Before applying for the Green Light Award, please check to make sure that the website you’re submitting is qualified to win this award by reading the Disqualification Criteria. Each site submitted for consideration will be graded upon the following criteria in five categories:

The Navigation System - (4 points) is shown in a consistent location at least within sections of the site and is user friendly and functional. Please make the viewers ability to navigate around the site easy. This is to your advantage because people will just leave your pages if they cannot work the navigation system.

Home Page Links - (3 points) The site should allow you return to the home page from anywhere on the site. A good website will have a home link on every page. If visitors to the site want to go back to the home page, they should not have to search for a link.

Site Map or Site Index - (3 points) There should be a site map, or site index, if your site is complex and has distinctive sections. Having a site map or index would allow visitors to go to one page to check everything you have before deciding which section they would like to view first. Maximum points are earned here if there is a link to the site map on every page.

To-Top Links - (3 points) There are times when due to the subject matter, or for design continuity, that a page may be longer than normal and we recognize that. Should this happen, then there should be a "Top of Page Link" at the bottom of the page. Additional "To Top" links should be interspersed within the body of the page, as needed, every three vertical scrolls at 1024 x 768 resolution.

Proper Windows for Links - (4 points) External links should always open in a new window, and internal links should open in the same window. If your site conforms to this, then these points will be awarded.

An E-Mail Address - (3 points) to contact the author of the site should be listed, at minimum, on the home page. Maximum points are awarded to sites that have an E-Mail link on every page. The reason for this is simple, visitors may, at any time, find a reason to contact you, and it is a real pain to have to go back through the pages to find an E-mail link. Plus, this may just cause the visitors to loose interest in your site.

The decision to issue the Green Light Award is based on your point score of the above criteria. 70 out of a possible 106 points are needed to win the Green Light Award. The decision of our judges is final. Wining recipients will be notified by email.

There is a two month waiting period for resubmitting a site for reconsideration.