• 18th July 2017

Yell websites Pros and Cons inc Wix

Yell websites Pros and Cons inc Wix

Yell websites Pros and Cons inc Wix 1024 621 79DESIGN Ltd

You might be considering using Yell or Wix for your website. And why wouldn’t you?

Consider this: is being found on Google important to you?  Is being able to edit your own content a priority?  And what about design layout, and tweaks to get it spot on?

Are these platforms as good as WordPress?

These platforms can do all this some of this, but as well as a professional website design company, such as us, using WordPress?
Personally… we think not.

These tools and a few others have been round for a while, and are sometimes really cheap – almost too cheap.  Some are seen on the telly, and it all sounds very attractive.  It always does on the telly.

So what about Wix and Yell?

Many people approach us about Wix websites they already have as well as Yell websites – they ask us why it’s not doing so well on search engine sites.  Asking what we feel about their website, and why it’s just not doing so well.  It’s a regular event, but one we do actually enjoy.

So we wrote this article on our findings on both platforms.  The Pros and Cons of Yell Websites and Wix Websites.  They have their place, but for business to boost growth, sadly in our opinion and many others online (do your research!)… not so good.

Yell websites: Pros and Cons

Unlike Wix, they do charge for their websites.  Their designs can be ok, but their SEO is generally found by us to be shocking – sorry.  Poor coding, incorrect tags, or overly used tags.  Plus, their responsive nature is not responsive.  You can view them on a phone, and on a Desktop, but the ‘trick’ to see if it is deemed ‘responsive’ is to bring your browser window inward on a PC.  If the page collapses down, and the menu area closes up, it’s responsive.  If it goes ‘off the screen’, it’s not.  Every Yell Website Design we have ever looked it….. goes off the screen.  Try this page right now and you will see the difference.

The problem is, to non-techies, these issues sound like nothing.  Here is an example:

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Targeting keyword confusing from duplicating keywords

We have come across websites where they have multiple issues of the same problem – such as duplicating keywords in the wrong places, tags used entirely inappropriate.  They are built at speed by a designer who is not an SEO expert;  they are purely ‘designers’.  

yell website design pros cons

All built with WordPress

Not properly ‘responsive’

Another example is where a website is great on a desktop, but not responsive.  It has a mobile ‘version’, but if you bring your screen size down to tablet and so on, it doesn’t ‘change’ to fit the format.

Google cannot identify what a site is doing, if you don’t actually tell it with the right coding.  Just because the text is there on screen, Google needs to be told exactly what you are doing, the right way.

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You don’t own your website

Just recently we took over a few websites for clients who had WordPress as their systems.  We were able to migrate a site for one company to our server in just a few hours, host it, and secure much improved SEO.  We could not have done this with a Yell website as it is using their own platform.

To the best of our knowledge, you cannot add any code to your own website at all – so you cannot put Google Analytics on the website.  We had another client who moved to us from Yell, who said they asked for new content to be added, and it was just ‘done’, and live without them seeing it first.

Client’s judgement

When it comes to deciding on your business, and the way forward, it is always the client’s judgement.  They might get a new site for £500, and Hosting and many updates for around £50-70 per month.  Sounds fabulous, unless you need faster replies from your support person.  You don’t want to go through a call centre and get through to someone you’ve never spoken to before.  Or maybe you do, so long as it is ‘cheap’.

It’s down to judgement.  Go cheap and see what happens with your website.  Who knows what might happen?  Or go with a company that’s been in website design for over 10 years, and with over 17 years experience within the company, plus SEO performance too.

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This is what SEO work is all about…

We noticed also that with Yell, while the site does show a mobile “version” it is not actually responsive.

Here’s a simple way to tell.  Open your website in a desktop/laptop browser.  Now bring the side of the browser screen inward to make it narrow – around 2-3 inches wide.  Does your site collapse down while remaining easy to view?  OR is it shooting off the side of the browser, out of view?

Easy to view: Responsive
Out of View: Non-Responsive.

When we create a website, we do it ONLY to be fully responsive.  Even when it means customising certain code to make things even more responsive than a theme allows.  We also ensure all the work in our Lincolnshire SEO Studio, is done with precision, courtesy and respect to the customer.

These platforms have their place.  In our view, only if you really don’t care to much about being found ‘naturally’ on Google.  If you push and pay with Adwords, then they are fine, but even then, are you happy to have a site coded badly?

They do have their place – really, they do.  If you just wait a little site yourself to share with friends or a hobby.  Great.  But if the idea is to be found on Google, to look impressive to your clients or shareholders, or even customers, it really is not the way to go.  It may look ok, but look deep.  It’s probably not.

Wix Websites

Wix websites has some benefits:  It’s free to setup.  Even their premium websites are pretty cheap.  So you can put images up, content, menu etc.  You use their themes.  As a “cheap” option, it’s fine.

However….if you want to ensure it is optimised for Google and other search engines correctly (SEO), using the right codes and tools (that a developer would do elsewhere), sadly you cannot check this.

It misses a lot of vital code, and as you are building it yourself, you don’t know what each tag or code means, so means are so easily made.

Want to Migrate to WordPress?  Click here >

Wix websites Image Resizing – or lack thereof

We have often come across websites where there is a big banner at the top, and most CMS website systems will serve up the image suitable for your device, resizing it.  So if you are on an iPhone 7 for example, that displays images at no greater than 475px wide.  Wix websites doesn’t seem to resize, so if you are upload a 500kb JPG photograph, that is 1920 px wide….. Wix will serve up that 1920px wide image… to an 475px wide browser.

That’s bad!

wix websitesWix Menus and Responsive layouts

So should you go for a Wix website?  This all depends on whether you want to rank well with Google.  Whether you want your readers to load up pages quickly.  Or if this is just a little hobby site.

Our Responsive Websites are in a class of their own.  Fully responsive, images are resized to show the correct size for each screen, menus that are pixel perfect, so they express your company proudly and accurately online, and a design that is just stunning.

For more details about Wix Websites and how we can help, visit our Wix Websites page.

Want to Migrate to WordPress?  Click here >

Give us a call on 01775 894479 and we can help you.  Or better yet, if you have a Wix website or Yell.com website,  just enter it in the form below, tell us about it, and we will see what we can do for you – how does that sound?

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