How Long a Website Project Really Takes

Where the weeks actually go

Clients usually assume the time is design and coding. On a typical brochure site it is closer to a third each for planning, building and finishing — and the finishing third is where surprises live.

Realistic ranges

• Brochure site, 5–15 pages: 3–6 weeks
• Lead-generation site with research: 6–12 weeks
• Content platform with a CMS: 10–20 weeks
• E-commerce, standard platform: 8–16 weeks
• Web application: 12–24 weeks

These assume decisions arrive within a few days and content arrives roughly when promised. Both assumptions are optimistic and both are why we quote ranges.

The three delays that cause most overruns

1. Content. By a distance the largest cause. Everyone underestimates writing thirty pages of copy while doing their actual job.
2. Feedback rounds. Design feedback that takes ten days instead of two, three times, is a month.
3. Approval by committee. Five stakeholders with conflicting opinions and no tiebreaker can add six weeks without anyone doing anything wrong.

We have never had a project delayed because the code was hard. We have had many delayed because the About page was not written.

How we protect the timeline

• Placeholder content from day one, so the build never waits for copy
• A named decision-maker, agreed at kick-off
• Feedback windows with dates in the plan, not open-ended requests
• Design approved on two key templates rather than every page
• A content deadline two weeks before launch, stated plainly at the start

The last one does most of the work. A content deadline set at the beginning is a shared plan; the same deadline mentioned in week nine is a complaint.

What we can and cannot compress

Compressible: design rounds, page count in phase one, the number of stakeholders reviewing, bespoke illustration.

Not compressible: testing, accessibility, redirects on a migration, and the content itself. Cutting testing to hit a date reliably produces a launch week spent firefighting, which costs more time than it saved.

Launching in stages

If the date is immovable, launch a smaller site on time rather than a bigger one late. A five-page site live on the date, with the rest published over the following month, is almost always better than a fifteen-page site three weeks after the event.

This works because the pages people actually need are a small fraction of the pages a project plan contains, and you find out which ones by watching real traffic rather than by guessing in a workshop.

Frequently asked questions