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JournalCommissioning a website

How long does it take to build a custom website?

A medium-sized custom website takes about eight weeks if the content is ready. What stretches it, what shortens it and how the time splits, phase by phase.

The words “Pre-production”, “Shoot”, “Post-production” and “Release”, one below the other

A medium-sized custom website takes me about eight weeks from the kick-off meeting to launch, if the content is ready. What stretches it isn’t the design or the code: it’s waiting for copy and photos, adding languages or features like bookings or a shop, and reviews running late. With several of those, eight weeks easily becomes twelve or more.

How long will your website take?

In total8 weeks

Starting next Monday, launch around

  1. Pre-productionKick-off, strategy and structure
  2. ShootDesign and development, with your real content
  3. Post-productionContent, motion and testing
  4. ReleaseSEO, analytics and training

A rough guide: every project has its own schedule, which I set in writing in the proposal.

Switch on what sounds like your project and watch the schedule change.

The phases, as on a film shoot

I work on websites like a film, in four phases. In each there’s a moment where you take part.

  • Pre-production. Strategy, structure and art direction. You see the script and the look of your site before any code. Your part: the kick-off meeting.
  • Shoot. Design and development, built around your real content, not placeholders. Your part: reviewing the design.
  • Post-production. Motion, content and polish, checked on real phones and screens. Your part: the final review.
  • Release. SEO, analytics and a handover session. From launch day, your team runs it. Your part: the training.

What stretches a website

  • Content. By far the biggest delay. A site can be designed with placeholder copy, but it can’t launch without the final words.
  • Languages. Each one adds translation, review and its own search work.
  • A shoot. Your own photos and video need planning, shoot days and editing; it usually runs alongside the design.
  • Bookings, a shop or private areas. Integrating a booking engine or a shop adds development and testing.
  • Reviews. If each round takes a week instead of two days, the schedule stretches even though nobody works more.
  • Many people signing off. Every extra approval is an extra wait.

How to shorten it

Come with a clear brief, start preparing content from day one (the list is in What to put on your website), name one person who decides and block time in your diary for reviews.

If a date sets the pace

If the site has to be ready for a season, a trade fair or a festival, say so from the start. It can be planned backwards: launch the essentials first and add the rest afterwards.

In short

About eight weeks for a medium-sized custom website with the content ready; more with languages, a shoot, bookings or slow reviews. I set the schedule in writing in the proposal, phase by phase, so you always know where we are.

If you have a date in mind, tell me about the project and we’ll see if we can make it.

Keep reading

  1. 2 min readQuestions to ask before hiring a web designerTen questions for choosing who builds your website, with the answer you should hear and the warning signs. The same ones I’d like people to ask me.
  2. 3 min readWhat to put on your website: the content, page by pageWhat copy, photos and facts each page of a business website needs (home, about, services and contact) and a checklist to prepare yours.
  3. 3 min readWebsite brief template: the questions I ask every clientThe questions I ask before designing a website, and a template that fills itself in so you can tell me about your project in five minutes.