Yell.com Yell Business Yell Corporate Home About Yell Our Products Media Centre Bondholders Legal Contact Connecting businesses and consumers brilliantly About Yell Yell's overarching vision is to connect businesses and consumers brilliantly About Yell Our Products Yell offers a wide range of solutions for consumers and businesses Our Products Media Centre Access the latest news updates and press releases in our Media Centre Media Centre Yell.com Our network helps businesses to be founded and connected across Yell.com, Apple, Microsoft Bing and Alexa Yell Business The No.1 provider of managed digital marketing services for all types of local businesses in the UK Yell Careers Join Yell for career development, training, fantastic incentives and more Latest press releases from Yell's Media Centre Yell wins two awards for Customer Service 20 Oct, 2021 Yell is delighted to announce that Gemma Colby, Head of Customer Experience, won the Gold award for CX Leader of the Year at the UK Customer Experience Awards on 14 October 2021. This award recognises the fantastic leadership Gemma has provided over the last 18 months at Yell. Some of the achievements highlighted were: Establishing Net Promoter Score as a key customer satisfaction metric Developing and introducing our Customer Panel, where we engage with real customers about what matters to them Keeping the customer experience front of mind through CX Forums, People Panels, call listening and transcript reviews. Furthermore, on 19 October at the Institute of Customer Service’s UK Customer Satisfaction Awards , Yell’s Smart Performance solution won the Customer Satisfaction Innovation Award. This reflects Yell’s commitment to improve customer experience through best-in-class technology, to successfully deliver and increase business reach and engagement with consumers online. New study reveals SMEs could be losing up to 54% of online revenue by not updating their website 13 Jul, 2021 Yell has released findings showing consumers spend 54% less per month on average, on websites that have not been updated regularly, versus those that have. The report, which analysed over 1,000,000 SME (Small & Medium-sized Enterprises) websites also revealed many businesses are neglecting to update their websites, with the average site last updated 15 months ago. 51% of SMEs say that it is costly to update their website. Yell today released new research into how small businesses are managing their online presence in light of the pandemic, and how, as we come out of lockdown in the UK, getting your website right has never been more important. The research identified an effective online presence as a key driver for sales and enquiries for SMEs. 80% of businesses stated that their website and social media presence were the most important aspects for generating leads and sales, closely followed by digital marketing and branding (both 79%). 34% of businesses stated that they thought their website was unimportant before the pandemic, but now think that it is important and over one in three SMEs (35%) think that their business would not survive without a website. Consumers are increasingly seeking out businesses online too. On average, 69% of consumers are either likely or very likely to seek out a business online before making a purchase or booking in a service. This trend looks set to continue beyond the pandemic, with 36% of respondents planning to make most of their purchases online following the lifting of all restrictions. Content is king Of the 1 million websites analysed, on average, websites were last updated an estimated 15 months ago, revealing that many SMEs are neglecting to update them regularly, with trades and transport websites being the least frequently updated (both 20 months on average). Yell’s research shows that this could have a direct impact on revenue from online sales, with the study finding that consumers spend 54% less per month on average on websites that have not been updated regularly versus those that have. Moreover, when consumers were asked what element of a business’s website would most likely increase their chances of making a purchase or booking a service with that business, 42% stated that it was a website having up-to-date information. The most common reason amongst SMEs for not updating or amending their website was a lack of expertise (34% of respondents). 31% of SMEs noted lack of time as a major factor, 30% were afraid of something going wrong that could break their current site and 26% believed they simply don’t have the money to make changes to their website. Interestingly, 51% agreed that it was costly to update their website. Designed for success According to SMEs, design is the most important part of their website (48% of respondents) and this is reflected in consumer behaviour too. Half of consumers surveyed stated that they would be less likely to give a website their business if it was badly designed and 41% said they would not use that business again. However, the analysis of websites showed that 13% of websites contained text too small to be read on a mobile device. Furthermore, 34% of businesses had a website with horizontal scrolling on mobile devices, a common complaint amongst mobile users, and nearly 1 in 5 (19%) were not optimised for mobile at all. Speed is of the essence With 36% of consumers stating that they would be less likely to give a company their business if their website was slow to use and 9% saying they would even post a negative comment about their experience on social media, site speed is another incredibly important factor for SMEs. On average, the analysis found that it took 6.7 seconds for a business’s website’s page to go from a blank screen to a visually complete state. The industries with the slowest websites on average, were travel (7.7 seconds), family entertainment (7.7 seconds) and sports and leisure (7.5 seconds). The fastest loading websites identified in the research were pet companies (5.8 seconds), waste businesses (6 seconds) and workshop trades (6.1 seconds). Claire Miles, Chief Executive Officer of Yell commented: "It’s been an incredibly tough time for businesses across the country. The pandemic has forced them to adapt quickly and has led to a widespread adoption of digital services at speed. Whilst these digital services have been crucial for businesses to survive the past 16 months, our insights show that this trend towards digital is set to continue long past the pandemic. Therefore, it is crucial for SMEs to be getting their digital strategy right and an effective website will always be at the heart of that. Our research highlights just how important an effective website is in helping to drive sales and leads, which is why Yell is delighted to have enhanced its website product by teaming up with Wix, combining our digital expertise and customer service with one of the world's leading web development platforms to create websites that are easy to update, secure and professionally designed.” To access further stats from the study and get tips and advice from Yell on how to make your online presence the best it can be, please visit: https://business.yell.com/sme-insight/cant-see-the-web-for-the-trees/ - ENDS - Yell & Wix announce partnership offering Smart Website technology to SMEs 06 Jul, 2021 Yell, the UK’s No.1 provider of managed digital marketing services*, today announced a new partnership with Wix , a leading global SaaS platform to create, manage and grow an online presence. This strategic alliance brings together two market-leading digital companies to help SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) in the UK to build and grow their business online. Wix will be the technology provider for Yell’s new ‘Smart Websites - powered by Wix’ enabling Yell’s digital experts to offer their SME customers a faster customised website or online store build, with a broader range of functionality than ever before. These sites will be optimised for all devices as standard and SSL certified, providing a fast, secure, and engaging online experience for visitors. In addition, to further support SMEs as they build their business profile post lockdown, the new Smart Websites also offer extensive analytics, built-in Customer Relationship Management capabilities, automated task triggers, appointment and restaurant bookings, event management facilitation and acceptance of credit cards and other forms of payments. Yaniv Vakrat - Wix Chief Business Officer, said: "We’re thrilled to bring Wix’s platform to the tens of thousands of businesses working with Yell. This collaboration provides Yell customers with a professionally designed and secure website, optimised for all search engines and devices and most importantly, gives them the ability to build and grow their online business. Consumers are increasingly shopping and searching online, and business owners need to ensure they have a great online presence to meet this demand. Our partnership allows Yell to continue providing their customers with market leading solutions." Claire Miles, Yell CEO, said: "This partnership with Wix ensures we can offer a truly unique website proposition to UK SMEs. We know SMEs have had to be creative in keeping their businesses up and running during the pandemic and they’ve told us a key priority is being able to establish a prominent and successful online presence. We can now meet this need in better ways than ever before, with our digital experts building brilliant websites packed with enhanced functionality using the world class Wix platform, and our customer care agents providing ongoing support for customers once their website is up and running. We chose Wix as our partner as their market-leading technology and ongoing commitment to invest in their platform ensures we will always be able to offer a best-in-class solution to our customers." Yell customers can take advantage of this ground-breaking partnership by visiting https://business.yell.com/websites/ - ENDS - Follow us on Home About Yell Leadership team History Working at Yell Partnerships Media Centre Bondholders Brand Contact Legal Privacy & Cookie Policy Conditions of Use © Yell Group Limited 2021. Registered office: 3 Forbury Place, Forbury Road, Reading, RG1 3YL. Registered in England & Wales No: 08815102. VAT No: GB 765 346 017. 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