kc web design Kent & Getting British Business Online

About 12 months ago I trial ran a service from Getting British Business Online for kc web design Kent and a client we had. I set up a simple website through the service which is described as…

GBBO is an initiative aimed at helping UK businesses unlock the power of the web. It offers online trainings, free websites and live workshops and events across the nation.

Seemed like a very good idea. I’m all in favour of helping UK businesses get online. We have one of the best online marketplaces in the world and this country is at the forefront of modern web technology and trends. Smaller, new businesses do need some help getting online sometimes and here at kc web design Kent we do help local businesses make that first jump into the world of online selling.

kc web design Kent and GBBO

My experience with GBBO to begin with was quite good. Easy to set up, easy to get started and easy to create a basic website, if a basic website design is all you need. Anything more complicated and I suspect you’ll need a good web designer on hand but for basic websites it was fine. You can use a standard pre-built web design template or create your own unique web design Kent look & feel if you want to spend the time. So, overall, not a bad start.

My issue with the service is this – After initial setup it’s very hard to manage and the GBBO service seems to have changed owners or is now affiliated with so many other companies that there doesn’t seem to be a fixed point of contact. I was notified that my domain name would expire a while back and I thought I keep the domain name I got in the test site as it was quite a good domain – http://www.websitedesigncompanykent.co.uk/. When it came to having to renew the domain I obviously went to the GBBO website but nowhere could I find anywhere to renew my domain. So, knowing that the website was setup and editable from my Google account I went there – no joy here either. Back on the GBBO website it mentions a company called Yola so I went to their website – no luck there either. I dug out some old emails and sent of a support request to what turned out to be a dead domain and my email bounced. Having some experience with this kind of thing I went to Nominet and found out who my registrar was for the domain which turned out to be register.com. I went to the website, entered my domain name and did a search to see if it had my details but all it gave me was an error about too many characters in a domain name they already have registered! Finally, after digging through emails from 12 months ago, it turns out I have to login to some BT/Google website to renew the domain.

Come on GBBO! Getting British Business Online should be easy to begin with and easy to maintain. Small businesses in Kent and the rest of the UK need to be able to renew and keep their websites going easily without this kind of barrier. A simple page on your website directing users to the correct pages for renewal would be a simple feature to add and may save British Businesses a huge amount of wasted time.

If you’d like to take your business website to the next level then give kc web design Kent a call.

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Paul Ledbrook

Owner and Director at kc web design ltd

With over 20 years of experience in web design and development I've successfully led teams at both global tech companies, including Fujitsu, and my own ventures, such as kc web design ltd and music startup Go To Hear. As the Founder/Director
of kc web design ltd and Founder and CDO of Go To Hear, I have spearheaded the design and development of top-class website designs all over the world.

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