Thinking of getting a website from BT or Yell? Think again.

For a few years now, BT and Yell have pursued a hard sell in getting UK sole traders and small business owners to purchase one of their websites.

They use aggressive marketing techniques and make promises they don't deliver on, while supplying a poor quality product that looks cheap at first glance, but in the long term ends up being quite pricey - certainly more than it's worth.

This is a shortened version of the full article, which goes into a lot more detail about the points below. If you want to read The Truth about websites from BT and Yell, click here.

Anything we can put up on this blog will be a drop in the ocean compared to the thousands of cold calls and massive marketing spend these large companies have, but we thought we'd write a blog post to try to warn anyone who's considering buying a website from BT or Yell - based on our own experiences with their marketing department and stories that have been relayed to us by business owners we've met.

It's understandable that sole traders and small businesses have a limited budget, so can't necessarily afford a full bespoke website from a design agency (where it may start at around £600+vat) for a decent website, but our advice would be to avoid these particular companies at all costs.

If you want a cheap website, then it's worth considering one of the free blog platforms, such as Blogger or Wordpress, or using a service like Wix or Mr Site. These services can help you get something cheap and cheerful online for free or very cheap - and it can't be any worse than the rubbish you'll pay hundreds of pounds per year to Yell or BT for.

Or, if you have a little bit more money to spend, check out our web design services ; )

The core problems with BT and Yell's web design service are fourfold. They start with a relentless hard sell, which is no way to do business. They use production line templates and simply stuff the content in without any care or pride in theit work. The staff are unskilled and spout jargon with only the vaguest idea of what they're saying and the ongoing service is poor to nonexistent - basically, once they've got your money, you're of no interest to them.

That's the business model they have in order to get a large throughput to make it worth charging low prices while still making huge profits. We shouldn't be surprised that large companies behave in this way - but it's not going to do you any favours if you're the little guy. To read our explanations of these four sections in more detail, check out the full article about BT and Yell websites.

And, if you found this article useful, you may want to check out our web design and SEO resource bank.