What you notice first about the entrants in SmartCompany's Web Awards for 2010 is their passion.
For these entrepreneurs, their company website is far more than an electronic shopfront or catalogue – it's a living, breathing organism that is central to the success of their business. And there is nothing – time, money, labour and the proverbial blood, sweat and tears – that these entrepreneurs wouldn't put in to make their site work.
When SmartCompany launched its Web Awards in 2009 we had two objectives: To recognise the best websites in Australia, with a particular focus on the SME community; and to help raise the general standard of small business websites in general.
After receiving more than 160 award entries, it's clear that Australian entrepreneurs are lifting their game. The sites look better, they are easier to use and easier to find.
Even more impressively, the entries showed that website entrepreneurs are prepared to experiment to make sure their sites stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
Leading the crop in the best website (under 20 staff) was eCommerce site RedBubble (click on the winner's name to go to a full profile), which has created a place for the arts community to gather, converse and sell their work.
The award for the best website (over 20 staff) was taken out by Bakers Delight, which also captured the design award thanks to its brilliant 'virtual bakery' concept.
In the eCommerce category, female fashion site Supré (which was designed by Amblique) was a clear winner, while for the second year running the search category was taken out by Stateless System's site Retail Me Not.
The best blog went to digital marketing bible Digital Buzz, while the best search strategy was taken out by newly launched travel site GlobeTooper.
Before we get into a detailed profile of each winner, let's take a look at five trends from the leading sites in this year's awards:
- Functionality rules. The clear trend in design and site usability is towards simplicity. While design remains important, functionality is the key objective of most website developments and redevelopments – a large number of award entrants talked about the importance of getting constant user feedback and testing to ensure the site is always becoming easier to use. Fortunately, design isn't suffering as part of this shift. Indeed, cleaner, less cluttered sites were also a welcome trend.
- Content, content, content. Fresh, useful, regularly updated content is foremost in the minds of every website owner, regardless of whether they sell goods online or use their site as more of a information tool for their customers. Not only does content give website owners a reason to constantly talk to their customers, but it is also seen as a key strategy for attracting organic search.
- Social media needs real investment. The approach to social media is impressive. Sites are putting in real time, effort and money to explore how the various social networking sites function, experiment with content and build meaningful and quite direct relationships with their customers. However, there is a healthy scepticism here too – the best sites are constantly trying to measure the return on their investment and ensure precious resources get results.
- Search is getting tougher. The days of being able to get a big jump on your competitors through search engine optimisation appear to be gone, as most website operators have strong SEO strategies that they are constantly working to improve. There is a notable trend back towards paid search marketing though, with a number of sites getting very creative about keywords in order to tap into peripheral search traffic.
- Customisation. In eCommerce, the personal touch is one way sites are able to differentiate. Great customised strategies include handwritten notes to accompany an order, on-site functions that allow customers to shop via everything from colour to personality type and teams of online "shop assistants" who provide customer service in over the phone at a level customers usually see in a physical retail store.
We have also collated a special eBook with the top tips from our Web Award entrants.
