website creation

[DemoXpert]

Ok, so i've been looking into creating a website, as we all know, how important our presence online is these days!...

Has anyone done it recently?- DIY or not?

i bumped into this "Sitebuilder" company, and have to say: was a little disappointed to say the least...

This was the end result of my brief experience:

Audrey: Hi xxxxxxxx.

Audrey: Welcome to Sitebuilder.com Live Chat service. This is Audrey here. How can I help you today?

Audrey: Please could you provide me with the Full Name, Email address and Phone number registered with us?

→how do i go about cancelling my subscription?

→xxxxxx xxxx, xxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.com, 447776660666

Audrey: Thank you for providing this to me.

Audrey: Would you mind holding on for a few minutes while I locate your account.

→yes, no problem

Audrey: How can I help you today?

→I'd like to cancel my subscription and get a refund please

Audrey: We are eager to know if there is anything in particular that had led to your decision to cancel your account with us?

Audrey: Customer feedback is really valuable to us and we would like to offer you a further discount on your current subscription. Originally you received a 35% discount and we would like to increase this for you today to 50% and refund the difference back to you.

→Well, i found the site to be rather obscure and was particularly frustrated when my bank account was billed for £115 , when it was clearly stated that i'd be billed for 7,99 monthly!

Audrey: I apologize for the inconvenience caused.

→furthermore, i was lead to believe that business mail was included in my subscription, when it clearly isn't!...

Audrey: How about I downgrade your plan to monthly.

→No, i appreciate your help, but really just want to cancel.

Audrey: Customer feedback is really valuable to us and we would like to offer you 1 Year completely free! The 1 year free credit can be used towards the renewal of your account or additional services.

→I'm sorry but i really am disappointed and want to cancel.

Audrey: Okay I will cancel the account and you will receive an email confirming the cancellation.

→Great, full refund too right?

Audrey: As you have claimed a domain, the amount for the domain will be deducted while cancelling.

Audrey: Domain amount will be $ 19.95.

→well, i do not wish to keep domain!...

Audrey: I understand but All our domains are registered in users name and once the registration has been completed the domain cannot be change, cancelled or refunded for the term. This is detailed in our Terms Of Service.

→well!... how do i go about using the domain and where does it state that i owe it?

Audrey: The purchased domain name through Sitebuilder will be your property, as all domains are registered in our customers names.

Audrey: Please note, that the domains purchased through Sitebuilder cannot be transferred to an alternative Domain Registrar within the first 60 days of registration.

→well this is interesting, because i believe this violates my consumer rights!... and where does your full refund policy stays within this mess i am not totally aware of...

Audrey: I am so sorry for that you cannot take your domain before 60 days but still you can use it by linking the domain to other website.

Audrey: We will just need to update the IP address from your account.

Audrey: This will not let your website down and you can continue with your new providers website.

Audrey: I would request you to think again on the one year free offer as it is beneficial for you .

Audrey: You will be have an account for two years at the price of one.

→i am utterly frustrated with the whole situation, and will seek legal advice, mean time i'd like a refund and the subscription cancelled. this clearly is just another scam, no offence to you.

Audrey: Okay not lets make it more confusing, I will give you a full refund.

→great, thank you very much!

Audrey: You will shortly receive an email confirming the cancellation.

→Thank you once again and have the rest of a great day.

Audrey: Is there anything else I could help you with?

→No, this is it. Thank you

Audrey: If any other questions arise, please feel free to contact us at any time. We are available 24/7

 

[Spare Tool]

Sounds like Audrey was ok, just the Website company you were let down by..
I got a website sorted by yell in January, £200 to build the website (although they said that was a special offer at the time) they sent a guy out to see what sort of thing I was after then all I had to do was email the photos and approve what they had put together..all by email.
It costs me £50 a month on Ddebit which is quite a lot more than you were paying but its well worth it.. they've managed to get me to the top of google which to me is the most important bit (just google tiler burnley) and after the check a traders blah blah websites I'm the next one down constantly, don't know how they did it but I'm always up there.. they've also set me up a google plus, twitter and facebook accounts although I never use them so think they've probably become dormant.. I get at leat 3 calls a week off it, infact got 2 calls yesterday, 2 bathrooms and a 16m floor to quote on..

 

[Dan]

You want a free Wordpress.com website and then buy a domain name from ukreg.com. Then point the domain to your Wordpress site.

Wordpress charge a little for that, and your domain will be a tenner or so a year.

Cheapest way to get a good website that is.

And then choose one of the hundreds of thousands of free designs.

 

[Spare Tool]

You want a free Wordpress.com website and then buy a domain name from ukreg.com. Then point the domain to your Wordpress site.

Wordpress charge a little for that, and your domain will be a tenner or so a year.

Cheapest way to get a good website that is.

And then choose one of the hundreds of thousands of free designs.

Can you get yourself pushed to the top of google then Dan?
It sounds a good deal that...
Feel a bit ripped off now

 

[DemoXpert]

Anyway, following all that malarkey with Audrey, i had a look at The Best Website Builders - Updated 2015 Review Guide and other site builder review websites, i quite liked Square space, probably due to their upfront and clear approach... not sure yet as to what route to take, one thing i do know: there are plenty ppl out there looking to get their hands on your hard earned money!...

 

[DemoXpert]

Can you get yourself pushed to the top of google then Dan?
It sounds a good deal that...
Feel a bit ripped off now

Not sure how do they go about doing that Andy, but i do know, Yell can do it. Haven't heard of any other company offering that option/ service!...

 

[DemoXpert]

Yell however, are not cheap.
I won't mind spending some money, and am not the type of guy that always goes for the cheapest stuff, but i do like to know where my money goes, b4 it leaves the acc., and i like to get something in return too.

 

[Andy Allen]

Imo yell do the hard sell thing...big time !!....had a call off them and couldn't get rid of him!!!
Expensive too....way cheaper deals out there for websites.

 

[DemoXpert]

most definitely too aggressive sales! Had a mate enquiring about their services, he couldn't get rid of them either... When the rep realised she could definitely not get anything out of him, she simply hang up the phone after giving him a tongue pie.

 

[Spare Tool]

most definitely too aggressive sales! Had a mate enquiring about their services, he couldn't get rid of them either... When the rep realised she could definitely not get anything out of him, she simply hang up the phone after giving him a tongue pie.

I never found that with them, mind you I wanted a website and didn't think it was too bad a deal for what they were offering, I'd been advertising in a small local rag n that was costing me £40 a month...got one job off it in a year!!
So the Yell rep didn't have to go down the hard sell route with me...i thought £50 a month to go national and be at the top of google was reasonable..

 

[AliGage]

Can you get yourself pushed to the top of google then Dan?
It sounds a good deal that...
Feel a bit ripped off now

Most top websites are built on WordPress these days.
Yell is a pile of............

Have they told you they'll put you at the top of Google then?

 

[Dan]

Can you get yourself pushed to the top of google then Dan?
It sounds a good deal that...
Feel a bit ripped off now

Wordpress sites rank well but unique content is king. So lots of text mentioning the areas you tile in and where customers are from when they've left some reviews and whatnot.

There are also free plugins which I'd recommend to help out with that too.

 

[Spare Tool]

Most top websites are built on WordPress these days.
Yell is a pile of............

Have they told you they'll put you at the top of Google then?

..they did, and I am in my area

 

[Colour Republic]

Sounds like Audrey was ok, just the Website company you were let down by..
I got a website sorted by yell in January, £200 to build the website (although they said that was a special offer at the time) they sent a guy out to see what sort of thing I was after then all I had to do was email the photos and approve what they had put together..all by email.
It costs me £50 a month on Ddebit which is quite a lot more than you were paying but its well worth it.. they've managed to get me to the top of google which to me is the most important bit (just google tiler burnley) and after the check a traders blah blah websites I'm the next one down constantly, don't know how they did it but I'm always up there.. they've also set me up a google plus, twitter and facebook accounts although I never use them so think they've probably become dormant.. I get at leat 3 calls a week off it, infact got 2 calls yesterday, 2 bathrooms and a 16m floor to quote on..

To be fair Andy getting to the top of google in your particular area is not hard at all. In fact i've never seen such a lack of competition for first page!

I scrolled through the first 4 pages of results and there are only 2 actual tilers websites shown (Yours and another who is slightly above you), the rest are all directories until you get to page 4 and a tiler from Bolton turns up in the results and the only reason he does is because he's named a 2 pictures on his website "tiling in Lancashire". So it's not so much that Yell have done an amazing job for you it's more to do with the fact no other tilers have even bothered to try and get a web presence!

The site is nice enough to look at and does its job in getting work, but it's not well written from an SEO point of view (SEO = Search Engine Optimisation and this is what gets you to the top of google). So whilst you might be happy, you're still paying too much for what you have. You could have had the same site built by a web designer for £300-£400 as a one off fee and then paid £5 a month in hosting fees. So a total cost of say £460 in your first year and £60 there after. Instead you are paying £800 in your first year, then £600 there after with Yell!

If you lived in an area with much more web competition (say Manchester) your current website would probably be way down on pages 6-10. i.e. No where! However Yell can still promise first page of Google because they would be using some of that £50 a month on paid google ads which means you get placed on the R/H side of the organic results and every time someone clicks on the link, Google get paid a small fee. They are laughing all the way to the bank because they don't have to spend a penny in your area. It's not a long term web strategy for a small business.



Personally I think any small business looking to maintain their own website should look no further than Wordpress, it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. It's a pretty powerful platform. But the most appealing aspect of Wordpress is that it's so well supported, not only by wordpress themselves, in the way of online manuals, but by the millions of users worldwide who share their knowledge. If you have a problem or don't know how to do something, within seconds you can find a youtube video giving you step by step instructions on how to do it, even for really obscure problems.

DemoXpert judging by your posts I think you'd do well to get a decent webdesigner to build you a website for £300-500 and then get them to show you the basics on how to maintain it and add blog posts and what not. Your area of Basingstoke also doesn't have much web competition so should be easy to get to first page quite quickly. Again if you lived in highly competitive area like London then I wouldn't be saying this and say you need to do some serious work or spend serious money to get to page 1.

Disclaimer: No doubt someone is bound to click on the link in my sig and notice the Colour Republic website isn't the greatest world, but it was when I wrote it 6-7 years ago and ranked really well for multiple trades. It's due a major overhaul and swapping over to wordpress. Besides it's not even my main website anymore, this one is - Broken Link Removed and that one ranks on page 1 for everything I want it to and was built by myself in wordpress. Its still not finished either!

 

[Dan]

To be fair Andy getting to the top of google in your particular area is not hard at all. In fact i've never seen such a lack of competition for first page!

I scrolled through the first 4 pages of results and there are only 2 actual tilers websites shown (Yours and another who is slightly above you), the rest are all directories until you get to page 4 and a tiler from Bolton turns up in the results and the only reason he does is because he's named a 2 pictures on his website "tiling in Lancashire". So it's not so much that Yell have done an amazing job for you it's more to do with the fact no other tilers have even bothered to try and get a web presence!

The site is nice enough to look at and does its job in getting work, but it's not well written from an SEO point of view (SEO = Search Engine Optimisation and this is what gets you to the top of google). So whilst you might be happy, you're still paying too much for what you have. You could have had the same site built by a web designer for £300-£400 as a one off fee and then paid £5 a month in hosting fees. So a total cost of say £460 in your first year and £60 there after. Instead you are paying £800 in your first year, then £600 there after with Yell!

If you lived in an area with much more web competition (say Manchester) your current website would probably be way down on pages 6-10. i.e. No where! However Yell can still promise first page of Google because they would be using some of that £50 a month on paid google ads which means you get placed on the R/H side of the organic results and every time someone clicks on the link, Google get paid a small fee. They are laughing all the way to the bank because they don't have to spend a penny in your area. It's not a long term web strategy for a small business.



Personally I think any small business looking to maintain their own website should look no further than Wordpress, it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. It's a pretty powerful platform. But the most appealing aspect of Wordpress is that it's so well supported, not only by wordpress themselves, in the way of online manuals, but by the millions of users worldwide who share their knowledge. If you have a problem or don't know how to do something, within seconds you can find a youtube video giving you step by step instructions on how to do it, even for really obscure problems.

DemoXpert judging by your posts I think you'd do well to get a decent webdesigner to build you a website for £300-500 and then get them to show you the basics on how to maintain it and add blog posts and what not. Your area of Basingstoke also doesn't have much web competition so should be easy to get to first page quite quickly. Again if you lived in highly competitive area like London then I wouldn't be saying this and say you need to do some serious work or spend serious money to get to page 1.

Disclaimer: No doubt someone is bound to click on the link in my sig and notice the Colour Republic website isn't the greatest world, but it was when I wrote it 6-7 years ago and ranked really well for multiple trades. It's due a major overhaul and swapping over to wordpress. Besides it's not even my main website anymore, this one is - Broken Link Removed and that one ranks on page 1 for everything I want it to and was built by myself in wordpress. Its still not finished either!

What's your forum URL?