Best Education Website of 2012 to be Named by Web Marketing Association in 16th Annual WebAward Competition

HARTFORD, Conn., April 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Web Marketing Association announces the call for entries for its 16th annual international WebAward Competition for Web site development at www.webaward.org. The WebAwards is the standards-defining competition that sets benchmarks for 96 industries, including education, schools and university websites, based on the seven criteria of a successful web site. The deadline for education websites to enter to be judged is May 31, 2012.

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"The education industry is very competitive when it comes to Web development and companies can benefit from the independent evaluation of their online efforts," said William Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association. "Education web sites tend to have a smaller budget than other industries in the competition. Because of this, many are unable to implement some of the features, such as Flash technologies, that could help them get higher scores."

Websites are judged on seven criteria including design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copy writing and ease of use. Each WebAward entry in the Education category is judged against other education entries and then against an overall standard of excellence.

All education entrants benefit from receiving valuable feedback in terms of their specific criteria scores compared against the average scores for their industry. They also may receive specific comments from the WebAward's professional judging panel on their Web site development efforts.

Winners of a WebAward in the education categories will also receive:

• Handsome statue or certificate of achievement
• Increased visibility for their company
• Marketing opportunity to promote the company website to the media
• Links to your site from the highly ranked WebAward site to help SEO
• A highlight for your resume.
• Admiration of peers, friends and co-workers

Each year, the Web Marketing Association names the Best of Industry for the various education categories based on the score they receive from the WebAward judges.

Recent winners of the Best Education Web Site include:

• 2011 - Florida Institute of Technology for Florida Tech Decision Dashboard
• 2010 – Risdall Marketing Group for Mounds View Public Schools
• 2009 – American University for American University Web Site
• 2008 - TribalDDB for START A CHAIN REACTION
• 2007 - Creative Channel Services, LLC for Virgin Mobile - Train on Your Terms
• 2006 - National Geographic for Discover Antarctica
• 2005 - Disney Online for Hot Shot Business
• 2004 - General Motors for GMability Education
• 2003 - Disney Online for Hot Shot Business
• 2002 - Freddie Mac for Your Route to Homeownership

Recent winners of the Best Schools Web Site include:

• 2011 – WhippleHill Communications for Glenelg Country School
• 2010 – Designkitchen for Wheaton College 150th Anniversary Web Site
• 2009 – WhippleHill Communications for Latin School of Chicago
• 2008 – WhippleHill Communications for Vail Mountain School
• 2007 – Tellus for Bethany School
• 2006 – WhippleHill Communications for St. George's School
• 2005 – Tellus for West Clermont School District
• 2004 – eSiteful Corporation for Plano Independent School District

Recent winners of the Best University Web Site include:

• 2011 – Denison University & Fahlgren Mortine for TheDEN
• 2010 – Corey McPherson Nash for University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business
• 2009 – BrowserMedia for University of Maryland Women's Basketball
• 2008 - Market United for Murdoch University Switching
• 2007 – The Art Institute of Pittsburgh for The Art Institute of Pittsburgh
• 2006 - Xavier University for The Road to Xavier
• 2005 - Geary Interactive for Sand Diego State University Timeline
  2004 - School of Visual Arts for School of Visual Arts web site
  2003 - 160over90 for Chestnut Hill College Admissions site
  2002 - University of Houston for University of Houston – Division of University Advancement

The 2012 WebAwards are sponsored by the following leading organizations: BGT Partners, PR Newswire, Burst Media, MycroBurst, EContent Magazine, ExactTarget, ad:tech conferences, Internet World UK, SES Conferences, Webmaster Radio, and Website Magazine. The Web Marketing Association thanks these companies for their commitment to the entire online marketing community.

About the WebAwards

The Web Marketing Association was founded in 1997 to help define the standard of excellence for online marketing. Our internationally known award programs, such as WebAward Competition for Website Development, Internet Advertising Competition and the new MobileWebAwards, recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing the most effective online marketing programs on the Internet today.  Entrants benefit from assessment of their marketing efforts by a professional judging panel and the marketing opportunities presented by being recognized as an award-winning web developer.

SOURCE Web Marketing Association