How long does it take to build a website for a small business?

How long does it take to build a website on each route?

Rough timings, assuming a typical small business site of five to ten pages:

• Website builder, on your own: a weekend for a basic site if you have your words and photos ready, often several weeks of evenings in practice
• Freelancer: it depends on their schedule and how fast you send content, so ask for a written timeline before you start
• Agency: it depends on the scope and how many people review each stage; again, ask for the timeline in writing
• A monthly plan like ours: a first draft 1 to 2 weeks after onboarding, then changes and launch as soon as you approve

Where the time actually goes

Designers rarely spend most of a project's calendar designing. The time goes into waiting: for the business to write its service descriptions, find photos, decide on prices to show, choose between two layouts, or get a partner's sign-off. A project with every answer ready on day one can move several times faster than one that collects them as it goes.

The other big variable is scope. Each extra page, an online store, a booking system, or a connection to your other software adds time. A clear list of what the site must do at launch, and what can wait for later, is the best way to keep a project short.

What a well-run project looks like

Whoever builds your site, the stages are similar. Ours, as an example:

• Onboarding: a guided conversation with Elena, our AI assistant, that takes about fifteen to twenty minutes and captures your services, customers, brand and goals
• Design and build: a first draft, usually 1 to 2 weeks after onboarding wraps
• Review: you have 14 days to walk through the first draft in your portal and send us one list with every change you want, and we revise the draft from it
• Approval and launch: nothing goes live until you approve it, and a person reviews every site before it does
• After launch: monthly care, with changes asked for in your portal

How to make your project faster

Most of these are things you can do this week, before you talk to anyone:

• Write down your main services, in the words your customers use
• List the towns or areas you serve
• Gather twenty or so of your own photos: jobs, team, van, shop
• Find your logo file, if you have one, and any colors you already use
• Collect a few reviews customers have sent you, with their permission to quote them
• Decide who approves the site, and give that person the final say

What slows a project down

The usual delays: waiting for photos that never come, a page that cannot be written until a decision is made, too many people giving feedback, and new features added halfway through. Domain access is another one. If your domain is registered in an old account nobody can log in to, sorting that out can take longer than the build itself, so check that early.

Is faster always better?

Not if speed means a site that says the wrong things. A week spent getting the services and service area right is a week well spent; a site rushed out with placeholder text costs you in calls you never get. Ask any builder how long it takes, and also what they need from you to keep to it.

Our timing is the same everywhere we state it: 1 to 2 weeks for a first draft after onboarding, depending on scope, how ready your content is and how quickly you approve. If you have a busy season coming, say so up front, and the pages you need first can come first.

Want to know what needs fixing on your current site before you start? Our free audit scores your current site's speed, how it works on a phone and its search basics in about 30 seconds, and it costs nothing. Enter your website and email: your results show on the screen and we email you the full report.