Obama (Website) beats McCain (Website)

This is a non-partisan post. OK, maybe just a tinge of partisanship, but let’s keep it professional.

The Web Marketing Association judges have reviewed and voted for which presidential hopeful has the better website. Senator Obama’s website has won by a landslide. We can dissect this evaluation in a moment, but the real question is, “So what?”

The Internet, which has been changing everything, has been playing an ever-increasing role in election strategy at all levels of government. For the presidential election, both candidates are using the Internet to help their campaigns woo volunteers and campaign contributions. So the implication of who has the better website translates directly into who might be able to build a more effective base of activist supporters and who can use the Internet to shake coins out of prospective contributors’ pockets. Election strategists take note.

During the first week of October 2008, 110 Internet website experts who serve as WebAward judges reviewed both www.johnmccain.com and www.barackobama.com using the same criteria used in the annual WebAwards program (for which Duo clients won 5 awards). The sites were judged side by side on seven criteria of a successful Website.  Here is their evaluation:

Design – Asked “which website has the most pleasing design?” WebAward judges selected the Obama site 4 to 1 over the McCain website. 84.5% of them voted for Senator Obama’s website and 15.5% selected Senator McCain’s website as better looking.

Innovation – Website innovation also went in favor of Barack Obama. By the same margin as design, the vast majority of WebAward judges (82.4%) thought the Obama website seems more innovative, while only 17.6% favored McCain’s.

Content – In terms of having the most appealing content, judges again selected the Obama website over John McCain ‘s website, although by a narrower margin than the first two criteria. 71.6% of the WebAward judges felt barackobama.com has more appealing content for visitors compared to 28.4% for johnmccain.com. WebAward judges also found that the Obama website is more effective for telling the candidate’s story and attracting contributions and voters to its cause (72.2% Obama vs 27.8% McCain).

Ease of use – Senator Obama’s website was seen as easier to use by the WebAward judges than Senator McCain’s. 73.8% selected barackobama.com as easier to use compared to 26.2% of WebAward judges who felt johnmccain.com was easier.

Copywriting – It is obvious that both campaigns have excellent writers on staff. Neither websites have any of the editing issues some large organizations can experience. However, the WebAward judges gave the advantage to the Obama site (70.1% over the McCain site 29.9%).

Interactivity – Interactivity makes a website more than just an online billboard and both candidates were effective in giving visitors to their websites plenty to see and do. Nevertheless, once again the WebAward judges gave the edge regarding interactivity to the Obama website (75.2%) over the McCain website (24.8%).

Technology – Use of technology is evident in both candidates’ websites, however, the clear favorite for the WebAward judges was barackobama.com winning 82.4% of the votes compared to johnmccain.com with only 17.6% of the votes.