Along with the time and effort you will put into your website what you pay to have it designed should also be seen as an investment. You expect to have your website return some kind of tangible outcome over time and that’s exactly what it should do.
As with any other purchase, the more features you want usually means the greater your financial input will need to be. If you’ve set out clear goals for your website your spend should be focused on achieving those goals.
For example, most developers will charge more for a custom designed website as opposed to designing from a template. If earning revenue from your website is vital to the success of your project and your budget is limited, focus your spend on getting ecommerce, search engine optimisation, and some pay-per-click advertising rather than a custom design. Over time with Blitz Web Design, you will be able to perform incremental changes to the user experience design of your website for a low monthly cost. The important advantage here is that we focus on the factors which get you a return on your investment first, while staying within your budget and still producing a visually appealing website that can evolve over time.
With quite a few players in the web development marketplace the cost each web designer in Jamaica quotes will be unique. You should choose to do business with a web developer who is willing to stay within your budget while giving you the features that will make your website return on your investment as soon as possible. Perhaps most importantly, choose a Jamaican development company or individual who has consistently shown that they have the knowledge and experience to be able to guide you toward best practices and eventual success. Look specifically for:
- A company that is willing to share knowledge and expertise without charge BEFORE you start the project.
- A consistent track record of experience not just building websites but building successful websites. You would be better off doing business with a lotto scammer than engaging a company without a portfolio of successful clients.
- Engage web programmers who are also graphic designers or have graphic designers as a part of their team. Do not simply assume that your programmer is also equipped with creative graphic skills.
- Choose a company that can show you their method of pricing and doesn’t just pick a number out of the air. Companies that don’t have a specific pricing strategy are more likely to overcharge you in the long run.
- Choose a company you can easily find on Google for a relevant search term. If a company claims they can optimize your website for search engines they should be able to do it for themselves first.
- Bigger is not always better. Website creation is a highly democratized field: a small company can produce work on par with much larger firms. In some cases the smaller firm may offer more attention to detail. We are all using the same coding languages and standards. Go with a small to medium-sized firm such as ours that can dedicate a staff member to handle your needs. Remember, larger companies will have more expenses that they must pass on to you in order to be profitable.
- Avoid companies that offer custom design for under $5,000 Jamaican dollars. They are applying the ‘wholesale’ model: get many clients and charge each a small amount. It should be clear to you that ‘wholesaling’ something that requires attention to detail and visual appeal is a bad idea. Companies like these will get you a website cheap, but don’t expect them to offer any personalized service or to give you advice on how to make your website a success. If you are serious about building a successful website, go with a web development company in Jamaica who will charge a little more but has a vested interest in your project returning on your investment.
- Expect to pay more for features such as ecommerce, advanced SEO, custom web application or mobile app design. Discuss these costs in detail with your web developer before starting to design your website.
If you expect your website to be your main income earner in the foreseeable future, look for more than just a web development company.
Isn’t the Cost of Website Development going down?
In general the answer here is: yes. Basic websites are alot easier to develop with the use of content management systems and professional web templates. This means that most web developers in Jamaica and world-wide have lowered their costs for developing the average website. Blitz Web Design has also introduced its Jouvert Website Builder geared at making it even easier to develop your business’ attractive professional website at low cost.
However, this does not necessarily mean you will pay less for the particular type of website you intend to build. Feature-rich websites that involve membership sign-ups, complicated ecommerce shopping carts and checkout windows or which require a custom database to store data specifically relevant to your business will still attract higher costs from web developers due to the time involved. Even with your best planning as a lay-person, there will be variables that you would not have taken into account which your web developer must consider in order to structure his code or configure the content management system. Additionally, coding languages such as HTML have been expanded to include new features and best practises. If you want to keep your website in line with current trends you should take into account that these new features may take time to be implemented and will contribute to the cost of your job.