2007 Website Awards -What is the best web-site?

In the 2007 website awards ceremonies it is hard to say who might take the award for best website or any other category.  The idea of conducting website awards ceremonies and giving out awards to websites around the web seems a bit strange as there are very few established industrial standards on the Internet.  There are websites however, who distribute and create website awards for the purpose of creating publicity and improving public relations between the website and the public at large. 

The specific target of all this public relations effort in the facilitation of website awards is for the benefit of the consumer at large, since the consumer is of course the target of all advertising and marketing efforts.  By creating this buzz and fanfare around website awards, website promoters can increase their exposure and profile to Web surfers and Internet inhabitants.  Webmasters rely on these awards ceremonies to boost their visibility on the Internet and increase traffic to their websites, which is the all-important lifeblood of the commercial Web site.  By utilizing these website awards and other gimmicks and techniques webmasters can increase pay and converting traffic to their websites.

These tactics are very cost effective and require only a little bit of time and some programming knowledge on the part of the webmaster.  The recipients of these website awards are generally chosen at random, or by the amount of traffic in their chosen genre or web topic niche and generally have little to do with quality or quantity of available content.  While the concept of website awards is no worse than many of the tactics that are used on the Internet as well as an off-line traditional marketing and advertising, it does seem somewhat banal, considering that any traffic that reaches the website where the award is displayed has to be aware of the website to arrive there in the first place.  In the matter of attracting returning traffic, it might be somewhat more effective, but it doesn't seem to be any spectacular motivating factor in websurfers decisions to return or not return to specific websites.

While the concept of website awards is likely no different than the general concept behind Academy Awards and other types of awards programs that are created simply to boost ratings and garner interest.  In existing programming it is considered a highly effective method of advertising with a high return on investment for the marketing team.  Creating website awards is a simple task of utilizing a few clicks and a software program to create some simple graphics and text to impress viewers.

While there are some legitimate website awards categories, they are generally just as skewed as any other survey or website awards program.  The biased nature of these types of programs has a lot to do with the specialization of the webmasters and presenters involved in the website awards program.  These programs are a lot more accurate when they are industry-specific. You will have a lot of additional traffic if reviewed and awarded at industry specific web-site.