Free Websites for UK Businesses
Following my post yesterday (Do you really need to pay for a website) a friend @mime109 tweeted me over a website address that is offering any UK Business a free website. It all looks very official with some big name logo’s. I decided to have a look around.
(Scroll down for my update following setting up a test site)
I have to say that despite my SEO head throwing up a few downsides it does get my thumbs up, purely because it is indeed free (initially) , you get a free* domain name and it’s a lot better than those low cost ‘website in a box’ packages that I see way too often. I actually think the free domain name part makes this a bit more exciting than the other many free website options that are available (wordpress, weebly, etc)
I recommend this product to you if:
- You are a small business (or charity, etc) and you don’t already have a website
- You don’t have the funds to pay for a professional website (yet)
- The whole website business thing scares the hell out of you
- You aren’t dogmatic about the SEO (Many elements are spot on but on first inspection I have a few niggles such as the source code and those links out to google. I will have to dig deeper to give it a full appraisal.)
- You aren’t bothered about not being able to move the website later down the line (cos you can’t – it’s a Google site)
- *You are happy to pay for domain name renewal in 2 years time (a few quid)
A few of my own friends spring to mind for this:
My beautician (no jokes please!) – She has a little shop in Chadderton, no website because she can’t justify the expense and thinks it will be a bit too much hassle maintaining it.
My friend who does bodyshop parties. She has a facebook page and I know she would love a website but its all about money.
And so many more sole traders and part time businesses who maybe haven’t thought about a website before now and only ever advertise in the locals:
- Taxi Firms
- Market Traders
- Plumbers/Plasterers/Handymen/women
- Mobile hairdressers/beauticians
- Window Cleaners
- Local Butty Shops
oh I could go on and on…
I’m going to give it a go and will be getting in touch with my friends about it.
Try it yourself at http://www.gbbo.co.uk/
Edit: Having registered a website myself I have discovered that you can link it up with an existing google account and you can opt out of displaying your site in Google local (in case you don’t want your name, address and phone number being up there).
The T&Cs state that you can only register one domain. And if you try to register another linked to the same Google account or using the same mobile number it won’t let you. I can imagine if those are the only safeguards being used to prevent this being abused it could easily get very silly.
So. It appears that anyone with mobile number (and Google account) can have a free domain name (with BT) and website. Which domain are you going to choose?
Update 1st March 2010
The website I set up to try this out is Jobs Tameside. Please don’t assume that this is a perfectly optimised template. I just set it up as a demo and to go through the process but if it gives you some ideas then great!
These are a few points I would like to make:
- Your free website is actually a Google Site which is a service that has been available for some time. The difference here is that you get a free domain name and it sets it all up for you.
- The domain choosing process is quite good. If you enter your preferred choice it will tell you if it is available as well as some other suggestions. If you don’t want any of those try another searc. You should really think hard about the domain name you want. Make sure it is relevant to your business name or your service/product.
- You get a choice of templates to use when you first start setting up your site, make use of the preview tool to see how it will look. This can be changed later. You can also choose from different layout options, which again can be edited later.
- UPDATE (20/01/10) You can configure an email address using Google Apps. The process is staight forward enough but I can see how non-technical users may get a little confused with the process. Instructions at the GBBO website: How to set up Email.
- If you don’t want to include an email address on your free website you might want to use a contact form ‘widget’ (see the one I added at my demo site).
- You can add analytics and webmaster tools quite easily (both of these tools enable you to monitor how your site is performing)
- Compared to the many free website builder tools and even the ones that are chargeable, this is not bad at all.
- How does it compare to a professionally designed website? Well that depends which design company you use and your budget. There is no comparison in many cases, with the right designer a professional website can knock spots of any free service. But compared to many of those “Cheap Website for £50″ offerings it fairs quite well. I have seen some horrendous designs that look straight out of front page with zero consideration for search engine friendliness and with no self updating capabilities. Of course packages would really need to be examined on a point by point basis to get a real feel for how they compare.
- Earlier in this post I listed examples of the type of business these free sites are ideal for but if you have the funds, and the NEED for a more professional website with certain SEO requirements then you should always go for a professional web design service. The Getting British Business Online websites are good but they are also limited in many ways.
- If you are struggling, there are many designers out there that who will be able to help you.
- In my earlier post (Do you need to pay for a website) I said that time willing I will help a local not for profit or charity for free. That still applies here.
- I can provide SEO consultations for new and existing websites including providing you with a check list of requirements to make your website as search friendly as possible. If you would like to make use of this service please get in touch.
Finally, my own online starter package includes setting up a website using Getting British Business Online and I would be more than happy to showcase any websites that have been set up using the Getting British Business Websites online service, so feel free to submit yours in the comments below. In case you missed it earlier, take a look at my own demo: Jobs Tameside.
Hi Kay. Got a GBBO alert from paypal and checked out your interesting comments. Any idea how well optimised a GBBO site would be for search engines?
I have a website for my paintings but it’s way out of date and isn’t very effective at finding new customers. Nor can I change it without paying a fee. The free site sounds interesting and I’m currently looking into http://www.supersimpleshop.com/ to set up an initially free than £10 per month site. A web designer I spoke to a few months ago said an important part of his service is optimisation hence my question. Unfortunately I cannot afford his charges (£700 for basic site)
Hi Lionel,
The demo site I set up appears for it’s targets with hardly any work. The domain name helps lots of course and the fact there is relevant content on there. Not to mention it targets a geo graphic location which narrows down the reach anyway. GBBO is ok for a starter site for someone who doesn’t want to spend any money and has enough ‘IT’ skills to do it themselves.
Looking at some of the examples on that site builder I could point out a bunch of things if I really wanted to scrutinize it (in terms of SE friendliness) but I’ve seen far worse. My main grudge would be the page titles (aka Browser titles/meta titles) none of the examples show unique titles per page and that’s one of the biggies in onsite SEO.
£700 for a basic site isn’t much at all (assuming you are talking about an ecommerce site) but then I don’t know what you would be getting for it. I’ve seen bespoke sites that are FAR worse than the webshop packages available, so just because it would be done by a ‘web designer’ it doesn’t mean it’s the best value. If you are not wanting an ecommerce site I can probably point you in the direction of where you could get a wordpress powered website (fully self updateable) for less than that.
I have nothing against small businesses on a low budget going for web-based stores as a starter site. You can use the experience getting to grips with online selling and there are MANY other ways to promote your product (on and offline) which you should be utilising anyway. Even websites that cost thousands need to put in the work to drive traffic and get them converting.
One of my clients is playing around with http://www.easywebstore.co.uk which I think is a little better than the example you mention. He said the support is fantastic. It does start from £24.99 per month though so costs a little more.
What you COULD do is sign up to Google Sites first and play about with it. If you think it works for you then go about the sign up process through GBBO for your free domain and easy set up of it.
Good luck
Hi Kay
Not quite sure about their claim to build a website in 20 minutes. I spent nearly 2 hours trying to do it, then after registering with google I could not gain access to my website again. It is advertised as being good for people with limited computer skills; mine are about average and I found it really frustrating. Do you have to wait for the website to be downloaded before you can find it or was mine unsuccessful? How would I be able to find out?
Thank you
Melanie
Hi Melanie, thanks for your comments. Can I ask, is the domain you included with your comment the same one you are trying to view your website with?
I just checked it out and that domain ‘melanie-hair-make-up.co.uk’ is still available. I suspect either the domain name registration wasn’t completed (you need to verify registration with a mobile number during the process) or perhaps you may have mispelled it and have been trying to access your website with a different domain spelling?
Let me know how you get on.
Kay
hi Kay thanks for your artical,ive been subcribed to Sitebuildit for 2 years but havnt got passed day 2 of the guided process let alone got a domain name.ive about av skills.im not blaming sbi ,im a painter and just want to showcase my work, and especially be able to refer exhibition visitors to my own on line gallery,with a view to increasing sales opportunities but i also have an unrelated full time job and im 58. do you think this `20 minuite`site is more suitable for me
Nice article this. I read about GBBO before when I was looking for a website builder and it seemed like a lot of people are complaining a bit over the quality of the GBBO sites. Even though it’s great they offer the domain name, I decided against it having read other people getting rather irate with the whole system on some UK business Forums and opted for a paid service after a free trial with Wizz-it (http://www.wizz-it.com) and havn’t looked back since.
Not sure about it’s SEO capability as never really looked into that, think they mentioned it’s quite good for it though from the customer support person I spoke too.
Worth a look if the negative GBBO stories scare you (like they scared me, lol), however, reading this article there are obviously two sides to every story
Nice post!
There’ve been some major changes to the GBBO offering since May 12th 2011.
The google sites element may be better direct from sites.google.com
Google sites is a really easy way to publish information on the web, store it for a group or just have anywhere access to your own information.
I’d continue to wholeheartedly endorse google sites – but beware – the original sponsors have changed and GBBO is now linked to YOLA – so it’s not what it used to be. Richard
Thanks for this Richard. Worth knowing for anyone who hasn’t yet set up a website.
I set up another site for a childminder (before the change) and it suited her purpose and fulfilled her aims (filling 2 places) within a few months. I think for anyone who set up a site before the change in sponsorship, the domain is still with BT. I’ve also had a quick look at the control panel for changing CNAME records, changing the nameservers, transferring the domain out, contact details, etc and this looks pretty straightforward but I’ve yet to use it. To test this I might move the site I originally set up to check GBBO out away from Google sites to wordpress which I still think is pretty awesome as a (really low cost) website platform.