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Web awards winners revealed

10th Oct 2007

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The winners of the Dentistry.co.uk Website Awards 2007 have been announced.

The inaugural awards, sponsored by Dental Focus Web Design, were introduced to officially recognise excellence in practice website development.

The results from the judges are in with each entry having been examined thoroughly. All of the shortlisted websites were marked according to our strict guidelines based on the following points:

· Look and feel of the site
· Quality of informative content
· User-friendly features
· Whether it makes a good impression
· How it appeals to the right audience
· Real patient cases – relevant pictures and testimonials
· Presentable in surgery
· Search engine optimisation – how easy it is to find you.

The final scores were very close but there were winners for each award (in some cases just a point ahead). Congratulations go to all entrants as reaching the shortlisting stage was a tremendous achievement in itself due to the high volume and quality of the entries.

All award winners will be contacted shortly with exclusive marketing materials to promote their prestigious new award.

Here are the eagerly awaited results:

Best private website:
Winner: www.smilespecialists.co.uk (now http://www.walesdentists.co.uk)
Short listed: www.qclinic.com, www.sparkledental.co.uk

Best specialist website:
Winner: www.ashoksethi.co.uk
Short listed: www.qclinic.com, www.visitingspecialistservices.co.uk

Best mixed website:
Winner: www.parkroaddental.co.uk
Short listed: www.denora.co.uk, www.bluecourtdental.co.uk

Best NHS website:
Winner: www.whitehousedental.co.uk
Short listed: www.dunmurry-dentalpractice.co.uk, www.batterseadental.co.uk

Best new private website:
Winner: www.appletreedental.co.uk
Short listed: www.artdentistry.co.uk, www.greatsmiles.co.uk

Best new specialist website:
Winner: www.wetherbyortho.co.uk
Short listed: www.oracledental.co.uk, www.visitingspecialistservices.co.uk

Best new mixed website:
Winner: www.brightonwhite.co.uk
Short listed: www.rosebankdental.co.uk, www.parkroaddental.co.uk

Best new NHS website:
Winner: www.exeterortho.co.uk
Short listed: www.dunmurry-dentalpractice.co.uk, www.batterseadental.co.uk

Most improved private website:
Winner: www.dental-art.co.uk
Short listed: www.theneemtree.co.uk, www.watforddental.co.uk

Most improved specialist website:
Winner: www.stephenbyfield.co.uk
Short listed: www.circusorthodontics.co.uk, www.ashoksethi.co.uk

Most improved mixed website:
Winner: www.rosebankdental.co.uk
Short listed: www.dunmurry-dentalpractice.co.uk, www.bluecourtdental.co.uk

Most improved NHS website:
Winner: www.dunmurry-dentalpractice.co.uk
Short listed: www.whitehousedental.co.uk, www.batterseadental.co.uk

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Comments

Didn't the Dental Focus Websites do well!

Posted by vanny 13/10/07 at 09:35

Yes good spot!! They're all pretty good though....

Posted by dj337 13/10/07 at 12:32

Erm - sadly most of the websites mentioned do not validate to best practice coding standards and are in direct contravention of accessibility laws - i.e. they would likely not stand up to legal challenge under the DDA .

I also suggest that they don't rank very well for generic search terms - the true test of good search engine optimisation.

It's also a bit sad that the sponsoring company seems to have done rather well. Oh dear is this another marketing sham?

Posted by Will 18/10/07 at 20:55

Cheer up, don't be so sad or skeptical. Life is too short!

Dental Focus Web Design looks forward to tougher competition next year and hopes that the standards of the Awards improve year on year so that we too have a reason to aim higher and higher.

It's impossible to create a website for every browser version but accessibility for the visually impaired is incredibly important; that is why we are encouraging all our clients to budget for text-only visually impaired pages. Hopefully the judging criteria will also become stricter and tougher so as to encourage best practice.

Dental Focus Web Design establish long-term high ranking websites with Google.co.uk . We have rankings at the top of the 1st page of natural results on Google.co.uk and we provide this basic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) service as part of a very affordable annual hosting plan. We also have advanced SEO services upon request.

Each of our established sites rank on the top of the 1st page of Google.co.uk for many different keyphrases relevant to their location and dental terms. Just a quick example of the current rankings of our winning sites include:

http://www.ashoksethi.co.uk
No. 1 for harley street dental implants

http://www.parkroaddental.co.uk
No. 2 for teddington dentist

http://www.whitehousedental.co.uk
No. 1 for middlesex dentist

http://www.brightonwhite.co.uk
No. 3 for brighton cosmetic dentist

http://www.dental-art.co.uk
No. 1 for cosmetic dentist milton keynes

http://www.stephenbyfield.co.uk
No. 1 for yorkshire implants

http://www.rosebankdental.co.uk
No. 4 for chorleywood dentist

Despite being less than 3 months old
http://www.smilespecialists.co.uk
No. 9 for cosmetic dentist wales

Without going into an endless list of proven rankings, here are just 4 other sites from our extensive portfolio:

http://www.cosmeticdentistrylondon.co.uk
No. 1 for cosmetic dentistry london

http://www.rdoc.org.uk
No. 1 for mouth cancer

http://www.dentalclinique.co.uk
No. 2 for dentist london

http://www.basrai.co.uk
No. 1 for cosmetic dentist essex

These are just quick examples. As mentioned, all our sites rank highly for different key phrases. We also pride ourselves for having a great track record for very competitive north, east, south and west london key phrases on the natural listing of Google.co.uk

If you wish to be at the top overnight, we also provide special and easy Google AdWords Training for sponsored pay-per-click advertising so that you can take full control over your adverts and budgets 24/7, whilst being billed directly by Google. Thus we train you so you can take out the middle-man and not pay percentage commissions on your expenditures. This is all part of our very affordable annual hosting & maintenance plan.

All the best and good luck to everyone for next year!

Posted by dentalfocus 28/10/07 at 15:29

I find the comments somewhat misleading unfortunately, particularly for those who are not well versed in the workings of the web. Anyone who truly understands accessibility knows that "text only" pages are not necessary - this is just a poor excuse for not designing the core page correctly.

Maybe run the web urls of the sites mentioned through the W3C code validator and accessibilty checkers below. These are the de facto checkers for modern web standards:

http://validator.w3.org/

http://webxact.watchfire.com/

What do you see?

You can read the full legal case for accessibilty here - there is no excuse for designing websites that do not comply. There have been a number of test cases outside the UK already - for sure the legal challenges will also start here soon so perhaps it is in the clients best interests to comply?

http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/
documents/PublicWebsite/public_legalcase.hcsp

Search engines - yes, easy to get good rankings for specific and localised searches like the examples given, so no mystery there!

PPC - to manage a PPC campaign correctly takes a lot of focussed effort, skill and experience. Without this, it is very easy to waste a lot of money - way more than a sensible fee for good PPC management. This is easily demonstrated but many clients don't understand it unless you tell them. Do those hosting and maintenance "add-ons" really add any value or is it marketing spin?

So its very important to take a good look "under the bonnet" when you are looking for a web site. Of course it needs to look good but it also needs to comply with best web and legal standards. Quality SEO is also not a superficial exercise so please research fully before selecting your design partner.

Thanks

Posted by Will 28/10/07 at 20:14

Maybe what you're saying is right WIll but I just did what you said looking at the standards .

To be honest I don't know what validator or webexact is but I tried Facebook on it (which is one of the most popular websites in the world) and it had a series of errors.

Does that mean it's not actually that important???

Posted by davey 28/10/07 at 21:16

Hello,

I see it like this - there is a right and wrong way of doing things and also somewhere in the middle. Adherence to web standards is important for several reasons - it gives a degree of future proofing, ensures that a site will work well in the majority of decent browsers at different screen resolutions, legal accessibility compliance, arguably better search engine penetration etc. Complying with all of these elements does not detract from the visual appearance of a site (even Flash can be made compliant if you know how) so really there is no excuse for doing it in a sub-optimal way.

Now that there is a legal baseline that we should all be meeting, this really does throw the emphasis on the designer to represent a clients best interests? This can be achieved alongside producing a site that looks beautiful but there is more skill involved than just banging out a template with a wysiwyg editor.

Facebook - yes a piece of junk to be honest. However, take a look at most of the large commercial organisations, legal firms, government sites etc and you will see which way they are going. CSS, html, fully accessible is really the only "valid" way forward (no pun intended).

Posted by Will 28/10/07 at 21:21

Will, you said "Facebook - yes a piece of junk to be honest."

And that is why Microsoft has paid $240m (£117m) for a 1.6% stake in Facebook that values the hugely popular social networking site at $15bn (£7.3bn)?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7061042.stm

It may not be worth that much in your eyes but surely "junk to be honest" is a bit extreme? Sorry, we love Facebook and wish we had created it.

Dental Focus Web Design does agree with you that fully accessible websites are the way forward. As you said, it's mostly the bluechip, legal and government sites that are at the forefront of adhearing to those strict standands. We thank you for bringing light to this subject and will take your concerns on board to be at the forefront for the dental profession.

As you may (or may not) know in dealing with dentist clients, you are always constrained by their budgets. It's best not to paint a black & white picture and be too judgemental.

We do not add (or have a budget for) "spin". We are not politicians. We are Dental Focus Web Design, 1st Class Internet Marketing for Dentists http://www.dental-focus.com

Posted by dentalfocus 30/10/07 at 00:36

P.S. Validate the BBC website and you get errors.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.bbc.co.uk
Will, you better let them know!

Posted by dentalfocus 30/10/07 at 01:20

Why be mediocre? - true web professionals know how to design and build sites correctly, to latest web standards and in compliance with DDA laws. Budget has nothing to do with designing properly - if you know what you are doing, its no more costly to design a site to appropriate standards. In doing so, you absolutely represent your clients best interests for all the reasons previously mentioned. Any other way is just sub-standard in our opinion.

We also don't feel the need to spam professional forums with blatant marketing - we just tend to rely on recommendations from our ever growing client base :)

We are pleased you acknowledge the importance of this critical subject and will monitor your progress towards compliance with interest. I will of course be letting the BBC know - some way to go but at least they are trying.

Comparing Facebook to a site designed to meet the needs of a dental professional is kinda "chalk and cheese" - commensurate with that would be a consideration of the respective standards one would need to apply.

Thanks

Posted by Will 30/10/07 at 23:07

Hi Will

Spin, marketing sham, spam... you really don't like us do you? Don't worry, it's not in our nature to retaliate on that level.

Along with the bbc.co.uk , even the gdc-uk.org and fgdp.org.uk who set the standards for dentistry have websites that do not meet your standard.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.fgdp.org.uk
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.gdc-uk.org

This dentistry.co.uk website also does not meet your standard.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.dentistry.co.uk

Surprisingly (we must admit!) gmc-uk.org does not meet your standard
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.gmc-uk.org

You better let them know you're watching them too.

Email us privately via http://www.dental-focus.com/contact.html with details of your company and portfolio of websites, since you don't wish to publish them online. As we stated earlier, we do take your comments on board and are very serious in our approach to providing visually impaired alternative pages. Even though the BBC, GDC, GMC and FGDP (just to name a few) do not meet your standards, we will try!

Regards, Dental Focus Web Design

Posted by dentalfocus 31/10/07 at 22:34

I'm sure you're all nice guys - really.

However I have a problem with any company providing web services that do not meet basic guidelines for accessibility and coding standards - particulary in the public sector. When viewed in the context of the awards and "excellence in practice website development" I felt I had to comment. Simply the majority of the sites mentioned are nowhere near excellent in lots of the key areas.

The other examples you mention also need to sharpen up their act and I'm sure they will. Thanks for accepting the need to do better in this area but please don't just go the alternative page approach - that's also against the guidelines and unnecessary.

Ref. the spam comments - apologies for that but appropriate "netiquette" doesn't really allow for self promotion on public forums - so nothing personal.

Thanks

Posted by Will 1/11/07 at 21:04

Hi Guys enjoyed reading your discussion. Let me introduce myself I am Damien Walmsley from the School of Dentistry at the University of Birmingham. I run the IT committee at the School and also involved with the Web site where I run the Blog. At Birmingham Dental School we use Browsealoud and this has been well received. We have won awards for our elearning site as well. I have a student who is doing his elective on dental practice web sites and this is how I stumbled over your comments.

Our web site is set up and managed by a dentist and part time teacher Giles Perryer and you may find this link useful. Any comments gratefully received.

http://www.dentistry.bham.ac.uk/accessibility/

Posted by walmsl3y 19/1/09 at 15:33

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