criteria that most Award Sites use for judging the design of your website: |
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don't try to cram your entire site into the first page, keep it short |
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your pages should look clean and crisp, not crowded and cluttered |
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break large areas of text into smaller paragraphs with subheadings, it's easier to read |
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don't use backgrounds that make it difficult to read the text |
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if possible, use the same background throughout your entire website |
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keep advertising banners to an absolute minimum |
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don't use blinking text, it's very distracting |
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if you use music anywhere in your site, there should be a way to turn it off |
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your HTML code should be clean and accurate, based on W3C Recommendations |
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if you use frames, make sure that you use the <noframes> tag as well |
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your Web pages should display properly in all the major browsers |
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don't use "Under Construction" signs, good websites are always under construction |
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| Java Applets, like every other element in your site, should be carefully chosen. If they don't contribute to the purpose of your website, remove them! Try to avoid the use of pop-up windows for JavaScript warnings or for capturing the names of visitors. |
| Don't post more than one or two awards on your home page. They increase the loading time and almost always conflict with the colour scheme you selected for your website. Create a section called "My Awards", or something similar, and post them there. Longer loading times and a myriad of colours are expected, and acceptable, in the awards section of your site. |
| Navigation |
| A website should be easy to navigate, and visitors should know where they are in the site at all times. If you use an image map, or a menu consisting of graphical links, you should have a text version as well. |
| The following suggestions will help you meet the criteria that most Award Sites use for judging the navigation of your website: |
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navigation should be intuitive and user friendly |
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provide more than one menu on longer pages, unless you're using frames |
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provide a "Back to Top" link at the bottom of longer pages |
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visitors should not have to use the "Back" button on their browsers to navigate |
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| Missing graphics and broken links, especially internal links, are another great way to ensure that you don't win awards! Make sure they work properly. If your site has a large number of links, however, a few broken external links will be forgiven by most reviewers. |
| Checking & Testing |
| Proofread all your work, then proofread it again. Check for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. If possible, get a friend or relative to proofread it as well. It's very easy to miss errors and mistakes while checking your own work. |
| Check your HTML with validators that are readily available on the Web, such
as the W3C
HTML Validation Service, WDG
HTML Validator, or Doctor
HTML. Check all your links at NetMechanic,
LinkAlarm,
or Link
SleuthTM, or purchase
a good program such as LinkScan
for this purpose. |
| Test all your programs and scripts to make sure they're working properly. JavaScript errors will not win you any awards, especially if they crash the reviewer's browser! |
| Test your website with different screen resolutions and different modem speed connections. Tune up your site and check for cross platform and browser compatibility by using the excellent free services at NetMechanic, ANYBrowser.com, Bobby, and the Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer. |
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