Nail Perfection
Well-Known Member
The cost to keep my Web page is doubling and I'm looking at other options. Can anyone who created a free website paste a link?
Anyone used a free website company?
- Thread starter Nail Perfection
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NailtechJoe
IN:@thenailmaestro
I create and host my own websites. There are pros and cons with using a free web content creator.
BannerPenguin
Well-Known Member
You get what you pay for is as true as ever 
A professionally built website will bring you in more than enough business to justify the cost.
If you go the DIY route, then Squarespace is probably one of the better platforms. The rest suck to be frank.
Shopify is great is you run an e-commerce store.
Just remember, when you DIY build on a platform, you don't own your website. It's like building a house on someone else's land.
A professionally built website will bring you in more than enough business to justify the cost.
If you go the DIY route, then Squarespace is probably one of the better platforms. The rest suck to be frank.
Shopify is great is you run an e-commerce store.
Just remember, when you DIY build on a platform, you don't own your website. It's like building a house on someone else's land.
Google has a free website builder tool, but you need to have a Google My Business account to use it. The tool builds a website which automatically pulls the business information and images from your Google My Business listing. Here you can check more info about it: https://www.google.com/business/how-it-works/website/
However, I totally agree with @NailtechJoe that there are cons with using free website builders. Issues with indexability and accessibility, semantic markup, HTML markup, internal linking, title tags, meta descriptions, headings, URL architecture, etc. might occur.
NailtechJoe
IN:@thenailmaestro
Indeed. I'd also add if the website has a none subdomain name which usually score badly in google pagerank algorithms, hosted in a reliable webserver with at least 99% reliability (maybe 99.9% if you have a booking service), support availability if required and an email account. There are many things to take into consideration when building a website. What manuela refers to is an important aspect when creating web sites called Search Engine Optimization. These are generally tweaks that you can do to your site using several techniques so that a search engine like Google ranks your site based on certain keywords.
I believe that having a professional built website is the key reason why I am attracting professional level clientele such as professors, lecturers and teachers due to that they want to book a time without the faff of calling. They are usually very busy people and usability is key; something that cheap websites will miss out.
I am aware that Google business now has a web building tool and you can connect through an API to booking services although at a cost. I did all of this using my programming knowledge so I do my own bookings using my own infrastructure using the Google calendar API so my clients can see on their calendar their bookings and I can see how many clients I have just glancing at my calendar. I intend to make this into a framework one day.
Really it is about assessing your needs, why do you need a website and what services do you really need.
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I have always used yola for a free website and every new client who hasn’t come from recommendation has said they found the salon through my website being at the top of google and very professional looking and nicely displayed. I pay a very small fee for my domain per year and that’s it. I just made sure I googled how to do the correct SEO and it worked a treat!
I personally see no need (from my experience) to pay ridiculous amounts for a company to do it for you..
I personally see no need (from my experience) to pay ridiculous amounts for a company to do it for you..
NailtechJoe
IN:@thenailmaestro
Like in the nail industry, you get what you pay for. There are advantages and disadvantages in using free web dev framework services depending on what your needs are.
Free Package:
- 3 Pages
- 1GB bandwidth
- 1GB storage
- Yola subdomain
The absolutely free package has yola branding everywhere and has a limit of 1GB bandwidth and storage meaning that if you exceed 1GB traffic in a month, that is it, your users will see a blank screen stating you have exceeded your bandwidth quota. It also has a subdomain which is cheap to say the least and won't score highly on google..
Bronze Package:
- Unlimited pages
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 2GB storage
- Use a custom domain
- A custom domainfree
- Free private registration
- Premium support
If you are just paying for the domain name (which I see is the bronze package of $6.95 per month) and have hosting and development for free, it would fall typically under a shared web server which would share bandwidth with other websites within their infrastructure. So one day your website might load fine, the next it will load to a slow crawl if there is a lot of traffic. There is no mention in the free or bronze packages about mobile friendly websites which a lot of users would be under this category in an ever increasing mobile society. It would also have yola branding which defeats the purpose of having a custom website in the first place. No mention of SEO services unless you pay a much higher fee.
Silver Package:
- Unlimited pages
- Add as many pages to your website as you want.
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 5GB storage
- Use a custom domain
- A custom domainfree
- Free private registration
- Premium support
- No Yola branding
- Premium style templates
- Advanced editing
- Mobile-ready website
- Publish your website to Facebook
This option has more functionality than the other lesser packages but you are paying $14.95 pm or $119.40 for a year which to some new nail techs without a client base may be hard to choose this option as it will bite into profits. This IMO presents the minimum of what a professional website should be able to offer to its customers.
The alternative is to have a website designed by a professional web designer which includes mobile UX and SEO and then use an exclusive hosting service for a cheaper price than yolo or any other service.
Modify Me
Well-Known Member
I also use Google and I pay £10 a year for my domain. I find this works really well for me and I've found that if my customers don't come from word of mouth they've found me on Google which I am in the top 3 listing on a Google search. I also use ad words to boost promotions, it's not too expensive but it is certainly far better than paying for facebook ads to boost.
RubyLouRocks
Member
I am struggling at the moment trying to get a site that needs as little of my input as possible on a daily basis...I did use squarespace which I loved many moons ago but didnt go forward with it all....now im looking at seriouy doing this and although squarespace is best it doesnt do payment or bookings you have to outsource them which means more cost...im lost with it all....
BannerPenguin
Well-Known Member
Even with a web professional, payments and online booking is tied to an external provider which costs extra. When I build clients sites I normally recommend ovatu.com for online booking and we also set payment processing up through PayPal or Stripe (stripe preferred).
