Building a new website can seem like an intimidating task, but it doesn't have to be. You don't need to be tech-savvy or have any coding experience; all you need is the right team and the proper guidance. But you may be wondering—just how long does it take to develop a website?
We're here to break down the timeline for you.
- How long does a new website take?
- Key components of building a website
- The type of website you're building
- Your experience level
- Content creation
- Testing & revising your website
- So how many hours does it take to build a website?
- How to plan a successful website project
How long does a new website take?
Fundamentally, the answer depends on your specific requirements and objectives. For example, if you just want a basic website with limited features, then it could take as little as a few weeks to get up and running. On the other hand, if your site requires custom design elements or complex functionality, then the timeline may be significantly longer.
No matter what type of website you're building, there are some standard tasks that need to be completed before launch day. These include choosing a domain name, setting up hosting services, creating content, designing page layouts, and optimising for search engines (SEO). All of these tasks require time and effort in order to ensure that your site looks professional and functions properly.
For websites with more advanced features such as eCommerce capabilities, custom API integrations or customised user experiences, additional steps may be required such as testing for compatibility across different browsers and devices.
Additionally, ongoing maintenance needs to be scheduled in order to ensure that your site continues performing at its best over time. Depending on how often updates are needed and how quickly they’re completed, this can add up significantly over months or years of use.
Key components of building a website
Let’s take a look at some of the key components that go into building a website and how long they can take...
The type of website you're building
The type of website you want to build will affect the amount of time it takes to design and develop it. If you're building a simple business website with a handful of pages, then the process may only take one or two weeks, depending on your experience level. On the other hand, if you're creating a complex eCommerce site, complete with payment processing and other features, then expect the process to take at least two to three months or longer.
Your experience level
Your experience level with web design and development will also play a role in how quickly you can get your website up and running. An experienced web designer or developer may be able to put together a basic website in just a few days; however, if this is your first time designing a website, then expect the process to take much longer than that.
You may want to consider hiring professional help, like from a web development agency, if this is the case. This factor also plays an element with professional web developers, as more experienced agencies can output work faster and more efficiently.
Content creation
Another major factor when it comes to how long it takes to build a website is content creation. Creating high-quality content for each page on your site can be incredibly time-consuming—especially if you have no prior writing experience.
If you plan on writing all of your own content for your website (as opposed to outsourcing it), then that process alone could take weeks or even months before everything is complete and ready for launch.
Clearly, if you’re rebuilding an existing website, this part of the process can be faster as you’ll already have a lot of content ready to go. However, it’s recommended that you carry out things like content audits and conversion rate optimisation analysis to make improvements so that your new website delivers an enhanced experience.
Testing & revising your website
Once the website has been coded, it is important that it’s tested across multiple browsers and devices to ensure that everything works properly before launching it live on the web. This step generally takes anywhere from 3-5 hours depending on how many different browsers/devices need to be tested on (such as Internet Explorer 8 vs Chrome vs Safari etc.).
As part of our pre-go-live web development packages, we carry out extensive test scenarios to check for things like broken links, missing content, spelling errors, bugs and more, which provides comprehensive coverage to make sure the site is fully checked over. After testing is complete any bugs found during testing should be fixed before going live with the site.
So how many hours does it take to build a website?
The answer is potentially unhelpful – but it really depends on the type of website you’re having made!
Building a successful website requires careful planning and execution which can range from 20-200+ hours depending on various factors such as design complexity, coding requirements etc. A custom-built website with all bells & whistles could easily take 200+ hours whereas setting up something simple like an eCommerce store using an existing platform such as Shopify could only take 20-30 hours at most.
For larger enterprises, the entire design, build and development process can take months – at least, it should, because this ensures the end result is up to match the business needs and goals.
How to plan a successful website build
Building a website is no small feat—but it can also be made much easier with the help of experienced professionals who understand exactly what needs to go into each step of the process.
By taking into account all of the elements necessary for success—such as budgeting for development costs and scheduling maintenance—you can ensure that your website will be ready when you need it most and remain reliable long into the future. With just a bit of preparation beforehand, crafting an effective web presence is within reach!
Rush planning your website and you risk an end result that underperforms and causes more headaches.
To help make sure you don't miss any key elements of the planning process, download our free website brief template, covering things like key requirements, timescales, budgets, user journey goals and an agency selection matrix to help you narrow down your options.
