1&1 MyWebsite drive me mad …

To me their TV ads sound just like the ‘Make millions online while you sleep’ promises pedalled ‘for only $29.97 ‘ by internet scamsters.

I’ve seen these ads on TV here in the UK for around a year now.

And this means either 1&1 MyWebsite’s marketing department are hapless fools who like to burn money.  Or – much more worryingly – the ads actually work.

Let me show you Exhibit A:

[youtube ooOJkKeB2qI]

If you’re a hairdresser, an accountant, a photographer – well anyone really – you can easily create your own site with 1&1 MyWebsite …

Nothing wrong with that of course.  But what worries me are lines like:

Industry specific text and images included

Firstly, stock images are never much cop on sites.

And Google is well known for its dislike of duplicate content.

But if you’re 1&1 MyWebsite’s target customer you’ll want to easily create your own website.  So you probably won’t change the copy.

Although you can of course make ‘changes anytime’ – grrrr!

But the line that really got my goat – and prompted this post – is in this year’s ad …

[youtube mrcyiWOGWbc]

Can you guess the line?

Well it was:

With search engine optimisation tools everyone will find you.

If that isn’t suggesting build it and they will come I don’t know what is.

And simply bunging in some page titles and metatags will not rocket you to Google’s number 1 slot anyway.  Plus how many people using 1&1 MyWebsite will know about keywords, ranking, etc anyway?

Oh and besides I think SEO is a waste of your time anyway.

Now my berating 1&1 MyWebsite is all well and good.  But I should tell you what I’d do instead too.

So here’s my advice …

If you’re going to do it yourself use WordPress.  It’s easy enough to setup and use.

For SEO tools so ‘everyone will find you’ use the excellent WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast.

And if you’re not up to doing it yourself pay someone to do it for you.

But please don’t 1&1 your WebSite.