How Long Does It Take To Build A Website?

Building a website can be a daunting task.  When planning a site build, “How long does it take to build a website” is usually one of the questions asked, to oneself or by the customer.  How long it takes to build a site depends on many factors.  In this blog post we will talk about the different things that could affect the completion time of a website and the different options for getting your site built.

DEFINING FACTORS OF BUILDING A WEBSITE

Building a website is not as difficult as it was a few years back.  This is why many people have taken it upon themselves to build their own for personal use and even for their businesses.  And we are not talking about little rinky dink one page sites (I know you remember our gif driven Angelfire sites from back in the 90’s, oh those were the days when we would learn how to put up a jpg HTML code and thought we were design geniuses), I am talking about people building their own full blown web sites that beautifully represent themselves and their business.

Even with such services like Wix and Weebly (drag and drop web creators), it still takes time to build the website.  Here are a few things that take time in building a website:

Planning:

Planning the website’s layout and function can take up a good amount of time.  You want to ensure that your site is going to look good, run good and keep people coming back for more.

How and Where:

How will you be building your website?  There are many services that offer “Drag and Drop” like we mentioned before, Wix and Weebly.  There are also CMS platforms like WordPress that offer templates and plugins to get your site up and running.

If you really want to get your site customized then hiring a developer to build the site for you is another route.  You have options.  The question is what is your timeframe and budget?

Prioritization:

Are you building this site on your own?  If you are, is it your only priority?  How long this build takes will depend on how much time you can put into it.  If you already have a busy schedule, this build may take a little longer than you have expected.

If you are planning to hire a designer/developer to build the site for you, have you paid their deposit?  Where are you on the queue of their work schedule?  How long does it take for you to get back to them when they reach out?  Developers work quickly and are very good at multitasking their duties, if they reach out, make sure you respond as quickly as possible to prevent any delays.

Designing:

Designing all of the websites panels and banners can take time depending on how complicated the designs are.

Photo optimization:

If you are planning to add photos to your website, I cannot stress how important it is that you optimize the photos to help with the website’s performance.

You want to ensure that you are selecting and resizing photos that fit your site.  You also want to make sure to embed your company’s NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) in the Exif data (We will talk about this in another post).

Make sure you name your photos and when add ALT text to each and every photo.  Doing this now will help you save time and headaches later.

Testing:

Your site is looking how you want it to, now you have to test it.  Running your site on multiple devices and different browsers will help ensure that your site will run the same for almost everyone who visits.

Revisions:

By nature many of us are very indecisive.  Once we see our site is done, we want to start changing stuff to see how it would look a different way.  A different font here, change the color there, move this form, add this photo. This can be a long process depending on how many people are involved.

Finalization:

Finally deciding to pull the trigger on the site of your dreams may take some time.  This step goes hand in hand with the revisions.  The longer the revisions take, the longer it takes to get to the final approval.

HOW LONG WILL ALL OF THIS TAKE?

If you are planning on doing this yourself, We would advise you look up some tutorials on how to accomplish your goal of building your site.

If you are already well versed and experienced in building a site or if you plan to hire a developer then this process may not take too long.  We have seen sites built in a week and we have seen them built in 6 months.  It all depends on what you need and the flow of the project.

If you take care of most of the decisions during the planning phase, then the review and final approval will be easier.

NEED A WEBSITE?

If you would like to hire someone to build your site, then look no further. We here at  AdCaffeine Marketing will take the time to meet with you and discuss your needs and wants.  Our goal is to build you a website that will reflect you and your business in the best way possible.  On top of building you a beautiful site in a timely manner, we also offer SEO packages and optimization to help get your site seen and ranked.  Please feel free to contact us.