In the digital age, your website is your prime piece of real estate. For ecommerce businesses, it’s the ultimate storefront—the chance to make a lasting impact from the very first click. Don’t let that opportunity slip away.
How long it takes to build a website varies. While it can take as little as one day to create a simple website, the entire process of creating multi-page websites with ecommerce capabilities and advanced features can take more than three or four months.
Learn about the usual web development timeline, and what it takes to move from one step of the process to the next.
How long does it take to build a website?
- CMS and web hosting
- Goal setting and information architecture planning
- Low-fidelity wireframing
- High-fidelity wireframing
- Web development
- Marketing preparation
- Launch and final quality assurance
There are typically seven phases of building a website. Breaking up the website-building process into these steps will help you determine the project’s overall duration.
1. CMS and web hosting (1 to 2 weeks)
Before diving into design and development, you need to decide where your website will live and how to manage its content. This process takes one to two weeks. This time frame accounts for the necessary research and comparison of various CMS platforms and hosting providers, the evaluation of their features and pricing, and the potential need for technical setup or migration, ensuring a solid foundation for your website’s functionality and performance.
A content management system (CMS) allows you to create and manage your website’s content while your web host stores its data files. Your choice of CMS affects everything from the user experience to search engine optimization (SEO), so you should think it through early in your website development process.
When choosing a CMS, consider customization, SEO, and integration needs. For example, will you need to connect your email platform or other payment gateways? Does the CMS have built-in URL and metadata optimization options? Shopify is an all-in-one solution for ecommerce websites, while content-driven sites (like blogs or news sites) might consider WordPress.
When choosing a web hosting provider, consider site speed and performance, security features, and whether it can handle big spikes in traffic around holidays or seasonal sales. Shopify stores have built-in web hosting, making this step easy for online store owners.
2. Goal setting and information architecture (IA) planning (1 to 3 weeks)
Now that you know of any potential structural or technical constraints your CMS and web host have, you can begin building out your page structure, folders, and navigation. The time allocated allows for research, brainstorming, and iterative refinement to ensure a logical and user-friendly website structure. Information architecture (IA) planning allows you to organize your site content logically. This results in a smoother user experience and makes it easier for search engines to understand your site’s content.
Next, keeping your target audience in mind, define your website’s goal at this stage. Are you using the site to sell products? Send visitors to your retail locations? Offer free trials? Defining goals will help you identify what features your website will need and how you should structure them.
Next, organize your folders and subfolders with your product mix. What categories make sense? How will your products be organized? For example, folders for a clothing store might look like:
Folder: /shop
Subfolder: /shop/men, /shop/women
Sub-subfolder: /shop/men/shirts, /shop/men/pants
3. Low-fidelity wireframing (1 to 2 weeks)
Low-fidelity (lo-fi) wireframes are rough sketches of a website’s layout, focusing primarily on the user experience (UX). Lo-fi wireframes use simple shapes, like boxes and circles, to represent blocks of content. This allows stakeholders, including marketing, design, and development teams, to align on the site’s structure without getting distracted by copy or web design elements.
Lo-fi wireframes are fast to produce and easy to iterate on until they satisfy all stakeholders, so this process usually only takes a week or two. Some design elements may need to change to accommodate smaller screens, including the navigation and call-to-action (CTA) button sizes, so wireframes should include a desktop and mobile version. You can use tools like Figma, Miro, or Google Docs to create lo-fi wireframes.
4. High-fidelity wireframing (2 to 3 weeks)
After all stakeholders have given their feedback and approved the lo-fi wireframes, it’s time to design exactly what the website will look like. A high-fidelity (hi-fi) wireframe focuses on the user interface (UI), incorporating fonts, colors, copy, and images that align with your brand identity. As you move from a basic structure to a polished design, this process can take two to three weeks.
The hi-fi wireframe gives stakeholders a clear picture of how the website will look. Web developers also use it as a detailed reference for implementation. It acts as a prototype with clickable elements showing how users would interact with the website. At this point, you can also perform some light usability testing to make sure you’re on the right track. Figma’s prototyping feature allows for interactive components, while Adobe XD has advanced wireframing features, like interactive elements and animations.
5. Web development (4 to 10 weeks)
The development phase is usually the longest part of the website creation process because a professional developer now has to translate wireframes and mockups into a working website. This is when all the features and functionality come to life, including design layout, correct fonts, copy, and interactivity. If you’ve got a complex website with many product pages, this stage can take two months or more to complete.
The web development process includes building the front and back end, custom coding, and testing. Front-end development focuses on what your customers will see and experience, while back-end development ensures that all functionality, such as email captures and store integration, is working properly. If your website has any unique requirements, like interactive maps or sold-out notifications, you’ll need to develop them at this stage.
The web development phase requires a consistent feedback loop between developers and stakeholders, as everyone needs to be aligned on all the detailed decisions, like scroll feel or button hovers. A professional website developer will build in plenty of buffer time to accommodate any unexpected issues. Alternatively, if you have to build a site on your own, you can use a website builder app to get the job done—though it may be a bit more rudimentary than you’d like.
6. Marketing preparation (4 to 6 weeks)
After your web developer (or developers) finish the job, you’ll want to ensure that both your website and marketing content are primed to bring in site visitors and boost sales. Your marketing plan may include paid ads and a social media strategy to drive traffic to your new website, or a blog content schedule to build authority and bring in organic traffic. It can also include teaser campaigns or pre-launch incentives to generate buzz.
Search engine optimization (SEO) ensures search engines rank your website well, which makes it easier for new customers to find you. SEO includes keyword research (using tools like Ahrefs or Semrush), optimizing meta tags and descriptions, proper URL structure, and optimizing for mobile experience. This is why choosing the right CMS in Step 1 is so important, as some CMSes, like Shopify, have built-in optimization tools.
Set up your Google Analytics and track key events, such as conversions. You can also track custom events through Google Tag Manager, like submissions on a specific form.
7. Launch and final quality assurance (3 to 5 days)
Congratulations, your website is live! At this stage, review the user experience again and place test orders to ensure data flows through the back end smoothly and functionality works as expected. If you have multiple conversion points, such as purchases, form submissions, or free trial requests, test all of them to ensure a seamless user experience.
Factors that affect website development time
- Visual builder vs. developer
- Stakeholder management
- Customization
- Artificial intelligence (AI) usage
While each step of website development has an expected time frame, certain factors can speed up or delay website development timelines.
Visual builder vs. developer
Visual builders like Elementor or Webflow have drag-and-drop functionalities, requiring minimal coding to build a website. This speeds up the development phase significantly, allowing you to launch a website in just a few days. If you’re working with a developer and custom coding your entire website, it will take longer, as they’ll need to build everything from scratch, test, and debug. This process ends up taking a few weeks to a few months to complete.
Stakeholder management
Multiple decision-makers can delay timelines if everyone isn’t aligned. If many departments need to be consulted, interdependencies can delay timelines.
Establish a project lead to collect feedback and develop an approval process with stakeholders early on. Set clear deadlines for reviews and feedback and hold regular check-ins to reduce last-minute surprises.
Customization
The more complex features your website has, the longer it will take to build, as the features will require custom development. Using a preexisting theme with a prebuilt design framework can speed up development. However, if you want a completely unique website experience, expect longer timelines for creation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) usage
AI website builders like Durable are ideal for small businesses looking to build a website quickly. You simply tell the AI what you’d like, and it automatically generates a website following your layout and branding. Most AI website builders are fast but allow for little customization. You can also use AI tools like Jasper to write content for your website, including metatags and product descriptions. If you’re custom coding, ChatGPT and GitHub CoPilot can assist with code development to speed up the development process.
If you’re building an ecommerce website, Shopify Magic can help you with tasks ranging from photo editing, copywriting, email marketing, and customer service.
How long does it take to build a website FAQ
How long does it take, on average, to build a website?
If you’re building a simple website using a drag-and-drop website builder, you can have your website ready in under a week. But a complex, custom website with many pages and functionalities can take four months (or longer) to build and have ready. Test your website carefully before launching to make sure it’s secure and easy-to-understand.
Can you build a website in a week?
Yes, you can build a website in a week, as long as functionality is simple with only a few pages. You can use a pre-built theme to speed up the process or an AI builder, like Durable, to quickly create your website. Even if you’re in a rush, check the content and usability of your website carefully before putting it out into the world.
How long does it take to build a five-page website?
The time it takes to build a five-page website will depend on several factors, including website complexity, site content creation, functionality, and stakeholder management. If your pages include an ecommerce component, interactivity, and lots of customization, even five pages can take a few months of development time to get right.
Can I use AI to create a website quickly?
Yes, AI can help you put together a website quickly. For your ecommerce website, you can use Shopify Magic for a range of tasks to get your website up and running efficiently. You can also use AI tools like Durable and Wix AI website builder to develop a website and platforms like ChatGPT and Jasper to create content.
