The OpenWater Blog

Learning Series: All the Pages You Need in Your Awards Website

Your awards website serves many purposes. It’s a:

• Source of information for potential entrants and others;
• Representation of your program’s brand; and
• Resource you can use to cross-brand your organization and awards program.

However, not all awards websites are created equal. In fact, many organizations struggle to decide what’s best for their website. At a more basic level, most have a difficult time deciding which pages should be on their sites.

If you’ve struggled with this same decision, read on to learn all of the pages you need on your site along with some basic guidance on what to put on each page.

Every Awards Website Should Have 12 Standard Pages/Sections

12 pages/sections might sound like a lot. But when you consider how much information and other resources to present to your audience, it’s easy to see why you need them.

Here are the 12 basic pages/sections your awards website must have:

1. Overview
2. Timeline / Rules / Eligibility Requirements
3. Call for Entry
4. Categories
5. Judges
6. Frequently Asked Questions
7. Awards Gala Information
8. Historical Winners Gallery
9. Sponsors
10. Store
11. Mailing List Subscription
12. Social Media Buttons

Let’s take a deeper look into a couple pages to see the reasoning behind why you need the page and what should be on it as well.

The Overview Page

What is the award? Why should someone apply to your program? What categories can entrants apply to? These are all questions that should be answered on your overview page.

You should include:

• A brief history of the program and how it has developed over the years;
• The importance of entering the program; and
• Visuals such as photos of previous winners, graphics, program logos, and more to encourage individuals to stay and read the content.

Doing so tells a story of your organization and gives entrants another reason to enter your competition.

The Judging Page

Let’s take the judging page as another example.

It’s important to remember that your judges are vital to the success of your program. But many entrants won’t know all your judges and as such, featuring them is important.

The judging page on your website should contain information about:

• The judging procedure and the procedure of your program in general;
• Information about each judge, including a short biography; and
• The criteria judges will use to score submissions.

Information like this not only entices entrants to apply but also helps individuals submit better applications more in line with what you’re looking for. This improves your program and keeps your information centralized in one location.

Learn How to Put Together the Rest of Your Website With Our Free Online Course

Whether you’ve never put together an awards website or are looking for ways to improve upon past iterations, our free online course, Awards 101: The Missing Manual for Awards Professionals will help you close the gap. This free online course includes 10 chapters of videos complete with worksheets to help you make the most of your program.

As you can imagine, building your awards website is but one small section of the program. If you want to learn what should be on the rest of your website pages and more, begin our course today by clicking below!

Every awards program has room to grow and improve. What can you do for your program?

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Kunal Johar

Kunal Johar is the OpenWater platform evangelist. He currently manages our development teams and enjoys diving into the fray. Find him in our community chat room.

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