For over a decade, the Sitefinity Website of the Year Awards have recognized the outstanding websites launched and overhauled by our partners and customers.
In the last 11 years, the Sitefinity Website of the Year Awards from Progress have continuously recognized innovative, interesting, and immaculate websites that use Sitefinity as their core digital experience platform.
This year is no different. Throughout 2021, the Sitefinity community has seen customers and partners showcase their adept understanding of the platform to create one-of-a-kind, engaging digital experiences.
Needless to say, this is an exciting time for us as we eagerly await what the community feels is the best of the best in the Sitefinity world.
How does the contest work?
The contest is open for all Sitefinity websites launched, or significantly enhanced, in 2021 and running on a recent Sitefinity version—12.x to 14.0.
Winners will be selected in two phases. First, an internal Progress jury will shortlist the three best websites per contest category as contest finalists. After narrowing the field, voting will be opened to the community at large—via email and social media—to determine the winners in the respective categories.
However, please keep in mind that nominations will not be open forever. Come January 31, 2022, nominations will close.
What it takes to be a Website of the Year
The winners of these awards are not siloed into just one general example of a website that "looks good" and "functions well." A Website of the Year nominee will have a combination of the six following criteria:
- Visual design that is not just only striking, but one that displays and supports a company’s messaging and purposes.
- Content, such as text, images, videos, animations, and even sounds, personalized, and optimized for the company’s audience.
- Layout and navigation where content is organized around the website due to a well-designed framework, enabling users to get around the website without minimal struggle.
- Innovation refers to how a company utilized technology, pushing the capabilities of the website’s backend (within reason of course) to highlight what is improved from the previous one.
- Complexity does not mean how difficult the overall project was, but the technical complexity was. This is represented by website customizations and integrations, with or without third-party systems.
- Significance is the category about the website’s role, function, prominence in the Internet community, including recognitions and site linkages.
Check out how it feels getting a Website of the Year award—Standouts from 2021
Across several industries, ranging from healthcare to life insurance to financial services to consumer services, the 2021 Sitefinity Website of the Year Awards had a variety of winners who utilized Sitefinity to fix head-scratching and market-changing problems.
Website of the Year, Progress Sitefinity, Enqbator, Graphic Design Sector
When Enqbator looked to redesign its website to better reflect its branding evolution, it looked to make the site not only more visually appealing, but more functional as well. Specifically, it sought to improve the site functionality and the technical aspects of the site (Google page speed scores and social media integration). A longstanding fan of Sitefinity for client website redesign projects, it was a no brainer for Enqbator to tap Sitefinity for its own project.
Tom Tailor: 2021 Website of the Year Award Winner
Tom Tailor is a leading clothing retailer from Germany and the winner of the Ecommerce category. The company was eager to continue its brick-and-mortar business. However, with shoppers getting locked down due to COVID-19, Tom Tailor required additional support from its ecommerce front. By leveraging Sitefinity and Ucommerce's capabilities, Tom Tailor was able to out-earn its brick-and-mortar stores within 10 days. Not 10 months. Days. That's impressive!
Legal & General America—2021 Sitefinity Website of the Year Winner
Legal & General America (LGA) is a leading life insurance company, that was undergoing what they described “a digital transformation journey” with the goal to overhaul their main website and raise website traffic.
By partnering with Sitefinity partner Americaneagle.com, LGA was able to leverage Sitefinity and Sitefinity Insight to not only achieve both of those above goals, but also increase organic sessions by nearly 20% and conversions by almost 10%. Plus, LGA are now able to make sales without having to pick up the phone and talk to customers, thanks to the website’s new features.
TAFE SA: 2021 Website of the Year Award Winner
Technical and Further Education Southern Australia, or TAFE SA, is one of the largest vocational organizations in Land Down Under. With over 3 million+ unique visitors per year, and 65,000 students enrolled annually, TAFE SA saw an opportunity to give their Sitefinity-powered website a modern refresh.
After taking note of current trends, like students accessing TAFE SA’s website on their phones, the organization revamped its website with the student’s experience in mind. The result? An overall student approval rating of 75% and an increase in applications.
Do you have a WOY nominee in mind?
Remember, nominations close on January 31, 2022, so please do not hesitate to nominate who you think is deserving of the title Website of the Year. If the site has been launched or significantly enhanced in 2021, and running on Sitefinity version 12.0 and above, they can be nominated for this competition.
Calling everyone across the Sitefinity community, from partners to non-partners! The time has come to nominate what you think is the Sitefinity Website of the Year! Click here to nominate your pick and see if they will take the top prize.
Hope Mascott
Hope Mascott was a Customer Advocacy Manager at Progress.