There are plenty of web designers in the market who use all the bells and whistles of this ever-changing technology, but do these sites really work? At the end of the day, a website is a piece of communication with your market. It should be part of a holistic marketing platform. A cohesive piece of the marketing jigsaw – just like a brochure, an advertisement, your signage or stationery.

The fundamentals of a great website are communication – who you are and what you offer; functionality – your customers need to quickly and easily navigate through your site or they won’t bother; brand integrity – the personality of your website must fit with everything else you do; and search engine optimisation (SEO) – so your customers can find your site.

Melbourne-based agency iezzi™ recognise the importance of these fundamentals as demonstrated by a fourth consecutive, International WebAward. The 2008 award for www.unitex.com.au is testimony to the efforts of the creative team at iezzi. In the words of this year’s judges, “The site architecture is quite well conceived: simple, direct, easy to understand. Spot on”.

More than 2,400 sites from 45 countries were adjudicated during this year’s WebAward competition and caps off another sound year for iezzi in website development. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology.

The Unitex website acts as a product showcase, technical library and industry news feed for this innovative building products company. The design expresses the brand personality that has been conceived and maintained by iezzi for many years. The Unitex website presented many design challenges. The biggest was to cater for all Unitex customers while ensuring the site was search engine friendly (in the applicator market, English is often a second language). As Anthony Iezzi, Director Creative explains, “Google can't 'read' images, but the site needed a navigation system that used pictures. So the solution has been carefully crafted not only in appearance, but also from an SEO perspective."

To create a truly great, successful website, employ a web agency who can bring all the elements of marketing together. With Unitex, organic search listings for generic keywords on both Google and Yahoo7! are solid and traffic (unique visits) is up over 50% in just 6 months. More visitors, the right information, presented well with a consistent brand personality, it’s not just about awards, iezzi are helping Unitex increase business.