AU has become the first institution of higher education to win the Web Marketing Association’s “Best Web site in the Industry” Award for Education.
The university received the award in recognition of its recently redesigned Web site unveiled in March 2009.
The Web Marketing Associations’ Web Awards were started in 1997 and are given out annually to recognize the achievements of companies with top Web sites in over 95 categories, according to AU’s Senior Director of University Communications Camille Lepre.
The Web Award judges combed through and analyzed every section of AU’s Web site and were impressed with its revamped features, she said. AU got high marks in every one of the categories that were judged for the award, including design, innovation, content, technology and ease of use, according to Lepre.
Teresa Flannery, the executive director of University Communications and Marketing, hopes that the award will bring more positive attention to the Web site and will get people interested in the site’s upcoming additions, like a more detailed news section and blogs in many different sections of the Web site.
“It’s an impressive recommendation,” Flannery said. “It acknowledges all the hard work we put into the Web site and encourages people to keep an eye on the developments we have planned for the Web site in the future.”
Last year’s winner of the “Best Web site in the Industry” Award for Education was the “Start a Chain Reaction” Web page of Tribal DDB Worldwide, an advertising company.
Previous winners of the Best Education Web site Award include National Geographic’s “Discover Antarctica” Web site, which won in 2006, and Disney Online’s “Hot Shot Business” Web site, which won in 2003 and 2005, according to the Web Marketing Association’s Web site.
Since its launch last March, AU’s homepage has also won the “Best Overall Web site” award from eduStyle.net and the “Best Homepage” award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, according to Lepre.
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