There are literally thousands of ‘Industry Awards’ for website design on the Internet.
You can even buy software that automatically submits your site to hundreds of website design award panels.
To be frank, only a few of these awards really carry any prestige and only one or two really encompass all aspects of developing a successful Internet business.
One of the best awards is the CIO Web Business 50/50, and well worth taking a look at if you want to get some idea of what is really working in the online environment.
To win a CIO 50/50 award entrants websites must “make it easy, pleasant, even downright enjoyable for customers to do business with them”.
This may sound simple but as CIO state that there are many “websites that, frankly, still don’t get it. They’re clunky. They’re cluttered. They’re confusing. They don’t add value. Sometimes they just don’t work (as in the case of the retail site that wouldn’t take one judge’s money).
“And many provide little evidence of caring much about whether visitors quickly find what they want – or whether they return”.
CIO base their judgement on four key criteria. These are that websites must stand out, look great, add value and demonstrate continual evolution.
In essence, they must have a clear competitive advantage which differentiates them from the pack.
