“How long will it take?” is one of the first questions almost every business owner asks us — usually right after “how much will it cost?”. It’s a fair question. You’re busy, you’ve probably been putting this off for a while, and you want to know what you’re signing up for. Here’s a realistic answer, and the honest truth about what actually determines the timeline.
The short version
For a straightforward small business website — a brochure site with 4–7 pages — you’re typically looking at 4 to 8 weeks from the first conversation to launch day. A simple 1–3 page site can be quicker, sometimes 2–3 weeks. A site with extras like bookings, quote forms, or an online shop usually runs longer — think 8–12 weeks.
But here’s the thing: the build itself is rarely what takes the time.
What actually determines how long it takes
1. How ready your content is
This is the single biggest factor, by a wide margin. If you’ve already got decent photos, you know what you want to say about your business, and you can describe your services clearly — we can move fast. If you’re starting from a blank page and need to write everything from scratch, find or take photos, and figure out how to describe what makes your business different, that takes real time. Not because it’s hard, but because it requires thinking, and thinking can’t be rushed by anyone.
A practical tip: start jotting down answers to “what do my customers actually want to know before they call me?” before your first meeting with whoever’s building your site. That alone can save weeks.
2. How quickly you can review and respond
Most projects don’t stall during the build — they stall during the gaps between rounds of feedback. If a draft lands in your inbox on a Tuesday and you get to it the following Monday, that’s a week gone. If you can turn reviews around within a couple of days, the whole project moves at a noticeably different pace. We’re not expecting you to drop everything — just try not to let things sit for too long.
3. How many people need to say yes
A sole trader can approve a homepage draft over a cup of tea. A business with three partners, a marketing person, and someone’s cousin who “knows about websites” will take longer to reach agreement — not because anyone’s being difficult, but because more opinions naturally take more time to align. If that’s your situation, it helps to nominate one person as the final decision-maker before the project starts.
4. How complex the site actually is
A site that’s mostly “tell people who we are and how to contact us” is straightforward. A site that needs a booking calendar, a product catalogue, a quote calculator, or integrations with other software you use will need more design and development time — and more testing before launch, because there’s more that needs to work correctly.
A realistic week-by-week shape
For a typical 4–7 page brochure site with content mostly ready to go:
- Week 1 — Initial chat, scoping what you need, gathering content and photos
- Weeks 2–3 — Design and build of the core pages
- Week 4 — Your first look, feedback, revisions
- Weeks 5–6 — Refinements, final content, testing on phones and desktops
- Weeks 7–8 — Final review, technical setup (domain, email, contact form), launch
If your content’s ready and feedback turnarounds are quick, this can compress significantly. If content needs writing from scratch or there are several rounds of changes, it stretches out — and that’s normal, not a sign anything’s gone wrong.
What slows things down (and how to avoid it)
- Waiting on photos. If you need professional photos taken, book that early — it’s often the longest lead time in the whole project.
- “We’ll write the copy ourselves” — and then not having time to. If writing isn’t your thing or you simply won’t get to it, say so up front. It’s far easier to plan around than to discover halfway through.
- Scope creep. Deciding halfway through that you’d also like an online booking system is completely fine — just know it’ll add time. Better to flag it early than bolt it on at the end.
- Going quiet. Projects that stall usually stall on the client side, not the builder’s. A quick “got it, will look this week” message keeps things moving even when you’re flat out.
The bottom line
A simple, well-prepared small business website can be live in a matter of weeks. A more involved one, or one where content needs to be created from scratch, will reasonably take a couple of months. Neither is a bad outcome — what matters is knowing what to expect, and working with someone who’ll tell you honestly where things stand along the way.