BEST WEBSITE COMPETITION

How do we assess the entries?

Our assessments are based on overall impressions and a more detailed look at elements which seem to us specially important. These include:

• Are details of the next programme event on the front page?

• Is there a "Last Updated" flag on front page? Is it up to date?

• Does the programme page offer a fair degree of detail, clarity of layout and readability?

• On the news/events page are the contents reasonably recent, interesting, extensive, well laid out, well signposted?

• Does the about us page have interesting content that is not too historic?

• Are contact details prominent? Is there an email? Is there other information - e.g. a phone number? Is there a specific invitation to get in touch?

• Are the venue/meeting times clear?

• Is there a map showing how to reach the venue?

• Does the club use social media like Facebook or Twitter for promotion?
  

• Is the committee listed? If so are there names, pictures, responsibilities, contact details for each person?

• Does the site include any video content or AV sequences? (We do not attempt to judge the quality of these.)

• What competition details and results are shown? Are these recent? Do they include details of the winning works? Are they in an attractive format?.

• What outbound links are shown? Are they useful and appropriate?

• Are there photographs on the site? If so are they of a reasonable size? Are they attractive?
  

• Is the site navigation included on every page and easy to use?

• Overall is the site's content enticing and enthusiastic?

• What is the site's likely overall appeal to members?

• What is the site's likely overall appeal to visitors / prospective members?

• Taken as a whole: are there any major no-nos? Are there any unexpected bonuses?

• We also look at a few statistics:

  • The site's ranking on http://www.alexa.com http://www.alexa.com the number of inbound links shown on Alexa and on Google.

  • Does a Google search for the club's name put the site at the top of the list of results?

We always keep in mind that there is no absolute formula for a perfect website and we are fully aware that some elements of our judgements are necessarily subjective. So entrants should feel free to disagree with our comments and judgements, but please believe that they are made in good faith after extensive study of each website.