Yell Website design
Many of us know Yell from the big yellow book which has provided marketing for small, medium, and large companies for years in the UK.
Most business owners will naturally turn to Yell when setting up a business, in order to help market services or products to potential customers. But with the offline advertising industry declining rapidly and online advertising increasing every single day, Yell has clearly had to find ways to survive this downfall in clients. They’ve done this by focusing more attention than ever on digital marketing and website design.
Which leads me to the subject of this post. Should you purchase a Yell website and is a Yell website right for your business? Is it worth it? Will you see results for your money? And how does it compare to a professionally designed website?
Poor Quality Designs
Yell generally doesn’t have the best record when it comes to providing high-quality website design projects to clients. You’ll also often find many of Yell’s websites are still using very outdated designs that are rarely optimized correctly for mobile devices – or search engines for that matter.
Some of these designs also include Flash Player, which is no longer supported by modern website browsers. Alongside this, Yell are fairly restricted on what they can do in regards to website features. So if you are looking for a login system or registration page, then I would look elsewhere.
You don't Own It
With professionally built websites, you are the legal owner of the intellectual property once you’ve paid for the website and the domain name. Normally if you wish to move your website to another provider this should be a straightforward process and your existing provider should support you without fees or restrictions. However, with a Yell website, you can’t take your website elsewhere, and instead, you need to continually pay Yell.
In a nutshell, if you stop making payments for your website they will eventually remove it, and that will be the end of that. Which is another good reason to have a professional website built for your business rather than using Yell. This way, if you choose to move hosting providers, you can take your website with you.
Very Little Support
Time after time we have clients who come to us with complaints about Yell and how they’ve not provided adequate support. In this regard, Yell don’t offer phone support, and they generally do everything via email with a long delay – unless it’s in relation to your payments of course!
Many clients tell me about how they’ve tried to have simple website changes made and it’s taken 12 – 15 months in some cases. A professional website design company like ourselves update our client’s websites without any delay often within 30 minutes.
No SEO Capabilities
Unlike a normal website – where you can change SEO preferences which Google will see and index i.e. Page Titles and Page Descriptions etc. – Yell websites don’t allow you to change these settings. This leads to hundreds of SEO issues that can’t be resolved and a general lack of control over your website search engine optimisation (SEO). This then impacts your website ranking within search engine results, ultimately leading to poor results for your business.
This is me when I see a website built by Yell
It Doesn't Come Cheap
To add insult to injury, Yell websites are not cheap by any means of the imagination. You’re supposed to get what you pay for, but what you pay for isn’t exactly matching the value you get, to be totally honest. With a basic Yell website starting at around £1,000 – £5,000 it’s not exactly the best deal in the world, especially considering all those ongoing costs and marketing add-ons.
You’ll also need to pay around £47.50 per month for your website hosting to keep your website with Yell, which is very steep for such a basic website. As mentioned above, if you stop paying Yell, they’ll remove your website without the option of taking it to another hosting provider. Our website hosting starts from £36.50 per month with full ongoing support, security updates, and fixes. We also don’t mind answering the phone if you need some help or support. Equally, you’re more than welcome to pop in for a quick coffee and a chat (now you can’t do that with Yell).
You Can't Change Content
You Can't Monitor results
Yell doesn’t offer any way for you to view your website traffic or converted visitors in real-time. Unlike a professional website that is integrated with useful analytical tools right off the bat i.e. Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, and much more.
The moral of this story is: don’t use Yell if you want a decent website! If you are considering a new website for your business, take a look at our website design packages to find out how we’ve helped previous Yell customers save money or call us today on 01509 357587.
This blog post is my personal opinion of Yell services as a previous customer and is in no way associated with Lowaire Digital.
