Five Web Award trends

Putting together the inaugural SmartCompany Web Awards has once again reminded me about the talent, passion, dedication and resourcefulness of Australia’s SME business owners.

The fact the awards were scooped by the brilliant shopping coupon website RetailMeNot is a testament to this. Young gun Guy Clark, who joined us on yesterday’s webinar, built the site over one weekend and has spent very little on it other than time. Today, the site attracts 10 million unique browsers each month.

Most of the sites that entered the awards had much lower traffic than this, of course, but regardless of whether you get 10,000 visitors or 400, the key is to make yourself as useful – and usable – to your target audience.

Here are five main themes I picked up from the awards:

Plan, plan, plan

Developing or redeveloping a site is a stressful and potentially expensive process. The key, according to our entrants, is to plan very carefully before you engage web development experts or even have a go at building your website yourself. Yes, your plan needs to be flexible and will probably change slightly – but without a map, you’ve got no idea where you are going.

Money isn’t everything

Almost 80% of the award entrants spent less than $10,000 building their site, and many sites were built using open-source platforms that have been tweaked to suit the user’s requirements. And while many entrants have great search strategy, they are not spending huge dollars to attract traffic. Solid SEO strategies (such as proper tagging and use of keywords) and great content don’t need to cost the earth.

The user is the key

What impressed me about these sites was how much they had all focused on their users, whether this be through formal users testing processes, informal feedback (such as Twitter and Facebook comments) or, in the case of many e-tailers, customer surveys. This is really the key to a successful website – happy users mean conversions, which means a return on your investment.

Social media really, really matters

Further to the point above, social media is crucial if you want to have a connection to your customers. Yes, you do need to make an investment in terms of time and effort, but the possible reward is customers who become advocates for your business.

It’s an evolution

When asked how long it took to develop their website, a large number of entrants told us the process is still ongoing. And that’s the great thing about a website – it’s a living and breathing thing that you can always keep improving.