"How long will it take?" is one of the first things people ask us, and it is a fair question. The honest answer is that the building is the quick part. What sets the timeline is almost everything around it.
Our own timeline
Most sites go live within two weeks of you sending your content across. Notice what that clock starts from. It does not start when you first ring us. It starts when we have what we need to build with.
That is deliberate, because the two weeks is not really in our hands alone. It depends on the three things below.
1. How fast the content arrives
Content means your wording, your photos, your logo file, your prices and your opening hours. A site cannot be finished until these exist, and they are the most common reason a job sits still.
Wording is the big one. Plenty of business owners know exactly what they do and find it surprisingly hard to write down. Photos are next. Many people have good ones on their phone and never get round to sending them.
You can speed this up a lot by getting things together before we start. Our list of what to have ready is built for exactly that. If you are unsure whether the site you have is worth saving, refresh or rebuild is a good place to start.
2. How quickly decisions get made
A website is a long run of small decisions. Which photo goes at the top. What the main button says. Whether to list prices. Each one is quick on its own. The delay comes from waiting.
The biggest cause is more than one person needing to approve. If a business partner, a spouse or a manager has to sign off, agree up front who has the final say. A build with one decision maker moves faster than one where everyone gets a vote at every step.
Being reachable matters too. If we ask a question on Monday and the answer arrives the following Monday, that is a week gone, and it can happen several times in one project.
3. Rounds of changes
You see the site before it goes live, and you tell us what to change. That is the right way to do it, and each round takes time on both sides.
Two rounds of changes are included in our price. Further rounds are $250 each. Most jobs never get there, but a slow project is often one where feedback trickles in a bit at a time.
The simplest fix is to collect everything in one go. Look at the site on your phone and on a computer, make one list, and send it as a single message. One tidy round is much faster than five small ones.
What else can add time
- Things that have to keep working. Bookings, a shop, or a form that feeds another system all need testing carefully. This is worth the time.
- Logins nobody can find. If the domain or website builder login is lost, recovering it can take days. See who actually owns your website for how to check this before you start.
- A moving target. If the services, prices or branding change halfway through, the work restarts from that point.
- The old site's state. Sometimes a refresh is quick. Sometimes the existing setup needs untangling first, and we will tell you which before you commit.
How to get live faster
- Send all your wording and photos in one go, in a shared folder or one email.
- Decide who has the final say, and make sure they are around.
- Reply to questions the same day if you can.
- Gather all your feedback into one list per round.
- Do not change your mind about the big things halfway through.
Be wary of promises in either direction
If anyone promises a website in a couple of days without needing anything from you, ask what they are building it from. If anyone says months with no explanation, ask what the months are for. A real answer includes you and your content.
Price and timing go together, and the full price picture is in what a website actually costs.
Ready to see how it would run for your business? Tell us a bit about it and Josh will come back to you within one business day.