Leaving Yell? How to move your business website

Plenty of small businesses got their website through Yell, and for a lot of them it did the job. Now you might fancy a fresh design, or want your website, domain and email looked after by one small firm. Here’s what we’d want to know if it were our business.

Can I just leave?

That depends on your contract, and we haven’t seen it. Dig it out, or ask Yell for a copy, and look for three things: the minimum term, the notice period, and how notice has to be given. If you’re partway through a minimum term, you’ll want to know what that means before you do anything.

It’s also worth checking whether your contract covers more than the website, such as advertising or a directory listing, and what happens to each part if you cancel.

Who owns my domain?

This is the big one. Your domain is the address customers know, and it’s the thing you most want to keep. Your contract should say who owns it. You can also check for yourself.

For a .co.uk or .uk domain, use the WHOIS lookup on the website of Nominet, the organisation that runs the .uk register. Type in your domain and it’ll show which company the domain is registered through. It may show the registrant’s name too, though individuals can choose to hide it. If you can’t see a name, ask the company it’s registered through to confirm who the registrant is.

If the domain is registered in your name, or your business’s name, you can move it or point it wherever you like. For a .co.uk, moving it is done by changing its IPS tag. If it’s registered to someone else, ask them how to get it transferred into your name. Our domains page explains transfers in more detail.

Can I keep my website design?

Check your contract for who owns the design, the words and the photos. Don’t assume you can reuse photos that someone else supplied, as they may be licensed to them rather than to you. You don’t need the old design anyway. With our £47 a month managed website we design a new site and write the words for you, so all we need is what you know about your business and anything you’re free to use.

Will I lose my Google ranking?

We can’t promise rankings, and nobody honestly can. What helps most when a site moves:

• Keep the same domain. That’s why sorting out who owns it matters so much.
• Keep page addresses where you can. If your services page lived at /services, it can live there again.
• Redirect the ones that change. Old addresses should send people, and Google, to the matching new page instead of an error.

It’s normal for things to move about a bit for a few weeks after any change. Your Google Business Profile is separate from your website, so your reviews there stay where they are.

What about my email?

If your email addresses use your domain, find out who provides the mailboxes and whether they’re tied to the same contract. Before we change anything on your domain, we note the records your email depends on and keep them, so messages keep arriving. If all you need is an address like hello@yourbusiness.co.uk landing in the inbox you already use, email forwarding is included in the £47 a month.

What does it cost?

£47 a month with no setup fee and no contract. That covers the design, the writing, UK hosting, your domain, email forwarding and 10 changes a month, sent by email. Say you run a hairdresser’s in Bridgnorth and want the prices updated. You email us the new list and we change it. If you leave us later, we transfer your domain to you free.