How long does it take to build a website?

The honest answer is that it depends on what the website needs to do. A single landing page for an ad campaign is a very different job from a company website with online booking, payments and a dozen service pages. This guide explains what drives the timeline so you can plan a realistic launch date.

What decides the timeline

• Number of pages. Every page needs planning, writing, design and testing. A one-page site is quicker than a ten-page site with a page for each service.
• Features. An enquiry form is simple. Online booking, payments, a members' area or a connection to your existing systems each add design, build and testing time.
• Content. Text and photos are the most common cause of delay. If the copy has to be written from scratch, or new photos need to be taken, plan for it from the start.
• Feedback rounds. Quick, consolidated feedback from one decision-maker keeps a project moving. Feedback from five people, one at a time, slows it down.
• Branding. If you already have a logo, colours and fonts, design can start immediately. If not, branding comes first.

A rough guide

As a general guide across the industry, a focused landing page often takes one to two weeks, and a typical small-business website of five to ten pages takes several weeks. Sites with bookings, payments or integrations take longer. These are typical ranges, not promises: a good web designer will give you a timeline with milestones in the proposal, based on your actual scope.

The stages of a website project

1. Discovery. Your business, your customers and what the website must achieve: calls, enquiries, bookings or sales.
2. Plan and quote. A site map, a feature list, a timeline and a fixed cost, agreed before work starts.
3. Content. Writing the pages and gathering photos, logos and any details such as prices, opening hours or team bios.
4. Design. The look and layout, usually starting with the homepage, then applied to the rest of the site.
5. Build. Turning the design into a working site that is fast and works well on phones.
6. Testing. Every page, form and button checked on phones, tablets and desktops.
7. Launch. Connecting your domain, turning on HTTPS, submitting the site to Google and checking enquiries arrive.

How to launch on time

• Start the content early. See our checklist of what to prepare.
• Name one decision-maker who collects feedback from everyone else and replies in one message.
• Launch the essentials first. A smaller site that is live and bringing in enquiries beats a bigger site that is still waiting for one last page. You can add pages after launch.
• Work back from a real date, such as a shop opening or a campaign start, and tell your web designer up front.

Website development: how we build it →