On Thursday 25th February, an initiative (from Google, Enterprise UK, BT, e-skills UK and Enterprise UK) launched a web service called Getting British Business Online (GBBO). The aim of this initiative is to help get 100 000 UK organisations to get their first website online by the end of 2010. In this service, people who sign up will get the following features:
So, why am I writing about this? Surely it would be a bad move on my part to publicise such a service. I am posting this in an attempt to inform people about why they shouldn’t go with such a service – and my clever post title will become clearer.
This statement is true. It is a very rare occasion in life that you’ll get something you really want that’s really good quality for free. In my post early last month, I wrote about why you should leave it to the professionals when getting your website designed. In summary, it outlined why you shouldn’t just let anyone build your website.
Web design is a profession. We are skilled and trained (sometimes self-taught) and the best of us know what we’re talking about and why we do certain things in design.
Building your website through the GBBO service may well get you online quicker and for free – but this isn’t a good thing by any means. It rules out the careful consideration of viewers, site goals, important traffic analysis and marketing strategies – all of which are important to a successful website.
Want something a little more complex? GBBO doesn’t offer it. In the help section of the GBBO website, there is a question entitled, “What if I want a more advanced website?” The answer to that is:
Our step-by-step tool will help you publish a basic website for your business, and Google Sites will let you improve and expand upon this later. If you’d like something more advanced we recommend you speak to a professional website designer who may be able to create a more sophisticated home for your business.
Unless you want a basic information page with who your company is, then GBBO is going to come up short. Want a blog on your website? Want a shopping cart? GBBO fails.
In a perfect world, you would just be able to type whatever you want, and everyone will magically find your business online. Sadly this is not the case. Careful consideration must go in to every part of a website build, all the way down to the wording of simple sentences.
This is true. But free things may come at a cost believe it or not. Most people know nothing about marketing, or the effects of bad marketing. If you publish a bad website, giving your company a bad image, it will reflect on you as a person or a business. If you go in to a scruffy looking clothing shop, will you buy a nice pair of shoes from there? Or will you go to the nicely presented looking shop down the road that’s offering the same thing?
For basic websites such as these, especially due to the recession, you will be able to agree a feasible price with many professional web designers and developers who are looking for smaller projects. GBBO is not a good solution in my opinion. In this day an age, most businesses do have websites, and a free website isn’t going to get you seen or set you above the rest.
Offline? No, the intention is to get businesses online. Ok, so what about professional web designers and developers who rely upon contracts from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to live. Suddenly, all of these businesses can get their new websites for free. Ok, so you’ll put 10 plumbers online, but you’ll take out a web designer. We’re already at an all-time low for the unemployed in the UK – this service isn’t going to help that.
What are your thoughts and opinions on GBBO?