Wondering how long it will take to design a new website for your church, school, ministry or business?
In this Website Design Frequently Asked Questions (Web Design FAQs) video blog, I address the question How long does it take to design a website? by looking at 5 things that impact website development time.
(The article below is a summary of the video, but you’ll get more details and examples if you watch the video.)
5 Things That Impact How Long It Takes to Build a Website
1) Is it a custom or pre-existing theme?
The website theme determines the look, the layout and style of the website. Having a custom theme developed for your website, will give you exactly the look you want, but it will add significantly to the development time (and cost). Using a pre-existing theme, will save time.
Fortunately, we work with so many really good theme developers, that we can almost always find a pre-existing theme to meet our clients’ needs.
2) The number of revisions provided in the design process.
This is especially important when you’re doing something that has a custom design. So if you only have one revision, then, obviously, that will take the developer less time. There’s going to be less back and forth communication with the developer and so that will be a quicker process.
Whereas, if you have two or three revisions, then that will take a little bit longer because the developer is going through the process of making changes. And you’re going to go through the process of reviewing the design and having the developer make those changes.
So, usually two revisions is sufficient to get the design to the way that the customer wants. But each revision typically does add about a week of time to the design process.
3) Amount of content / pages
The number of pages created by the developer will impact development time. Obviously, creating a 50-page website, is going to take more time than a 5-page website.
But the biggest way we see the number of pages impacting the website development schedule is in how long it takes the client to provide the content for all those pages. If you are really busy or writing is not your strong-suit, OurChurch.Com has a content writing service that can help.
4) Developer response times
Does the website developer have some a goal or required turn-around time when it comes to responding to your e-mails or your phone calls?
We here at OurChurch.Com, we strive for a maximum of one business day turn-around time. Oftentimes, it’s much less than that. It’s within a few hours.
But it’s good to know and it’s good to find out if the developer has a certain goal time that they have to respond back.
5) Client response times
In our experience of developing hundreds of custom websites, the biggest factor that affects the launch date and the overall website development project time is how quickly you, the customer, respond back to the developer.
We understand that often the website is not the number one priority of our point-of-contact. But if you want to keep your website project on track, the most important thing you can do is respond to emails and phone calls within days instead of weeks.
I hope that this has been informative post and helps you understand how long it takes to create a website
I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things. -Lindon Leader
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Comment and discuss
- What was your biggest takeaway when it comes to how long it takes to design a website?
- What other questions do you have about website development time?
Read or watch more Web Design FAQs
Hey, Mark.
I am so happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the accidental misinformation that is at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this best doc.
Thanks.
This is one of the most common questions I hear. It’s also one of the key factors in the success of your project.
The short answer is: longer than you would expect, but don’t rush it. There are three main factors in a project’s timeline:
1. How soon can they start?
2. How long before a website is ready for review?
3. How long before you can launch?
This information applies to the creation of a custom WordPress website. If you don’t need a custom website, there are faster and more affordable options. Here’s how to setup a WordPress website yourself. With a few hours of work you could have a basic website up and running.
Being freelancer i expected this question from my client, how about pricing Mark it is also one more factor for deciding time anyways if we give quality product client will be happy if we take to much time
Hi Srinivasu, we addressed how much a website costs in this video and blog post – https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/how-much-church-website-cost/
Thank you Mark for the informative post.
The details explained through this blog help a lot in estimating time for designing a website. This is a common question frequently asked by clients and the best answer are the points highlighted by you.