How long should you expect a website project to take?

If you’re considering starting a website project, you’re probably wondering how long it will take. Building a business website is a significant investment of time and resources, and setting realistic expectations from the start is essential. In general, a website project can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months, but it can stretch longer if there are integrations with tools your organization uses (such as a CRM) or other complexities involved. Let’s break it down and make it as relatable as possible.

Building a website is a collaborative journey. To achieve a site that meets your goals represents your business or organization positively, and serves your internal stakeholders and external audience, it’s crucial to take the necessary time at each step. This ensures that the proposed solution aligns with all your objectives.

If you were building a new home, you’d expect to talk through the process with an architect or builder – sharing your vision for the home, discussing who would be living there, and outlining your future plans. The architect would then develop a plan that meets your needs and present it to you. Together, you’d tweak that plan – move a door, add a window, make that shower a walk-in, etc. – until it felt just right.

Developing a website follows a similar process. It starts with discovery:

• What do you have now?
• In what ways is it not serving your needs?
• Who is the target audience for this website?
• What message does it need to convey to this audience?
• What are your brand standards?
• Internally, who will be interacting with and updating this website?
• What kind of functionality does it need?
• Do you need it to “talk” to other software?

We talk to your internal stakeholders and members of your target audience to discern answers to those questions and others. We share our findings with you and discuss the implications for the rest of the rebuild process.

From there, Pixo’s team puts together a blueprint for your site and an inventory of the elements needed for the new site. Then, the site’s new look and feel start to emerge as we begin creating mockups of pages and page elements. We share all this work with you as we go and adjust based on your feedback. Expect this part of the process to take 4-8 weeks after the initial discovery meeting.

Once everyone is on board with the plan, the build-out begins. This is where the framework of your website is constructed, and the elements are created for the pages. Templates for future pages are also created at this stage. If your website collects data or communicates with other software, those integrations are also developed during this phase. This work typically happens behind the scenes. You will likely have a punch list of items that are needed from you and deadlines for each of those items. To keep your website build on the proposed timeline, meeting those deadlines is essential. Client-side delays are one of the biggest reasons website launches are delayed. This part of the process can take 8-16 weeks, though this time frame could be longer for a complex build.

Our team believes in communication, so during this process, we’ll check in with you weekly to provide updates. You’ll also have opportunities to see the work-in-progress site and approve elements before the final “walkthrough.”

At this stage, the “house” looks like a house, and the finishing touches are being added to your site. Any requested changes or additions are being implemented. This is also when the Pixo team will test the integrated elements — anything that collects data or talks to another property or piece of software — so that they work as expected. Nobody wants to move into their new space and find out the AC doesn’t work. This usually requires information and validation from your staff and can take 1 to 3 weeks.

• Did you receive that email?
• Does it look right?
• Did that information end up in your CRM?
• Does that cost calculator give an accurate estimate?

Making sure your team understands how to add content in a way that preserves the integrity of your brand and the website is important. A training meeting is usually scheduled before or just after launch to teach any content editors how to best use the tools the site offers.

The site launch itself is typically accomplished in less than a day, but it requires additional information from your team and takes 24 to 48 hours to propagate throughout the Internet.

We’ve given you some average times for each step of the website-building process. What many people want to know is, what exactly is the client’s time commitment? How involved do we have to be? How much work are we going to be doing? The answer to this, like many things, is that it depends. You and members of your team will be directly involved in:

• Weekly check-in meetings
• Participating in discovery activities (such as interviews and workshops) and facilitating the involvement of others in your organization
• Providing your brand elements — logo, color, fonts, and a style guide if you have it
• Discussion of our deliverables and approvals at milestones
• Content collection/creation and, if applicable, content approval
• Validation of elements that require testing
• Providing logins/passwords or access to things like your domain, analytics account, software accounts that require integration, etc.
• Training on how to update the new website

This commitment from you and your team varies greatly, and the biggest variable is how much content needs to be overhauled and created. For a small site that’s 25 pages or under, this could take 10 hours or less. For medium sized sites (25-250 pages) and large sites (250+) a good rule of thumb is that it’s going to take a minimum of 2 hours per page: 1 hour to rewrite or write fresh content and 1 hour to create the page in the new site and add artwork, headings, links, etc. 

For a brand new website where content isn’t developed or organized or a major rebrand, in addition to the commitments outlined above, your team may also have these responsibilities:

• Gathering photos and video or outsourcing photography/videography
• Establishing goals for your integrations/apps
• Content writing

Note: If you have a large or complex website, especially one with multiple contributors, chances are very good that you will need content updates. As part of our process, we will create an inventory of your website’s pages for you to review. You will need to review these pages for accuracy and relevance, and where it’s needed, produce updated content. In our experience, this process often takes longer than people expect.

Embarking on a website project is a significant step, and at Pixo, we’re here to guide you every step of the way. In fact, we provide you with a timeline and set clear due dates for your responsibilities. We schedule weekly check-in meetings so you know exactly where we are in the process. Our collaborative approach ensures your insights and feedback shape the final product. We’re committed to building websites that grow with your organization and adapt to future needs.

We specialize in websites and software that drive business and solve problems. For many of the organizations we work with, that means extensive websites with a large amount of information. Our content strategists have extensive experience helping to make the changeover a manageable process. We also offer content creation options for businesses that don’t have the time, staff, or expertise to craft compelling, audience-centric content.

Curious about how we can transform your digital presence? Let’s create something remarkable together. Reach out to us today, and let’s bring your vision to life. Your future website isn’t just a project — it’s a partnership. Let’s make it extraordinary.