How Long Does It Take To Build A Website?

If you have an idea for a new website, organization, or passion project that needs a website, you might be eager to build a website as quickly as possible. But how long, exactly, does it take to build a website? And is there anything you can do to accelerate the process?

The Website Development Process

Let’s start by looking at the process of developing a website, from start to finish. If you work with a team of professionals to design and build an original website, you'll typically follow a series of phases like the following:

·  Discovery. Initially, you'll need to spend time with your designers and developers to explain your vision for the website, describe your goals, and start identifying milestones. During this phase, you'll likely collaborate with your chosen team and develop a much better idea of how long this website is going to take.

·  Architecture. Next, you'll need to practice information architecture. In other words, you'll need to figure out how the information on your website is going to be stored and managed.

·   Wireframing. Once that's in place, you can move on to wireframing. You can think of this as a way to develop the overall “skeleton” of your website. What are the main pages and how are they going to connect to each other?

·   Design. With wireframing to guide them, professional designers can take over and start putting together designs that achieve the stated goals. This will likely start with a home page and move on to other interior pages.

·   Content. Designs usually have filler content like lorem ipsum, so content will need to be developed separately. In many cases, content and designs can unfold concurrently.

·   Development. With initial designs and content ready to go, developers can begin doing their job, coding the back end of the site. This is usually the most time-intensive phase, especially for complicated web designs.

·   QA. When the development is hypothetically complete, it's a good idea to go through a phase of quality assurance (QA) and testing to ensure your website works as intended.

·   Launch. Only once you validate the functionality and appearance of your website should you move to launch.

Each of these phases typically takes at least a week, with some of them taking several weeks or even months. With that in mind, it's easy to see why most web development projects take months to unfold.

How Long Does It Take to Build a Website on Average?

Most websites are built over the course of 1-6 months. If you're building a website yourself using a DIY website builder, you might be able to put something together in just a few days (though it may not look original or professional). If you have a very complicated design and limited access to resources, it's going to take you closer to six months.

Factors That Influence the Time to Build a Website

These are the main factors that influence the time it takes to build a website:

·  Size and scope of the project. The biggest factor is arguably the size and scope of the project in question. Simple projects, built on intuitive platforms, can often be assembled in a matter of weeks. But if you're trying to create novel functionality, with advanced mechanics and different sections for different types of users, it's going to take much longer to complete your development.

·  Teams. Much depends on the teams you select as well. If you work with a dedicated web development agency, you'll likely get access to some of the best people available for each phase of the project. However, if you try to assemble a team of individual contractors, collaboration might be more challenging and your deadlines might end up becoming more malleable.

·  Resources available. What tools and platforms are you planning to use for this project? Every website builder and development resource available comes with strengths and weaknesses, so there will always be trade-offs, no matter what you choose.

·   Budget. You can build a website on a razor-thin budget, but it might not look pretty and it might take a long time to finish. Conversely, if you have an unlimited budget, you can get an amazing-looking website finished much faster than your contemporaries could. If you’re willing to spend a bit more, most web developers can expedite your project (to a degree).

No matter what, you'll probably have to wait at least a few months before your website is taken from idea to reality – and this time is arguably necessary for a professional finished product. But there are some things you can do to hasten the timeframe, such as working with professional web developers, trimming the scope of your project, using the right resources, and increasing your available budget.