A few years back I changed over from Yola to MrSite. At the time I found Yola very clunky, and quite difficult to get the layout just right, and with Mrsite it was much much easier.
2 years on and I am now on the move again.
This time for some more fundamental reasons.
The problems I have found so far have included:
the fact that Mrsite is not optimized for mobile devices. When I brought this up, I was palmed off with a very weak answer on the lines of 'it isn't really important'.
Customer Service. MrSite has a feature where you can have an online chat with a Guru. However, the 'gurus' are not native English speakers (going by their names and their command of the English language) and are not gurus but first defence operatives. I have been very happy with some small problems, where I was just not very adept and they were able to help me quickly. Lately though I have just ended up almost screaming at the screen in frustration. I imagine they are overworked and are answering three or four callers at the same time by the delay in response time. It has taken up to 30 minutes to get four answers back on online chat, which is incredibly annoying, and when they continually misunderstand what you mean, and don't have the answers either, it can push you to breaking point. One tip if you are a user, is to get them to repeat back what they understand to be your problem. It is very revealing and the quickest way of cutting out the 'that wasn't my question' comment.
If you want to set up conversions it is very difficult, nigh on impossible for sales tracking.
Google analytics has been the sore point with me. I have a pile of dead end links that have taken 6 weeks of back and forth emails, screen shots, denials and blaming google and being redirected back and still not understanding the fundamental problem - that there are dead links that about 40% of my visitors go to. No-one can find what they are and no-one can get rid of them.
I have lately had four in a row customers contact me saying they thought they had bought something but the order hadn't gone through when I went and checked.
The blog that is available is very clunky and unwieldy, and that has driven further frustration my way.
The sales page isn't secure (not an https page) so I don't feel that fills people with confidence.
The shop feature is ok, but is just a long list rather than the ability to have a gallery.
There is no feature for a site map being available on screen (as far as I can see).
A big issue for me, is that there is the ability for meta tagging and key words, however they are the ones they suggest from a selection they find, not ones you choose, so /approx / 16 inch / link etc are words that get given, where my site is very text heavy with the words pea pod / peapod / peas in a pod but I am not able to use it.
So, anyway, I am on the move again, which is very frustrating, as superficially and visually I am quite happy with the site. But behind the scene it's a bit of a mess. I have signed up to Jimdo and taken the business account which works out at £15 a month - £180 pa (probably double what I was paying with Mr Site.) The customer service is German, I'm happy with that. So far so good, it seems very easy to play with. The templates aren't the biggest selection I have ever seen, but adequate. But what I do like is that all on the same page you can add an item, make a catalogue, change the layout and hide unhide pages in the menu. You can make a selection of pictures into a slide show or gallery, and have a choice of three sizes for your product items. I love the fact that when you view an item you can super magnify to get a really good close up of the item section by section - for what I do that is such a bonus.
So, I have many many nights and weekends of work ahead of me to get everything moved over, but I am happy with that.
Watch this space - will keep this updated if anyone is interested in the merits. If you have any questions about any of the above mentioned sites - do ask.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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