Building your business website in Cameroon: what to check

The domain name must be in your name

The domain name is your address on the Internet: your-company.cm or your-company.com. It should be registered in your company's name, with an e-mail address you control.

If the domain is in the provider's name, you depend on them forever: changing agency means risking your address, your e-mails and your visibility on Google. Ask for it in writing in the quote, and keep your access.

The code and content should belong to you

Your website is code, text, photos and sometimes a database. Ask clearly what is yours at the end of the project and how to get it all back if you change provider.

Also check who holds the accounts: hosting, Google profile, analytics tools. Ideally everything is in the company's name, with access shared with the provider, not the other way round.

A fast website, even on 3G

Many people in Cameroon browse on their phone, often with a slow connection or a limited data plan. A site that takes long to load loses visitors before they even read your offer.

Ask simple questions: how heavy is the home page? Are images compressed and loaded only when you scroll? Has the site been tested on an entry-level phone, over 3G?

Built for phones first

Google uses the mobile version of a site to index and rank it: it calls this mobile-first indexing. If your site looks wrong on a phone, your search ranking suffers too.

A good mobile site has text you can read without zooming, buttons that are easy to tap, a phone number you can call in one tap and a WhatsApp link. The contact form should be short and reach the right person.

Mobile Money: collecting or tracking payments

In Cameroon, many payments go through Mobile Money. Depending on your business, there are two approaches: collect payment directly on the site through the operators' services, or let the customer pay and then report the payment reference, which your team confirms.

The second is what we use on our own platform: the client reports a payment with its reference, the team confirms it and a receipt you can verify with a QR code is issued. The right choice depends on your volume, your customers and your constraints: raise it at the start of the project.

Maintenance, planned from the start

A website is never finished: security updates, backups, new products, new photos. Ask who takes care of it after launch, how you request a change and what is included.

If you want to edit some content yourself (news, products, opening hours), say so from the start: it changes the way the site is built.

Your Google Business Profile, not to be forgotten

When someone searches « your trade + Douala », Google often shows business profiles with a map, opening hours and reviews. The profile is free. You can create it, or claim it if it already exists, then have it verified: customers only see it once verification is done.

Your website and your profile strengthen each other: the same name, address, phone and opening hours everywhere, and a link from the profile to the site.

The steps of a project with our web agency

We built our client-tracking platform ourselves and run it every day. Here is how we work with you:

• A conversation about your needs: your business, your customers, what the site or app must do.
• A proposed approach and a detailed quote, stating what belongs to you (domain, code, accounts) and the follow-up after launch.
• Building, step by step, with your approval at each stage.
• Launch, with your Google profile and your access.
• Follow-up: fixes, updates and new features, as set out in the quote.