How long does a business website take to build: the real phases

"How long will it take to build my company's website?" is one of the questions I hear most often, usually right after "how much does it cost". The short answer already exists, in a table I've published elsewhere: for a business site of ten pages or more, three to six weeks, if the materials are ready. What that table doesn't say is where that time actually goes, and above all how much of it depends on whoever builds the site and how much depends on you. That's the part worth knowing before you start, not halfway through the work.

The five phases, and what happens in each

A business website doesn't get built in one block: it always goes through the same phases, whether the project is small or large.

Defining what to say, and to whom. This is the first phase, and almost always the one that weighs most on the total without being visible: before anything gets built, someone has to decide what the site needs to say, which pages are actually needed, and who's meant to read them. If you already have a clear picture, this takes a few days. If it has to be worked out from scratch, the time doesn't disappear: it just moves here, to the start.

Gathering the content. Copy, photos, logos, any video. This is the phase that most often slows down everything else, because it almost never depends on whoever is building the site: it depends on whoever inside the business has to write that copy or organise that photo shoot, on top of everything else they do every day.

Building the site. The actual technical work. This is, somewhat paradoxically, the most predictable of the five phases, because it depends on whoever is doing it and how much work there is, not on outside factors nobody controls.

Reviewing and fixing. The site gets shown, corrections come in, things get adjusted. One review round with a single decision-maker takes days. Several people reviewing at different times, with different opinions, can make this phase take longer than all the others put together.

Testing and going live. Checking that everything works on phone and desktop, that the contact form actually sends emails, that the site looks right in every browser. This is the last phase, and it's also the one with a step that depends on neither party: more on that below.

The two real bottlenecks, and why they're always the same

In my experience, when a project runs past its original estimate, the reason is almost always one of two things: the materials aren't ready when they're needed, or approvals don't come back on a fixed schedule.

Neither is a technical problem, which is why no choice of tools or supplier fixes them on its own. They're an organisational problem, and they get dealt with before the project starts, not while it's already under way.

What you can do, on your side

Two concrete things, worth more than any technical choice.

A single decision-maker, not a committee. If four people with different opinions all need to sign off on the site, every review round costs days, sometimes weeks. If one person has the final word, even after hearing everyone else out, those days get cut almost immediately.

Materials ready before you start, not while it's underway. Copy, decent-resolution photos, logos, access to whatever needs connecting: if they already exist when the project kicks off, the phase that most often drags out everything else simply isn't there.

The last step: when the domain goes live

Even with everything ready in advance, the last step has a technical delay that depends on neither you nor whoever built the site: once the domain is pointed at the new site, propagation across the network usually takes 24 to 48 hours, and according to some of the most widely used registrars, up to 72 in some cases. It isn't a delay caused by either side: it's how the internet works, and it's worth knowing before fixing a launch date at the last minute, maybe tied to an event that can't be moved.

Where the count starts

The time brackets for each type of site, from a single page to an online shop, are in the table in how much does a website cost, alongside the price brackets. If you want to know how long it would take for your specific case, get in touch and tell me what the site needs to do: I'll give you a real estimate, not a generic bracket.