If you’re researching a web design agency in Apex, NC, you’ve probably noticed that many firms use awards and industry badges to establish their credibility. A quick search for website design companies in Apex or the greater Raleigh area can turn up agencies describing themselves as “award-winning,” often accompanied by logos from web design competitions, marketing organizations, and client satisfaction platforms.
Those badges can be helpful for a business owner or marketing manager since choosing a web design agency is a major decision and you want some indication that the company you’re considering has the experience and expertise to do the job well.
But how much should you actually trust those awards? The answer depends on the award.
Some awards carry considerably more weight than others, and the difference isn’t always obvious if you aren’t familiar with the web design and marketing industry. The credibility of an award can depend on factors including how long the organization has existed, how many entries it receives, how competitive the awards are, who judges the work, what criteria the judges use, and how transparent the organization is about its selection process.
There are also important differences between awards recognizing creative work and those recognizing customer satisfaction. Both can be helpful when you’re comparing a web design company in Apex, NC, but they tell you different things about the agency.
While an award can be a useful trust signal, it shouldn’t be the only thing you use to decide which agency to hire.
Why do website awards matter when choosing a web design agency?
An award can give prospective clients an added level of confidence when they’re comparing web design agencies. Most businesses aren’t in the business of designing websites themselves, so determining whether an agency’s work is genuinely strong can be difficult without some outside frame of reference. A legitimate industry award can provide one.
When an established organization evaluates an agency’s work and recognizes it within a particular category, that recognition indicates that the work met the organization’s standards for that award. For a company searching for Apex NC web design services, that can be useful information when narrowing down a list of potential agencies.
Awards can be particularly useful when several people are involved in the decision. A marketing manager may be responsible for researching agencies and recommending one to a business owner or senior leadership team. An award from a recognized organization can provide a relatively simple way to demonstrate that an agency has received external recognition for its work.
That doesn’t mean the award should make the decision for you, but it can give you another piece of information to consider.
And that’s an important distinction because an agency having an award doesn’t automatically mean it will be the right web design agency for your business.
Not all web design awards recognize the same thing
Before placing too much value on an award, it’s worth understanding what the award actually recognizes.
Industry awards generally recognize the quality of a particular project or the creative and technical capabilities demonstrated by the agency. Website awards may evaluate factors such as visual design, creativity, functionality, user experience, content, structure and navigation.
The Webby Awards, for example, evaluate websites and mobile sites using criteria that include content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality and overall experience.
Customer satisfaction awards answer a different question. Rather than evaluating the finished website itself, these awards may recognize how satisfied customers are with their experience with a company. That can provide valuable information when you’re looking for a website design company near Cary, NC, for example, because a technically impressive portfolio doesn’t necessarily tell you whether that agency is easy to work with.
Did the agency communicate effectively? Did it understand the client’s business? Did it meet expectations? Did the client feel heard throughout the project? Those questions matter to some clients, and they’ll probably carry some weight for you, too.
For that reason, industry awards and customer satisfaction recognition shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as competing forms of evidence. They measure different things, and both can help you build a more complete picture of an agency.
The award matters less than the process behind it
If you’re comparing website design companies in Apex, NC, don’t just count the awards displayed on each agency’s website. Instead, look at the organizations behind those awards and investigate how their competitions work.
Who judges the entries? Do the judges have relevant professional experience? Are submissions evaluated against established criteria? How many entries are received? How many receive recognition? Does the organization explain how winners are selected?
Those questions tell you considerably more than the award logo itself.
The Webby Awards, for example, have been recognizing work on the internet since 1996. Their judging process involves members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and includes multiple stages of evaluation. The organization also describes policies addressing conflicts of interest.
The Summit Creative Award is another example of an award with an established judging process. Summit states that entries are evaluated based on factors including concept, execution and the ability to communicate and persuade. It also states that submissions are judged blindly, with identifying information about the submitting company withheld from judges.
The Davey Awards use a jury associated with the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts and evaluate entries against established criteria. The organization states that categories can have multiple winners or no winners depending on the quality of submissions.
These details, taken together, can help you understand whether an award represents meaningful third-party recognition or something considerably less informative.
An award-winning website isn’t necessarily a high-performing website
This is probably the most important distinction to make when evaluating agencies, whether they’re based near Raleigh, NC or anywhere else.
A website can win an award for its design and still fail to accomplish what the business actually needs it to accomplish. That’s because creative awards and business results aren’t always measuring the same thing.
A design competition may evaluate visual design, creativity, functionality or user experience. A small business owner may be much more concerned with whether the website generates qualified leads, communicates the company’s value proposition, performs well in search results, and converts visitors into leads.
Those objectives can overlap, but they aren’t identical.
For a small business in Apex, for example, a website needs to do much more than create a reputable first impression. It may need to help the company appear in local search results, explain its services clearly, establish credibility with prospective customers, and provide an obvious path for visitors to contact the business.
That’s why the best small business web design in Apex, NC isn’t necessarily the website that wins the most design awards. It is the website that effectively serves the business and the people it is trying to reach.
A beautiful website that doesn’t generate inquiries isn’t necessarily a successful website. Likewise, a website that ranks well in search but makes it difficult for visitors to understand what the company offers has its own problems.
Good web design has to balance those objectives.
Local businesses have additional considerations when choosing an agency
There’s another factor worth considering when you’re evaluating web design companies in the Apex and Raleigh area: local knowledge.
Working with a local agency isn’t automatically better than working with an agency located somewhere else. A talented agency can build a website for a business regardless of where either company is located.
However, a local agency may already understand the market in which your business operates, including the competitive environment, geographic service areas, and the importance of local search visibility. For a company serving customers in Apex, Cary, Holly Springs, Raleigh, Fuquay-Varina or other parts of the Triangle, those considerations can be especially relevant.
Local proximity can also make certain aspects of a client relationship easier. Meetings, photography, content gathering and other collaborative activities can sometimes benefit from having an agency within the same general geographic area.
None of those factors guarantees a better result, but they are worth considering when comparing web design agencies in the Triangle with agencies located outside the region.
Customer satisfaction can tell you something an industry award can’t
An industry award tells you that a panel of judges considered a particular website worthy of recognition. Generally speaking, it won’t tell you everything about the client’s experience working with the agency. That distinction is important because website projects often involve lots of interaction between the client and agency.
Was the agency responsive? Did it communicate clearly? Did it understand the company’s goals? Did it handle revisions professionally? Did the client feel that the agency was actually listening?
Client reviews and testimonials can also be useful evidence when answering those questions.
Ideally, you want to see consistency between the agency’s portfolio, awards, and what clients say about working with them. If an agency has impressive creative recognition but consistently poor client reviews, that can raise a few eyebrows. Conversely, an agency that doesn’t have dozens of awards but has a strong portfolio and consistently satisfied clients shouldn’t automatically be written off.
Which website awards are credible?
There isn’t a single authoritative ranking that determines which website and marketing awards are credible and which aren’t. Different competitions have different purposes, categories and judging methodologies.
However, there are several characteristics worth looking for when you’re evaluating an award. Established organizations with transparent judging criteria, qualified judges and meaningful competition generally provide more useful information than awards where the selection process is difficult to understand.
Some of the organizations worth researching when evaluating a web design companies in Apex, NC or the broader Raleigh area include:
The Webby Awards
The Webby Awards have been recognizing excellence on the internet since 1996 and include categories covering websites and mobile sites, advertising, media, apps, social and other digital work. Their judging process involves the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and includes multiple stages of evaluation.
Summit International Awards
The Summit Creative Award recognizes creative work and evaluates submissions based on factors including concept, execution and the ability to communicate and persuade. Summit states that its judging process is conducted blindly and uses professional judges with relevant creative experience.
Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals
The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals administers several international competitions covering marketing and communications work, including the MarCom Awards, Hermes Creative Awards and AVA Digital Awards.
Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts / Davey Awards
The Davey Awards recognize work from smaller agencies, companies and independent creators and are judged through the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts. Entries are evaluated against established criteria.
There are many other legitimate industry awards, and an unfamiliar award shouldn’t automatically be dismissed. At the same time, recognizing the name of an award shouldn’t be enough to establish its credibility. The better approach is to investigate the organization, its history, its judges, its criteria and how winners are selected.
How we look at awards at Conversion Fox Marketing
I’ll admit that we’re somewhat biased on this subject because Conversion Fox Marketing has received industry recognition ourselves.
Conversion Fox Marketing won a Summit Creative Award for B2B Website Design. Summit evaluates entries using criteria that include concept, execution and the ability to communicate and persuade, and its submissions are judged blindly.
We’re proud of that recognition, but we don’t think winning an award should be the sole reason someone hires us over a different agency in Apex, Cary, Holly Springs, or another part of the region. We think it should be one of several things a business considers when evaluating us.
The same principle applies when you’re researching other agencies in Apex and the greater Triangle. If an agency has won a Webby, Davey, Summit, or another established industry award, take a closer look at the project that won. Find out what category it won, understand how the competition is judged and consider whether the agency’s broader portfolio demonstrates the capabilities your business actually needs.
For example, TheeDigital won a Davey Award for Best Home Page for Metal Buildings, while Chariot received Webby recognition for its work in user experience. Those awards represent recognition for specific pieces of work in particular categories, which can be useful information when evaluating an agency, but neither award tells a prospective client everything they need to know about the agency.
The same applies to Conversion Fox Marketing. Our Summit recognition is one indication of the quality of our work. It isn’t a substitute for looking at our portfolio, understanding our process, speaking with us about your project and determining whether we’re actually a good fit for your business.
What should you look for beyond awards?
When you’re comparing design agencies, awards should be one part of a much larger set of selection criteria.
When you look at their portfolio, does the agency produce websites that demonstrate the level of design and functionality you need? More importantly, does the work demonstrate an understanding of how websites serve different audiences and business objectives?
When you’re browsing client reviews and testimonials, know that existing clients can give a level of insight into the experience of working with the agency that you won’t get from a portfolio or award announcement.
Relevant experience is another consideration. An agency doesn’t need to specialize in your industry, but it should be able to demonstrate that it understands the type of problem you’re asking them to solve.
You should also understand the agency’s process. How does it approach strategy? Who is responsible for content? How are SEO considerations incorporated into the project? How does the agency approach user experience and conversion paths? What happens after the website launches?
Finally, ask how the agency defines success. If success is primarily defined by whether the website looks good, keep asking questions. Design matters, but a business website also needs to communicate effectively, attract the right visitors and provide a clear path toward becoming a customer.
Awards are nice, but awards don’t pay the bills
So, should you trust website awards and agency badges when you’re looking for a new web design agency?
Yes, but don’t trust awards blindly. A legitimate award from an established organization with qualified judges, transparent criteria, and meaningful competition can be good evidence that an agency produces quality work. It can help distinguish an agency from its competitors and give a marketing manager or business owner another piece of information to consider when narrowing down a list of potential agencies.
Ultimately, the question isn’t whether an agency has won a website design award – it’s whether the agency can build a website that works for your business, your customers and your goals.
Jeremy is the Founder of Conversion Fox Marketing, a transparent and award-winning web design and marketing agency based in Apex, NC. He brings 15+ years of marketing experience to help small businesses get better leads through conversion-driven websites.