Why to Choose a WordPress Web Design over a Yell Website
WordPress powers an enormous number of websites; find out why they should be your choice over a Yell website design.
Deciding on who builds your website and where this is hosted is an important business decision and one that could have significant long-term financial and logistical consequences if you get it wrong.
Yell is a household name in the UK and the company has an impressive selection of products and services for website design, even offering free sites for small businesses. WordPress, on the other hand, is one of the global market leaders for website design and powers more than 30% of the world’s websites. It is known for being an Open Source platform that is both flexible and universally accessible.
WordPress vs Yell: A Comparison
So, how do the two compare when we pit them head to head?
Compatibility
Yell may employ some highly creative and talented web designers but the bottom line with a service like the one they offer is that this is a bespoke product that is only compatible with the Yell hosting platform (see ‘Ownership’, below).
On the other hand, your have WordPress; an Open Source platform whose development is contributed to by thousands of developers and software companies. Every single theme, tool, extension and plugin is designed to work with WordPress and offers full flexibility of design and usability.
The best part of Open Source software is that your website is universally and fully portable. Not only does this mean that you can transfer the site to any hosting service but you can also use any skilled WordPress web designer to work on it for you.
WordPress is out of the world for lots of reasons; from price and flexibility to support and compatibility.
Ownership
When you pay for a web design with Yell you don’t actually own the site that you paid for. Instead, the contract covers the rental of the site and if you decide to move away from Yell as a ‘hosting’ platform then you can’t migrate your site with you.
By contrast, WordPress sites can be fully backed up and exported to be saved and uploaded to any hosting provider you choose. In fact, many hosting services offer transfer backup to support a move to another provider.
Templates
Yell does have a reasonable range of templates with which to design and build your own website but, hands down, WordPress has a bigger and better one.
Again, as an Open Source service, WordPress has tens of thousands of developers with experience working across a huge range of industries offering free, low cost and competitive custom design templates.
Just remember that if you are opting for a DIY solution, being limited in choice does mean that your website could look very similar to many others on the market.
WordPress is a powerful platform that has a range of themes, templates and plugins to suit all industries.
Analytics
The ability to analyse your website’s performance is crucial if you want to empower your SEO strategy and inform your marketing and advertising. Whilst Yell does offer a Google Analytics service, they do not support Google Tag Manager.
Again, WordPress comes up trumps with this aspect of website design and management and offers a huge catalogue of plugins that not only support Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager but alsome innovative alternatives.
Contracts
When you choose a Yell website you must sign up for a minimum contact term. This is usually 12 months but some customers pay for a longer period to take advantage of discounts.
With most WordPress hosting, you can find that there are also discounts available when you sign up for longer but most do not insist on a minimum term. Instead, you are able to pay for your hosting on a monthly basis.
Price
Whilst you can access a ‘free’ DIY website with Yell, in reality their in-house, custom designs start from around £499 with larger, multiple-page sites costing up to £5,000. In addition, the company also charges hosting fees as well as other services that are upsold as add-ons such as advertising and SEO tools.
By contrast, WordPress hosting is available through multiple channels and can cost as little as a few pounds each month, In addition, the range of free templates to create your own design are more comprehensive and offer great flexibility (see below). The added benefit for a custom design site is that, being an Open Source service, you can find a WordPress web designer to suit your budget.
With Open Source software, WordPress is supported by thousands of developers.
Support
Designing a great website is just one ingredient for a successful website and active management and speedy technical support is essential for when things go wrong.
Yell does offer support hotlines which are open in the UK during weekdays from 8.30am to around 5.30-6.00pm. However, they don’t offer live support of out of hours customer service.
WordPress, as a company, offers full LiveChat as long as you have a plan with them. In addition, this is available 24 hours a day on weekdays and 24/7 for holders of WordPress.com Business Plan. There are also thousands of support forums available online plus additional help is available through many competent WordPress web design agencies.
Opace & WordPress Web Design
Opace is a creative and industrious WordPress web design agency based in the West Midlands. Powered by a team of innovative thinkers and talented technical specialists, we offer aesthetically pleasing, affordable and responsive websites for our clients.
Tailor-made, SEO friendly and featuring excellent functionality, we know that we can satisfy your brief for your dream website. Contact us today to find our why 100% of our clients are happy with the services we provide.
Image Credits: Pixabay/TheDigitalArtist, Pixabay/formstellar_de, MaxPixel and .
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