Meet the SmartCompany Web Award winners

We decided to launch the awards after two years of judging the best website category of the Smart50. The entries were, to put it kindly, fairly unimpressive and we were determined to show our community just how good small business websites could be.

The Web Awards certainly do that. We had more than 200 entries, and we were extremely thankful that we could call on a crack team of internet experts – including Webfirm’s Andrew Dalton, ProBlogger Darren Rowse, Deloitte Digital’s Peter Williams and Red Balloon’s Naomi Simson – to help us pick the winners. One of the key themes that emerged from judging the Web Awards was that the majority of the entrants spent under $10,000 for their site, with many opting to use open-source software.

This is great news for SMEs, showing it is possible to compete with big businesses that have considerably larger budgets. So when it comes to great websites, it’s clear it’s not how much money you spend but how you spend it.
We hope you get some great inspiration from our award winners.

DESIGN: Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre (Reactive)

Simplicity and ease of use are two key factors designers strive for when building a new website.

According to the judges of our best design category, development company Reactive achieved both when it built the official site for the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Alex Campbell, digital strategist from DTDigital and his colleague, art director Andrew Farrugia, said the clean, bold design of the site feels “very onbrand for MCEC”, and manages to reflect the building’s architecture and logo.

“The clean, organized layout makes finding your way around the site easy.”
Campbell and his team also praised the use of font replacement technology, which allows Google to read and index headings that appear as images (Google cannot see images).

The site, which records about 24,000 unique browsers and over 100,000 impressions per month, features information on the centre and what it offers for individual groups looking to host a convention. Reactive creative director Tim Kotsiakos says the site works well due to its informative nature.

“What we found was the actual attendees and people going to the building rated low in the MCEC’s priorities, but they wanted to focus on people organising conventions. So we went through the criteria event organisers go through when organising a location, such as research about proximity to location, weather, restaurants and culture.”

“I think the key factor of the site is that it addresses what you’re looking for. If you’re interested in x, the site gives you directions. It’s logical and intuitive, but it’s crafted well and gives visitors the impression of being something refreshing… you get the feeling of ‘that’s exactly what I’m looking
for’.”