Northwest Arkansas Home Builders Association

Springdale

www.nwabuilders.com

Want to check the credentials of a contractor who claims to be a member of the Northwest Arkansas Home Builders Association? The best place to do so is at the professional trade organization’s Web site, www.nwabuilders.com.

Designed to be an informative site for surfers-by and a workhorse for the organization, the site accomplishes a lot for one that intentionally has no e-commerce capabilities. It’s a business-to-business and business-to-consumer database of “all things home building.”

It makes smart use of advertisers like Meeks, with well-placed ads that would appeal to both contractors and consumers. We’re also told the site’s advertising has helped offset the cost of maintaining a Web presence, and it looks like Meeks is getting a good bang for its buck.

The site has had 11,933 different page views since January from 2,000 different people. Its most popular section, by a 3-to-1 margin, is the member database which lets surfers find everything from expert craftsmen like Verser Cabinets in Rogers to home coverage from Walker Brothers Insurance in Springdale.

Cooper’s Art Works Inc. of Fayetteville did a redesign in November of the then year-old site and is in the middle of an upgrade. The design and Web administration firm said Yahoo.com and altavista.com were the two search engines that led most people to the site.

The only harsh criticism we have is the mouse pointer trailer gets old real quick. A tow sign reading, “Build with a pro,” follows the cursor around and is cute for a minute or two. After that, it’s just annoying.

One technician who’s familiar to similar sites in other cities said the pop-up window promoting the organization’s Showcase Home event was an attention getter.

The tech said the site has “neat features,” but he prefers sites from a design standpoint that are not built with frames. He also said www.nwabuilders.com should not trouble surfers with opening a PDF file to see its calendar. A simple hyperlink is better.

A designer on our review team thought the home page promos for the annual home show and Showcase Home events were “pretty.” She also liked that the site includes a map and links to information on communities across Northwest Arkansas.

The thing we liked best is newcomers to the 300-member organization are updated “real time.” With a password, they even may update their own information. That makes the site user friendly for everyone.