Best Construction Web Site Trends Detailed in New Report from the Web Marketing Association

March 30, 2007; 01:02 AM
The Web Marketing Association, host of leading web site awards competition WebAwards, released the Internet Standards Assessment Report (ISAR) to help the construction industry learn to create more effective and engaging web sites.

"As the standard of excellence for web sites continues to increase, consumers (and WebAward judges) are increasingly picky about what they consider to be an effective web site," said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association, Inc. "The best construction Web sites are beginning to incorporate Flash and other multimedia into their pages. This results in a much richer online experience for potential customers and key stakeholders in development projects."

The WebAwards competition judges construction web sites on seven criteria that combined create award-winning web sites:

•    Design
•    Innovation
•    Content
•    Technology
•    Interactivity
•    Copywriting
•    Ease of use

This recent underperformance has resulted in below average 3-year criteria scores across all judging criteria.

According to the ISAR study, content, ease of use, design and interactivity are construction web site's strong points. They tend to have the lowest scores for innovation and use of technology.

The 2006 WebAward for Best Construction web site went to Axxiem Corp for PAF Painting.

Other past winners include:

•    2005 FLEX360 for Bell-Corley.com
•    2004 MarketSource, LLC for Four Seasons Consumer Site and Franchise Portal
•    2003 The Lutgert Companies for Azure at Bonita Bay
•    2002 Razorfish, Inc for CEMEX

Companies and organizations wishing to have their construction web site evaluated against the ISAR Index and be considered for a WebAward, which can help boost a Web site's credibility and marketing efforts, can learn more at www.07webaward.org.

To request your copy of the 2007 WebAward ISAR report, please visit: http://www.webaward.org/isar_report.asp

The Internet Standards Assessment report and the 2007 WebAwards are sponsored by the following leading organizations: Burst Media, PRWeb, Misukanis & Odden, Small Army, SimpleFeed, ExactTarget, ad:tech conferences, NewsUSA, eComXpo, MediaPost's OMMA conference, TopRank Online Marketing, Creative Chocolate Printing Company, OTOlabs, Internet World UK, Search Engine Strategies, Webmaster Radio, Rovion's InPerson and eMarketer.

2007 WebAward Call for Entries

The Web Marketing Association is now accepting entries into its 11th annual international WebAward Competition. The WebAwards is the standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks that the Internet Standards Assessment report is based upon. The construction industry represents an important category in the WebAward competition, and the Web Marketing Association will again be honoring the Best Construction Web site of 2007. The deadline for entry is May 31, 2007 and the WebAward Web site is located at www.07webaward.org.

About the WebAwards

Now in its 11th year, the annual international WebAwards competition sets the standard of excellence in 96 industry categories by evaluating Web sites and defining benchmarks based on the seven essential criteria of successful Web site development. The goal of the Web Marketing Association, sponsor of the WebAwards, is to provide a forum to recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective Web sites on the Internet today. Entrants benefit from a Web site assessment by a professional judging panel and the marketing opportunities presented to an award-winning Web site. For more information, visit www.07webaward.org.