If you’ve recently been thinking about building an online presence for your business and brand, you may be wondering how long it takes to build a website and place it online. In truth, this process can take some time if you want to get it right. By rushing this process, your website could be riddled with mistakes in the weeks and months after it has been taken online, which would leave site visitors with a poor first impression.
The project timeline for building a website is divided into three separate stages, which include the discovery phase, the design phase, and the development phase. During the discovery phase of the project, you will be tasked with identifying business goals, assessing the competition, and looking at customer demographics. The information you obtain in this phase of the process should influence future design decisions. As for the design phase, it involves creating design mockups for the website, which will include everything from logos and colors to layout grids.
The third and final stage of the process is the development stage, which focuses on converting a design into a fully realized website that’s functional for end users. With the right tools, development of the website can be performed in an efficient manner. Likely the longest part of this process is the design phase, which can take anywhere from 6-8 weeks to complete. Since every element of the website needs to be designed to match your business and brand, it can take some time to identify the most effective design.
When you’re trying to plan your website, you should first conduct some research into your business or brand. The design decisions that you make should be based on what your target audience wants and what your business goals are. With this information in hand, your design decisions should be more informed. This article offers a close look at the amount of time it typically takes to create and launch a website.
Key Takeaways:
- Designing a website will take some time if you want to get it right the first time.
- The timeline for building a website is divided into three stages which are: the discovery phase, the design phase, and the development phase.
- Plan out your design beforehand through a competitor audit to decide what will be important to your brand and what catches your audiences attention.
The Four Steps In Building Your Website
To determine how long it will take to build your website, it’s first important that you map out this process by looking at the four steps that are involved with creating and launching a website. Keep in mind that each website is different. While websites tend to take around 10-12 weeks to build, there’s no reason your website won’t take five weeks to create. It’s also possible that the process could take upwards of 4-5 months. The duration depends largely on the needs of your business and the reputation of the team you hire to help build your website.
While the process can vary from business to business, you should expect it to involve some basic steps like:
- You tell the developer what your exact needs are
- The developer draws up a plan of action that will need to be approved by you
- You look at various mockups of the site design and make alterations accordingly
- The design and development process begins in full with some input by you
- Revisions and polishing are made to the final design
Before you begin this process, it’s essential that you understand what you want out of a website. For one, it’s important that the website design matches your brand image, which will help you bring in customers and bolster your brand image. The website itself should also be responsive, which allows the site to be easily accessed on all devices. With the right strategy, you should be able to build a website that strengthens your online presence.
1. Creating a Plan
The first step of the website building process involves the creation of a plan that will guide you throughout the remainder of development. While this stage of building a website is important, it should only take around 1-2 weeks to complete it. First, make sure that you identify what you want the site to look like and what the design elements will be. When you hire a team to help build your website, you’ll need to be able to tell them exactly what you want from the website that they’re designing. Without exact specifications, numerous revisions will likely need to be made to land on the right design.
During this process, the developer you work with will be able to tell you if an idea you have or a feature you want to include won’t be able to be implemented into the final design. There are many things that should be looked into during this stage of the process. Make sure that you look at your own brand as well as your target audience, which should help you determine which features should be included in your website. It’s also highly recommended that you perform a competitor analysis to gain a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t work with their websites. If performed correctly, this stage of the process should perfectly prepare you for the actual building of the website.
2. The Beginning to Building A Website
Now it’s time to start building the website, which is a stage of the process that should take anywhere from 1-3 weeks depending on the complexity of the site. After you have created a plan of action, the web designers you have partnered with can use the plan of action to create some mockups of the site design. Mockups are a kind of sketch that allows you to view what the final website design should look like before the design has actually been implemented. You will need to approve a mockup before the rest of the process can go forward.
If you want to make any changes to the design, now is the time to do so. Since the website isn’t being fully developed at this point, revisions to the mockups shouldn’t take up too much time. Make sure that the mockups you receive include the design elements for your website, which extend to the layout and how the website will appear when accessed via mobile devices. At this stage, development has yet to occur, which is why you should take the time to ask any question that comes to mind.
3. The Development Phase
The third and most important stage of the process is the development phase, which can take anywhere from 1-2 months to complete. At this point, the final designs will be taken by your team and turned into an actual website that’s functional and can be navigated without issue. During the development phase, your team will work to make sure that the website looks just like the design.
Because of the technical nature of this stage of the website-building process, it’s common for setbacks to occur and issues to arise that need to be fixed. Most developers will contact you at regular intervals throughout the development phase to make sure that you’re aware of how much progress has been made. If they don’t, it’s recommended that you contact them and stay in touch, which will allow you to be updated in the event that a delay occurs.
4. The Final Review
The fourth stage of the site-building process is the final review of the website, which takes around 1-2 weeks to complete. Before you launch the website, it’s important that the site is reviewed and revised as needed. Every design element and function of the website must be tested to ensure that the site works correctly. It’s also important that the final website matches the design that you went with.
At this phase, only minor fixes should be made. Make sure that you ask the developer if they went over full website functionality. They will likely be able to catch problems that you’re unable to detect. If the website is placed online before a review occurs, users could be provided with a poor experience, which would significantly worsen your brand reputation. While reviewing the website is among the quickest aspects of the process, it’s also among the most important.
Concluding Thoughts on Building a Website
In order for building a website to be successful for your business, it’s important that you adhere to a relatively streamlined process. First, you should create a plan that identifies everything you want to include in your website. During this stage, you will also be able to perform research on your competition as well as your target audience, which should make it easier for you to develop a website that’s effective at engaging your audience. When you begin to build your website, you can finally settle on a design that matches your brand and provides your audience with the kind of content they want.
The development phase of the process is lengthy but highly important. It’s during this aspect of the process that the design will be turned into a website that’s wholly functional. If the development phase is completed properly, you will then be able to review the website to make sure that it matches your original plan of action.
When you’re getting ready to build a website, make sure that you’re confident about every decision you make. This website will represent your brand and business, which is why you want to make a good first impression once the website has been launched. If the design and development team that you partnered with provides you with exemplary work, make sure that you use them again for future updates and additions to your website.
