How long does it take to build a website? Total time required to create a great online presence

Building a website is the best way to create a strong web presence, and it takes time to do it well. Of course, the exact times will vary. You can create a simple landing page on your lunch break, or you can spend months coding a large website from scratch. Realistically, most of them fall somewhere between these extremes, so it’s worth looking at them to help you decide how much time to spend building the best website.

If time is of the essence, it’s certainly possible to build and publish a simple site in an afternoon using a template-based website builder like Wix or Squarespace. But if you’re serious about creating a website with multiple pages and e-commerce functionality, you’ll need to spend days going through different stages of the build.

We’ll go through these stages in detail below and outline how long each stage will take depending on whether you’re using a website builder or a CMS (content management system like WordPress). In the end, it will be more clear how many hours or days it will take from planning stage to publication.

How much time should you spend planning your website?

Spend at least a few hours planning your site before signing up with a website builder. If your ambitions extend beyond a very simple web page, spend a full day planning. It pays off in time saved even further down the line.

Start by setting the purpose of your website. We will answer questions such as…

• What is your website for?
• for whom?
• What do you want your visitors to do when they are on your site?

That last question is the big one. Do you want your visitors to spend money and buy your product? Do you want them to share your interest in medieval scripts or do you want them to hire you for freelance services? Do you want to attract them with your ideas (such as a social network for biscuit lovers) and earn money through advertising and subscriptions?

Think about how those users will use your site. Would a few basic landing pages with images and text that inform visitors be enough? Links, buttons for them to get in touch, read relevant content, or buy your product. , what about forms? Don’t underestimate the power of pencil and paper to outline pages and links. Visualizing your site also makes you less overwhelmed by the maze of possibilities of the page.

Then research the tools and services you might use to create your website and decide which one is best for you and your plans. Our roundup of the best website builders and website building costs will help you make a choice.If you’re interested in selling online, you can also check out our introduction to Shopify, an ecommerce website builder.

Finally, check for conflicts. After a site is published and configured for SEO (search engine optimization – aka the technique of driving visitors to her website), Google’s specific searches that it hopes will drive users to the site the term. Don’t underestimate this part. When you find a site you like, bookmark the important pages that generate ideas for design, content, and online features. Also, bookmark sites that do things you want to avoid, such as sites with broken links or clumsy formatting. Learn from their mistakes!

Should I create all the content first?

Creating content is part of the plan, and having batches of content (text, headlines, images, videos, etc.) ready to upload will speed up site building endlessly. But don’t get bogged down by the slogan of finishing content before doing anything else. This is the time consuming part of the process and can easily be added and polished later.

Instead, during the planning stage, map out your high-level content structure and decide which content goes on which pages. Then once you have a basic site online (saved if not actually published) you will be in a much better position to create content without wasting time. increase.

Many web designers, let alone old-school print designers, use dummy Latin text (“Lorem Ipsum,” which means nothing) when putting pages together. Just move the process. I don’t want to rush the content. But remember, once the technical and design elements are sorted out, you can go back and improve.

How long does it take to build a website using Website Builder?

Website Builder is the fastest way to create and publish a website. A basic site can be created in a few hours with Wix, Squarespace, or Weebly. No coding or web design knowledge is required to drag and drop these templates.

For example, all this can be done in the afternoon.

• Sign up for the combo plan for £7.50/month with Wix (our best all-around website builder).
• Choose a domain name (domain and hosting are included in the combo price);
• Choose a template and use drag and drop to quickly create landing pages.
• Upload photos, add text, add social media links.
• Check out how everything looks and works, including links.
• [公開]Click.

The only steps in this fast process that take time are those that involve decision making (e.g. template selection, template customization, content entry, etc.) and you probably don’t want to rush these steps. It’s nice to know that the technical nitty-gritty doesn’t take too long and the website builder makes it as easy as possible. There is also an extensive help section to guide you through the process.

The cheapest starter plans, such as Wix Connect Domain and Weebly Connect, don’t include a custom domain name in the package and must resolve with an ad-supported URL (using ‘wix’ or ‘weebly’) Please note in particular. in it), or spend a little extra time buying a domain. But both Wix and Weebly sell domain names, so it’s still pretty quick. GoDaddy and Shopify also sell domain names. It is not included in the website building package. A WordPress CMS requires you to organize both your domain and hosting separately, which takes additional time and effort. See the WordPress section below for more details.

If your website attracts visitors and you want them to return regularly or spend money, you need to spend hours or more building it.But it is more complicated than website builders you don’t have to use anything. Depending on the plan you choose, you can use the website builder to add multiple pages with videos, products, and special features like reservations, contact forms, and even background music.

Adding these features is as easy as uploading a photo by installing it from your website builder’s app store. If you’re still in the planning stages, explore the app stores of various website builders (you can do this without creating an account) and look for services with add-on tools that your website currently needs. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with it. future. Here are some app stores you can browse.

Wix App Market | Squarespace Extensions | Weebly App Center | Shopify App Store | WordPress Plugins

How long does it take to build an e-commerce website?

If you’re making significant sales on marketplaces like eBay and Etsy and want to provide a central website where fans and shoppers can create accounts and sell directly, it’s time to build online. shop.

Building an e-commerce website can sound intimidating. It certainly takes more time than building a resume or hobby website. But again, the website builder has a fully hosted package designed to make the process as quick and easy as possible. It takes a week or more to create a simple online store. No investment required, but it does take a month or two to build an online presence for your growing business, complete with blogs, videos, and customer reviews.

Keep in mind that if you’re building an e-commerce website, you’ll run into even more problems. You want to reach out to prospects and convert them into paying customers 24 hours a day, but there’s a lot more to plan, choose, install, and test. So we recommend spending a few weeks planning your website and at least a few more weeks building it until you can confidently launch and start selling.

Here are some stages that need to be covered:

• develop a content strategy
• Create an inventory
• Research your competitors (and their prices)
• Plan category
• Create a product page
• Fill product pages with content like price, text, photos, videos
• Choose payment and shipping options
• Create About and Contact Pages

You should consider adding a blog or app for features such as subscription sales, online bookings, loyalty schemes, abandoned shopping cart recovery, returns/refunds, and multiple payment options. You also need to know your branding, SEO, and customer service.

Speed ​​up and simplify the process with fully hosted, template-based ecommerce plans. Some of our favorite website builders offer plans designed to make the online store building process as quick and easy as possible. Shopify Basic (currently just £1 a month, normally £19) ), Wix Ecommerce (starting at £15/month for Business Basic), and Squarespace Commerce (starting at £17/month for Squarespace Business) include a custom domain (free to start with). year, after which you can renew for about £5-10 per year) and get access to many professional sales and marketing tools, such as SEO apps and advanced analytics.

For more information on different ecommerce packages and their costs, check out our in-depth article on how much it costs to build a website.

How long does it take to build a website with WordPress?

WordPress started in 2003 as a free blogging platform, but has grown to become the world’s most popular CMS (Content Management System), powering 42.8% of the top 10 million websites. In WordPress he has two methods.

WordPress.org is open source CMS software that is free to download and use. This is the approach preferred by developers and professional her web designers. You should be familiar with (or have time to learn) code and web design, and be able to invest enough time to build your site. Definitely not a job that can be completed in a weekend or two weeks. One month or more full-time. But once you understand the CMS, it’s very easy to use and a very useful skill to have. Plus, you have full control over how your website looks and behaves.

With WordPress.org, you are in control when it comes to hosting and domains. After choosing and purchasing a domain and hosting package, it may take some time for your website to come online. One way to save time on this is to create a managed WordPress site with GoDaddy (our pick for the best all-around web host). It only takes 30 minutes to set this up. Find simple instructions from GoDaddy here.

WordPress.com saves a lot of time. This is a fully hosted website builder with customizable templates (“themes”). Like other website builders, there are different plans ranging from free to ecommerce level, with WordPress.com Premium, a great value in between, with an annual payment of just £7/month. Depending on your needs, you can use a WordPress.com theme and be done in a day.