Some types of websites require a lot more pre-planning than others. Think carefully and plan meticulously if you decide to build any of the following types of websites:

• A classified ads type website that lists everything for sale.
• Websites that sell clothing, shoes, jewellery of no particular genre and which don’t have the real world advantage of a brick and mortar outlet to consolidate their niche.
• Any type of new social media website or dating website. Unless you have an enormous budget it’s better to just go make a Facebook page.
• Standalone membership discussion forums. It’s an outdated concept and social media does a better job.
• Any type of website that does not account for mobile users. With 60% of internet traffic coming from mobile this is a death sentence.
• Websites with flash and limited text. Content is king these days. Your website must have content or it will be lost to search engines. Flash is also not mobile friendly.
• Any website that requires users to pay or sign-up to get information that’s free somewhere else.

Even if the above listed websites are well-built and visually appealing, factors such as a saturated market, low demand online, an outdated concept and an underestimate of time and cost commitment make these projects more likely to fail.

Perhaps the most important reason these projects tend to fail is that they are not niche enough. Your website must target a specific niche in order to be successful. The problem lies in the fact that most people underestimate how large a particular niche is and how competitive niches can become overtime. What may be a small website niche with a small market today may become a mainstream online industry in a few short years. This is particularly true with websites designed in Jamaica because many popular niches abroad are quickly gaining momentum locally.

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.

Custom Website Design relies on talented graphic designers producing a unique layout for your website’s homepage and inner pages. Equally talented programmers then translate that design into a functional website.

In deciding when to request a custom designed website, you should have already established your goals and objectives for building the website in the first place. From there, consider a few key questions:

• How does a custom design fit into my objective for a successful outcome for this website?
• Will the website having a unique look contribute to my overall objective?
• If my objective is increased sales, am I really sure that people won’t buy products from the website if it doesn’t look exactly the way I picture it?
• Do I have consistent brand messaging in the custom designed website that I have in mind?
• What do my potential customers want to see and is it in line with what I think would be good to have on the site?

Only you can answer these questions. Considering them carefully can save you time, money and keep you focused on the success of your website.

When We Recommend Using Custom Web Design.

As previously discussed, we measure the success of our clients’ websites by how well they’ve achieved their initial objectives. Not all clients want websites to improve their customer base, bring them more income or serve as a sales tool. We’ve actually had clients say to us “we don’t expect or want to get new customers through our website. We just want a web presence.”

In cases like these the success of a website is heavily dependent only on how it looks. This is particularly true in cases where the website will form one part of an overarching marketing strategy or promotion where consistent branding is essential. In these cases, unique visual aesthetics may outweigh the need for, or be the perfect addition to, technical features and tangible sales. The website simply needs to make an impression. You should definitely go with a custom designed website if this describes you or your company’s objectives. Consider custom design if you are:

• A marketing agency seeking to establish your brand
• A small, medium or large Jamaican company executing a rebranding strategy and trying to establish its brand quickly
• Any company or individual trying to break into a new niche or new market in which you were not previously involved
• A Jamaican government agency whose website must conform to CITO standards or other regulations
• Any company or individual whose objective involves making a visual impact with their website

Whether you choose to build your website with a template or with custom website design your website must account for mobile devices.

Jamaican Internet users follow the global trend of increasing mobile device usage. If your website does not account for mobile device uses you will miss many potential business opportunities.

Good mobile responsive design should:

• Detect the type of device (device-sniffing) and browser or user-agent (browser-sniffing) a visitor is using and present a different version of your website to them.
• Detect the window screen size even for desktop users and adjust the website accordingly.
• Present a simple navigation menu for mobile users (e.g. hamburger menu) which is more suitable for smaller screens.
• Hold the short attention span of mobile users by presenting the most important information first.
• Large responsive call to action buttons and text to create a fluid, flexible and elastic content experience.

The panning, scrolling and resizing that your website does in response to mobile browsers significantly improves the experience, encourages them to interact with your site and even complete a sale.

Additionally, large search engines such as Google are now using your website’s mobile compatibility as a way to rank you in their search results. If your website scores poorly for mobile compatibility your search engine rank will suffer.

Mobile responsive web design is no joke and it’s not something you should ignore. If you have an existing website and it does not use mobile responsive principles you should seriously consider having it redesigned.

Essentials to selling with a website online.

Building an ecommerce website in Jamaica can come with it’s own unique challenges but can also have it’s own unique rewards. Consider that:

• Internet usage in Jamaica is growing rapidly each year. Getting a website as soon as possible is a wise decision so your business can ride the wave of this trend
• Credit Card and Credit/Debit Card usage in Jamaica is becoming more widespread
• Many popular niches abroad are just taking hold locally. This opens up many avenues for entrepreneurs to see success in a wide variety of niches.

It’s always best to focus on a niche with any website project. Narrowing your focus to a particular market segment will make your website more appealing to your target customer and will better encourage sales.

Here are essential factors and considerations that should be in place before you begin your ecommerce website design:

• Develop a content strategy early on. Content is what will bring customers to your website more so than what you are selling. Almost everyone does research before they buy from a website. You need to become a reliable information resource on the products you sell to encourage more sales. e.g. Commit to maintaining a blog on your ecommerce website and update it weekly.
• Make a list of all the advantages your ecommerce website business will have. These may include: lowest price, better product variety, established relationship with suppliers, in demand niche with few large competitors, you may have an exclusive distributorship, you may know the niche well and have an established track record or celebrity status etc. Also consider if you have any real-world advantages within your niche that your competitors may not e.g a physical location, ability to ship cheaper etc.
• Determine who your primary customer is likely to be. What other websites are they likely to visit, what keywords are they likely to use to find you on search engines
• Consider how you can make it easier, cheaper or a more rewarding experience for someone to purchase from your website rather than purchasing in a physical store? List all the ways.
• How will your website integrate with existing sales channels like amazon or ebay? Are these channels relevant for your type of product or service?
• Establish collaborations and partnerships with complementary service providers who are already having success online. E.g: Plan on selling cell phone accessories? Partner with another online business selling actual cell phones, offer them discounts and free advertising. Also get backlinks to share traffic.
• Decide from the start on a payment processor or payment gateway solution. This means deciding on the company or service that will handle credit card transactions on your website. e.g. Paypal.com is a free service that most of our clients use to handle payments.
• DO NOT budget all your money on the design of the website. Many well-designed websites fail because there is no budget allocated to marketing and on-going maintenance. e.g set aside at least 20% of your overall budget for a pay-per-click advertising campaign after your website is launched.

You may have other factors to consider for your particular product or service as the above list is by no means exhaustive. However, we find that when the above-listed factors are in place our clients are more likely to have a successful outcome with their ecommerce website.

How to Design an Ecommerce Website for Maximum Sales

If you’ve done your initial checks, determined your advantages within your niche and are ready to start building your website, then now it’s time to decide what’s most important in the actual design of your website.

At this stage of the process your thoughts should be those of your customers. What is the first thing your customers want to see in order to make a purchase? What will make your website more inviting and easier to use? Here are some absolute essentials for the design of an ecommerce website:

• Content Content Content. Your site needs to be focused on content. You don’t have to choose: you can have well-designed websites that are content rich. Content is even more important for ecommerce websites because customers will tend to do research before they buy.
• Focus on landing pages, MORE THAN the homepage: succesful ecommerce websites with multiple product pages that get high traffic tend to get only a small percent of that traffic going to their homepage. The majority of their traffic goes directly to inner pages that are optimized for what the user is looking for. These inner pages are called landing pages. Your landing pages should be bright and information-rich with large fonts and call to action buttons directing people to make a purchase.
• Consider Long Form Sales Pages: Long form sales pages encourage a user to make a purchase by providing extensive information and periodically encouraging the visitor to sign up or complete the purchase. Here’s an example
• Be Transparent: Let your customers know who you are. Have an ‘About Us’ or “Our Story’ page that tells your customers why you started the website. People feel more comfortable purchasing when they can make a personal connection with you or your brand.
• Focus on Security: Besides making a connection, your customers also need to feel secure. Have an SSL certificate (the small browser lock) on any page that collects personal information from your website visitors. You should also be clear about your terms of service and any refund policies.
• Make Checkout Simple: the easier it is to complete a purchase on your website the more sales you will get. Have no more than 3 windows/panes in your checkout process before the customer’s credit card is processed.
• Integrate Social: Allow users to share their purchases with friends. Every product should also be shareable with friends on facebook and other social media platforms. You should also have active social media accounts to aid in your marketing.
• Make it Mobile Friendly: You could lose as much as 60% of your potential customers if your website does not account for mobile users.
• Use SEO best practises: Every page of your ecommerce website should be optimized for search engines
• Collect Customer Information: Integrated into your website should be a way to collect customer data and send messages to them overtime. It’s easier to convince someone who has made a purchase from you before to do it again.
• Listen and Adjust: Get feedback from your customers and change aspects of your website overtime in response to their suggestions.

Your ecommerce strategy for your Jamaican ecommerce website must take these factors into account.

Getting sales from your website is good but if you reside in Jamaica you will need to get that money into the country somehow. There are a few restrictions that you should know about that many of our clients are unaware of:

• The two major banks NCB and ScotiaBank do offer ecommerce payment gateways directly to customer accounts BUT, the process appears to be time consuming, expensive and not geared toward small businesses. For this reason our clients tend to opt for paypal
• PayPal is a free service that can handle payments to a website via a credit card.
• 2Checkout.com is another great payment processing option for persons in Jamaica. 2Checkout is easy to setup and will send a standard wire transfer to your bank account so you can access your funds in Jamaica

There are other online payment processors that you can use. Each has their relative benefits and drawbacks within the Jamaican context.