bOnline Review: Could it be Better?

The ethos of bOnline is to improve the marketing efforts of small businesses, enabling them to acquire and keep customers. They began with professional websites, growing by adding the tools for clients to customise, brand and market. The management team at bOnline has won over 25 awards in the past decade.

Websites are designed by expert designers who work with clients from the initial brief right through to final launch. They then spend time training customers to use their websites powerful editing or CMS (Content Management Systems). These editing tools allow full control. Online tutorials and email support is also available. Websites built by bOnline use the latest HTML5 and CSS3 web technologies, are automatically optimised for all devices and are hosted on Google App Engine.

bOnline Products and Services

Professional Website Design

For a non-Ecommerce website, this is the option. Spending over 300 hours on each of their design elements, and using 50 point checklists to ensure perfection, websites are of excellent professional quality.

bOnline website design begins with an initial consultation with the designer to determine the right site layout for your business. Using bOnline styling tools a unique site for your brand is created. A feedback loop is initiated where a draft site is sent for review and any changes go back to the designer.

bOnline have created over 12,000 websites.

Ecommerce Website Design

Ecommerce website solutions from bOnline cover everyone from start-ups with just a few products to established sellers. Product features include product drag and drop to shopping carts, easy checkout solutions, guest transactions, and wish list creation. Multi-channel Ecommerce is fully enabled and products can be sold across websites, social media and Google Shopping. bOnline integrate with popular, secure, payment systems. The bOnline eCommerce solution is the #1 app for Facebook. bOnline Ecommerce websites are built to be fully responsive for any device from smart watches, phones and tablets, to PC’s.

Order management is via an easy to use app. Other store features include online and offline stock management, promotions, discount coupons, shipment tracking and invoice printing.

SEO Services

Other services by bOnline include low cost local or national SEO. bOnline SEO experts will identify and monitor keywords to help you get ahead of the competition in the search engines. They will help optimise your pages, and create landing pages and conversion funnels, to maximise conversion rates. Their unique approach includes ensuring your website is found in Google Maps and mobile local search results. They will also track competitors, assist with fresh content creation and offer personalised directory submission and link generation.

Look and feel

Browsing through their examples is a testament to how versatile the designs of bOnline are, their portfolio enables businesses to gain a clear idea of their end product. Care and attention is obviously paid to the specifics of the industry and needs of the client.

Businesses can also easily browse through bOnline’s case studies. Businesses can examine not just the home page but the various internal pages of bOnline’s past clients and witness first-hand the flexibility of their designs.

In terms of their own site, bOnline is sleek, easy to navigate and clearly displays everything you need to know about their services, products and pricing.

Overall, bOnline has much to offer small-medium sized businesses – despite not being the cheapest on the market. By combining their beautiful web designs with their local SEO, numerous marketing tools and web services, businesses can benefit from increased site visibility, traffic and credibility.

If you are looking for bOnline reviews, in additional to the case studies – they are currently ranked #1 for website design on Trustpilot.

Ease of use

The bOnline designers will work closely with you from concept to final design. They will spend time training you in their powerful editing functionality giving you full control over your new website. There are also tutorials, FAQ’s and there is further support available.

Websites are design optimised and further SEO services are offered to make bringing your website or business to the first pages of Google an easier process.

For ease and service integration businesses can easily hire bOnline’s team of SEO advisors to track and report on their Google Analytics; monitor sales and site visitations, improve SEO, and manage their social media marketing.

Case studies

The London Hog Roast Company

Established in April 2015, after owners Steven and Kinga Odendaal decided to branch out of a successful previous business venture; their goal was to offer customers authentic, high quality South African style foods. With no prior experience of dealing with marketing and running a business at the same time they needed a professional site that was easy to maintain, so took advantage of bOnline’s professional setup package.

Since launching their new site, it now attracts hundreds of views per month and has helped the London Hog Roast Company develop a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

bOnline comes with many clear advantages for businesses looking to create their first website or replace an existing site and improve their visibility and marketing.

✔ Fresh, functional designs – bOnline spend hundreds of hours designing their website elements which they draw from to create each unique combination of client design.

✔ CMS Support – Training and tutorials for their CMS is an excellent feature allowing even website novices to take control of their digital platforms.

✔ SEO – The focus on local SEO is ideal for small businesses hoping to broaden audience awareness and site visitations.

✔ Customer support – even their basic plan comes with email support and online documentation to guide you through your queries. All plans contain phone support that is fast, knowledgeable, well-advised and professional. If you need support out of hours there are live chat facilities.

✔ Professional advice – SEO and design advisors are available through a number of methods.

✔ Integrated Internet Services – by far the strongest advantage for a small business with bOnline is to have all their services from one provider. bOnline provide broadband, design, domains, email and SEO and marketing.

Disadvantages

✗ Not the cheapest – the more you need, the higher their price. As always cost should be compared with quality, bOnline offer quality services and excellent support which well may outweigh additional costs. Using one supplier for all internet services may also have economies of scale for a small business.

Verdict

With over 12,000 websites under their belt, it is easy to understand why bOnline is such a popular choice for website design. From their beautiful and original designs to their dedicated support and design/SEO advisors. bOnline has everything you need to launch a successful new website.

Long term businesses can make savings, especially if they utilise the broadband, phone, design and marketing services.

Overall bOnline can offer businesses an integrated and comprehensive online marketing service that is invaluable for the novice or for those short on time to manage multiple suppliers.