There Are Different Types of Websites
Before you can understand the website build process, it’s essential to know that no two websites are the same. There are vast differences in time depending on what you are after. A more complex website with integrations and custom code will take longer than a simple brochure website. As we go through the time estimates for different parts of the process, note where your website ambitions sit on this sliding scale.The Design
Before you publish a single line of website code, you’ll need to have a clear idea of how you want the end product to look. That means some upfront design work to sketch out your brand. That includes your logo, color scheme, font, layout, and user paths through your website (often called user-interface design). The most basic website design might take an experienced designer a single day. Still, in reality, most of the bottlenecks come in the review and approval process. Chances are you’ll want some tweaks after you see the first design draft. Depending on how many changes you seek, the design process can last for days or even weeks on a complex website. On average, estimate around 1-4 weeks for this part of your website build.Setup, Hosting, and Installation
The website installation is thankfully far more straightforward than it used to be when building a website. With highly competitive hosting companies jostling for your business, you’ll find that many offer quick one-click installations, particularly on big platforms like WordPress. In short, your technical hosted setup should take no more than a week. A technical expert can often set up a minimal website in a few hours.The Basic Website Construction
Website construction is where a developer will get their hands on the code for the first time. The only exception is buying an off-the-shelf content management system like WordPress or a ready-made eCommerce platform like Shopify. However, a small business website with fewer than ten pages might take around 2-3 days of development if you use a professional development team. That number increases as you add more pages, different templates, and additional complexity. As a result, large, well-known online brands can take months to develop a new website. On average, allocate at least a week for a small website; up to a month for a medium-sized website or eCommerce store.
Integrations
The most basic websites are brochure-type websites. These are content-only pages with no special features and no integration besides a form on the contact page.
However, few websites fall into this category nowadays. Instead, most business owners look to develop websites with all sorts of customer-friendly features, including chatbots, advanced search tools, social media integration, or video.
That’s to name a few. What’s vital for you to understand as a business owner is that you’ll need to allocate time for a development team to add each integration or add-on to your website.
A developer can install a simple integration in a matter of hours. However, a more complex integration such as an advanced booking system could take weeks.
Custom Features
On top of integrations, you might need the development team to write new code to add a feature that you can’t buy out of the box.
Examples of this are a custom product filter, a unique design style that breaks away from standard templates, or a social feature to allow customers to interact with one another.
Ambitious website ideas are a great way to set you apart from the competition, but these will take time to build. They’ll also need considerable testing because you’ll be using unique code.
The more complex the feature, the longer it will take to build with integrations. Allow for days on small additions and potentially 2-4 weeks on more extensive custom developments.
Content and Migration
Are you moving from an old website to a more modern design? If so, you’ll need to allocate time to migrate your content from one platform to another.
That isn’t always straightforward, depending on whether you are keeping the website’s underlying structure the same or not. You might need to complete some manual work to map the old content to its new location.
For a small 10 page website, that might take a few hours. However, for a large website with hundreds of pages or products to migrate, you’ll probably want to hire a team to get this done. Otherwise, it could take several weeks.
Testing
For a robust, professional website, you must carry out thorough testing before you launch it to the world.
Don’t forget that even the most meticulously developed website will have a few issues after the first round of testing. So you’ll need to allow time to get those issues fixed by the development team.
Then you’ll have to repeat the testing end-to-end to make sure everything is working as it should.
In total, you should spend about 30% of the total time it takes to develop a website on testing.
Use this percentage to determine how much you will need on your project once you have a rough idea of how long the design and development phases will last.
Other Estimated Timescales to Know
Before putting your website project plan together, watch for a few potential hazards. Here are some of the planning problems you might encounter:
If your team is working on multiple projects, don’t assume they can immediately switch to website work. Instead, you might need to put your development on hold while waiting for the proper support.
You should expect to need to alter some of your design ideas or features as you go to help meet your timescales. However, you can add most features later, which might be a sensible way of hitting your launch target.
If you are working with our team, don’t be afraid to ask for our advice regarding timescales.
Our experience in developing similar websites means we’ll know the typical process, the likely pitfalls, and the tips to help you get it launched faster.
How Long Does It Take to Build a Website? A Summary
So taking all these points together, how long does it take to build a website? Considering all these factors, the absolute minimum for a small and simple website is around two weeks.
But realistically, most website timescales are around 2-10 weeks end-to-end, and more depending on the complexity.
The fastest way to get a definitive answer is to talk to our team. Tell us about your website vision, and we can use that to help put together an accurate cost and time estimate for your project. Contact us here to do that.
