Our telemarketing team are reporting back that a few local developers (not companies - just idiots working from home) are giving "free" websites to businesses in the North East. We found MANY problems with their service offerings including:
1. No XHTML/CSS standards designs - all built with old HTML (which mostly failed even those less stringent requirements).
2. Very poor design and no client branding at all.
3. Domain names registered to the developer - NOT the client.
4. Non search engine friendly content.
5. Very expensive hosting - £20 per Mb per month in some cases!
So - here's my challenge. If you WANT a free website use our new service (the Ladybird Site Builder) at www.my-free-website.co.uk. Build your own site, play with it and let me know if you want to host it. Get a quote for hosting and we'll beat ANY hosting quote by at least 50%. Now, our custom built sites at £199 are probably going to do MUCH more for your business but if you MUST have free then at least have QUALITY FREE.
There you go - a FREE website for ANY business in the North East. Just pay for a domain name (which will be registered to your business) and pay for hosting (our standard price is £10 per month including unlimited email accounts). If you find cheaper hosting with the same features as our network we will take your written quote and reduce it by at least half.
We will NOT see North East businesses being given web sites which may open them to legal claims under the DDA (contact us for information) or see them lose control of their brand to unscrupulous operaters. We remind EVERY business in the North East to ring 0800 084 2997 (freephone) for a quote from a real company with real staff which is on the North East England Service Providers Register (with a VAT number, DUNS number, IAP membership, etc).