How long does it take to build a website? Weeks or months?
“How long is a piece of string?”
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Are you building your website yourself?
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How many pages are involved in your plans?
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Have you content to load from an old site?
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How prepared are you?
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Have you got all the images ready?
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Have you got the content you need?
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Is your branding sorted?
You’ll see a huge trend for “Website in a day” services
This service is absolutely great if that is what you need and it can certainly be achieved by an experienced professional who has liaised heavily with you in advance to ensure that all elements are ready and prepared ahead of build day. What I should point out is that any website supplied under this form of arrangement will likely be template based (customised to your branding of course) but not a bespoke design, that simply isn’t possible within those time constraints. It may require some compromise but this would be offset by a very quick turnaround of a live site.
Don’t kid yourself that this is everything in a day, you do need to factor in plenty of time ahead of the “day” to get everything in order.
If you are trying to build a website in a day as a newbie, I don’t believe this is possible (unless it’s a very small one-pager) unless you are a well-researched tech wizz with design experience and a comprehensive plan, and a lot of prep done.
So what is a realistic timescale for building a website?
From personal experience and the feedback I’ve garnered, 4 months to a year or more for self-builders, though all too often many sites are shelved long before completion and work handed over to a professional or techy contact.
For a professional site (up to about 9 pages) 4 to 6 weeks but again this is very dependent on timely delivery by yourself of all the elements that the designer needs. Delay in supplying the materials requested will inevitably lead to your job being sidelined for a job where the client has everything ready and waiting to go so the designer isn’t sitting idle.
Whichever route you choose to go I’d say these 3 things…
1 Don’t get too hung up on the tech to start with, the biggest priority should be understanding your business strategy for the next few years and how your website factors in that and supports it.
2 Don’t underestimate the length of time you need to plan, whether you are self-building or commissioning a website designer you need one.
3. Work out which route is the most productive use of your time. People often wrongly perceive that the DIY route is free. Not only is this untrue in terms of hosting, software, etc (there are generally hidden costs you’d not thought of) but your time also comes at a cost. What else could you be doing with that time and what income would it be generating? If you are going to plough several hours a month for 8 months into a website that ultimately isn’t properly designed or structured (don’t get me wrong, it might be a technical, marketing, design masterclass and if so brilliant) is it going to earn you back the cost of your time invested in its construction, or the costs to bring someone in to help with rejigging it?
I’ve experienced both routes and have experienced good and bad with each. It’s very much a personal and business decision. I’m not here to push in one direction or the other but I am here to support you in whichever route you choose.