The honest answer is that the build is rarely what takes the time. A five-page site can be designed and coded in eight working days. Whether it launches in three weeks or three months is decided almost entirely by how quickly copy, photos and approvals come back.
Here is the actual schedule we work to, phase by phase, and what each side is responsible for.
The week-by-week timeline
Days 1 – 4
Discovery & planning
A kickoff call, then a page-by-page sitemap, the keyword each page targets, and the single action every page should drive. Nothing gets designed until this is signed off — changing a sitemap in week four is expensive, changing it in week one is free.
Days 3 – 12 (runs in parallel)
Content & copywriting
Copy written around real search terms, plus collecting your photos, logo files, licence numbers, service areas and testimonials. This is the phase that decides your launch date. It runs alongside design, so it is only a delay if it finishes last.
Days 5 – 12
Design
Homepage first, then one interior template and one service template. Two rounds of revisions at defined checkpoints. You are approving a system, not twelve individual pages.
Days 10 – 20
Build
Coding the approved designs, wiring up forms, adding schema markup, building out every page, and tuning performance. The most predictable phase of the project — it rarely overruns.
Days 20 – 25
Review & revisions
You get a staging link and go through everything on a real phone. One consolidated round of changes works far better than a drip of emails over two weeks.
Days 25 – 30
Testing & launch
Cross-browser and cross-device checks, form testing, redirect mapping if you had an old site, Analytics and Search Console setup, sitemap submission, then DNS switch. Launch day itself is about two hours.
How long by project type
Landing page
Single page, one goal
1 – 2 weeks
Brochure site
5–8 pages
3 – 4 weeks
Multi-service local site
Service + town pages
4 – 6 weeks
E-commerce
Scales with SKU count
6 – 12 weeks
Custom web app
Logins, data, integrations
8 – 20 weeks
Assumes content is supplied on schedule and feedback returns within two working days.
Where projects actually stall
In our experience roughly seven in ten overruns are content and approval delays, not development ones. None of these are difficult to avoid once you know they are coming.
| Cause | Typical delay | Who owns it | Prevention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waiting on copy | 2 – 6 weeks | Client | Agree who writes it at quote stage, not week three |
| No usable photography | 1 – 3 weeks | Client | Book a shoot in week one or agree on stock up front |
| Feedback arriving piecemeal | 1 – 2 weeks | Client | One consolidated list per round, from one decision-maker |
| Scope added mid-build | 1 – 4 weeks | Both | Park new ideas for phase two, in writing |
| Third-party integration | 1 – 3 weeks | Vendor | Request API access and credentials in week one |
Notice that four of the five are avoidable before the project starts.
What to have ready before kickoff
Gather these and you will shorten the project by weeks
Content
- A list of every service you want a page for
- A short paragraph on each, in your own words
- Every town or area you genuinely serve
- Three to five customer testimonials with names
- Your licence numbers, certifications and insurance details
Assets & access
- Logo files — vector if you have them
- 20–30 photos of real jobs, your team and your premises
- Domain registrar login
- Existing hosting and site login, if there is one
- Google Business Profile access
How to be the client who launches early
Speeds the project up
- One named decision-maker who can approve without a committee
- Feedback within two working days, consolidated into one list
- Say 'this is fine' when it is fine
- Book the photography in week one
- Keep new ideas in a phase-two list
Slows it down
- Four people sending contradictory feedback by email
- Approving the homepage, then reopening it in week four
- 'Can we also add a booking system?' during build
- Waiting until the site is built to write the copy
- Vanishing for a fortnight mid-review
- 3-6 wks
Standard small business build
- 70%
Of delays originate client-side
- 2 days
Target feedback turnaround
Can it be done faster?
Yes, with trade-offs that are worth understanding before you ask for them.
- One week is possible for a single landing page with supplied copy and a template-led design. Useful when you need something live before a campaign.
- Two weeks is possible for a five-page site if copy and photos are ready on day one and you commit to same-day feedback.
- Under a week usually means skipping keyword research, custom design or performance tuning — which is precisely the work that makes the site earn its cost.
- Rushing the discovery phase is the false economy. It is four days that prevents four weeks of rework.
What happens after launch
Week 1 — monitor
Watch Search Console for crawl errors, confirm forms are delivering, check redirects resolve if you replaced an old site.
Included
Weeks 2–4 — fix
A defined window for anything broken or missed. This should be free and written into your contract.
Included
Month 2 onward — maintain
Updates, backups, security patches, uptime monitoring and small content changes. From $99 a month, and the reason the site still works in year three.
Ongoing
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to build a small business website?
Three to six weeks from kickoff to launch for a standard five to twelve page site, assuming content and feedback arrive on schedule. E-commerce takes six to twelve weeks and custom applications eight to twenty.
Why do some agencies quote three months?
Usually because they run a longer discovery and brand phase, work on several projects in parallel, or have a multi-stage approval process. It is not automatically worse — but for a straightforward local business site it is rarely necessary.
What is the most common cause of delay?
Waiting for content. Copy, photographs and approvals from the client side account for roughly seventy percent of overruns. The build itself is the predictable part.
Can a website be built in one week?
A single landing page, yes. A full small business site in a week means skipping keyword research, custom design or performance work — which is the work that determines whether the site generates anything.
How long does the site take to appear on Google?
Indexing usually takes a few days to two weeks after launch if the sitemap is submitted properly. Ranking competitively for local terms takes longer — typically three to six months of consistent local SEO work.
- Process
- Timeline
- Website Development
- Project Management
