One of the questions we get most often from our clients is how long it will take us to build their website. While we completely understand your excitement about having a new website live and generating leads, the answer is probably not one that you want to hear: it is probably going to take longer than you think.
There are three major factors that affect how quickly we are able to build your site: how busy we are, how long it takes you to give us an outline of your vision, and how long it takes you to review the preview site and ask for any changes.
Busy Designer = Longer Wait Times…and Usually Better Quality
There is a very good reason why our plates are often full of several website builds at once: we’re highly respected and great at what we do. The downside of this is that it can take a few weeks before we are able to start working on your site. That doesn’t mean you won’t hear from us in the meantime. Instead, we utilize this time to help guide you in deciding what you want your site to look like.
Designing a website isn’t a point-and-click process. We need to know a lot of important details like if you have a logo, if you want your site to match the logo, how many pages you need (and what they need to focus on), and who is providing the content for your site. (Don’t want to deal with the stress of trying to craft SEO-friendly content for your site? We have an in-house copywriter who can tackle website copy for any business.)
Busy Client = Longer Wait Times
Trust us, we get it – running your business takes up a lot of your time and attention. When it comes to building a website, however, we obviously need your input along the way.
If you’re having a busy week and aren’t able to do things like choose images, take a look at layouts, or review the preview site, that means adding another week to your build time. We’re perfectly happy with being patient – and perhaps giving you a nudge if we don’t get a response in a week or more – but it helps if you understand that it does set the process back a bit. Sometimes we can make time up by dedicating some extra time to your project, but that always depends on what else we have going on during that time as well.
Reviews Until the Final Stamp of Approval
Every time we make a change on your preview site, you’ll be asked to review it to verify that you like what you see. Some clients ask for no reviews, whereas others need two or three before they are satisfied with what they see. We love tweaking your site so that it is exactly what you envisioned, and every tweak takes us some time to get done properly. The more changes you want, the longer your build will take – but it also means you’ll also end up with a site that you’re thrilled with, so don’t forgo asking for changes just to get your site live a week sooner.
How Long Does it Take to Build a Website? Here’s a General Guide
Okay, now that we’ve told you the main factors that can affect how long it takes to build your site, we’ll give you some more specific information.
- Design discussions/idea building: 1-3 weeks
- Building site on temp host (“preview” site): 2-4 weeks
- Making design changes/modifications: 1+ (depending on client’s requests)
Overall, it takes us an average of 4 to 8 weeks to build most websites, though ones with more than 5 pages can take longer.
We hope that this blog has helped you to learn more about what can affect the timeframe for your website build, and why it does take longer than you might think. If you’re looking for a new website, we are here to help. With over 25 years of experience in managing all types of digital design. Our staff consists of highly-trained web design and digital marketing professionals who are both passionate about their jobs and excel at what they do. Contact us today to book a consultation with our team. We look forward to outlining exactly how we can help you grow your business with our digital media agency services.