How Long Does It Take You To Build A Website?

by Ofthemix

Posted: 13 years ago 30 replies

WEB DESIGN

Lately I've been building a website in the IM niche. While I've been looking through products to promote on Clickbank, it made me realize how much the easy button is actually promoted. I've seen offers such as "Build a website in 11 minutes" and "Have your first website up and running in 2 hours". We all know that false promises are one reason that a lot of noobs give up, because they're tricked into thinking that there's little work involved.

The length of time needed to build a website varies from person to person depending on how many pages your website is and whether or not you outsource content. For the sake of argument though, let's say that you don't outsource content. How long does it realistically take you to build a website.

By the way, this thread is not for my own reference, but is intended to show newbies how much work is actually involved in getting the IM thing up and running.

It typically takes me between 20 and 23 hours to build a 20 page website. That includes:

installing wordpress
uploading my theme and plugins
modifying my theme
configuring my plugins
creating a custom header
creating and posting original content
managing ad placement

When I think of building websites, I also like to include the length of time it takes me to initially market a site. I personally use a set it and forget it method, though I know for a lot of people marketing is an ongoing process. So, to make this answer more complete, let's go ahead and add up how long it takes to do the initial marketing for a newly built websites. Again, let's assume that we do all of his ourselves and don't outsource a single thing.

I'd estimate that I spend an additional 20 to 25 hours marketing a 20 page website. That includes:

submitting the site to search engines
pinging
directory submission
social bookmarking
article marketing

All together it takes me between 40 to 48 hours to build and market a static 20 page website, which is about the average size of the websites that I build.

By the way, that doesn't include the keyword and product research that I do beforehand, which typically takes about 1 to 2 hours.

I hope this has helped some newer members to realize just about how much work actually goes into producing websites.

Now, the above outline obviously isn't true for everyone, which is why I'm asking other experienced warriors to chime in on how long it typically takes for them to build a site by hand from scratch. The point is to prove that in the vast majority of cases, building and marketing a website takes a decent amount of time.

#build #long #website

O0o0O

13 years ago

That's usually about the turnaround time it takes to build a website. That's why if you're building niche sites that make money with AdSense and Amazon, you might want to outsource those tasks to other workers, that way you'll be able to scale up your business more quickly. Of course you'll be putting out more cash initially, but in the long run, it'll be well worth it.

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Ofthemix

13 years ago

Originally Posted by O0o0O

I personally use a lot of automation tools for the more tedious tasks. I used to outsource content creation but I've been burned too many times. It's my least favorite part of the process, but also the one that I find the hardest to outsource.

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greggreg Banned 13 years ago

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- Kay King 13 years ago
  
  I use whatever time it takes to write the content, get the graphics ready to do, choose color codes and decide on a structure (pages/subpages,etc)
  
  Once I have everything ready in a folder, I build the site in less than an hour, creating my own template design as I build the site in xsitepro. I don't use pre-made templates. That's for a site of 30-40 pages.
  
  I've never adapted well to wordpress because it seems to take longer and I always seem to run into glitches. (If I'd learn to do it right....)
  
  If I try to build a site without having everything organized for the site - it seems to take four times as long to get it done. I keep getting sidetracked:rolleyes:
  
  kay
  
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  cdnell123 13 years ago
  
  I think it takes me a few hours, from keyword research to buying domain
  
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patrickz 13 years ago

We're able to build great Drupal sites in 72 hours.
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- ArcherWylde 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by patrickz
  
  We're able to build great Drupal sites in 72 hours.
  
  This made me chuckle a little bit. Web design is actually my full time gig, our client's projects can take anywhere between 30 Days to 6 months.
  
  I'm not saying you cant build a Drupal site in 72 hours, I'm just questioning your definition of "Great".
  
  Thanks
  
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Jill Carpenter

13 years ago

I was initially hung up when it came to making a website - thinking I needed to do dreamweaver and learn all this html.

Later when I had an affiliate product I really wanted to promote, it was amazing how I was able to get a site up in about 2 hours time using a website builder on a service.

Today, it really depends on what the site is supposed to do as to how long it takes me to create - and if I'm working with materials I am familiar with.

One project is my portfolio site - which I have materials but I'm working with a different theme framework so I do it in small bites.

Another project is building a site with/for a friend right now which requires some plugins I'm not so familiar working with so this is taking some time with testing and making sure the components are working together.

And a third site I installed in a matter of seconds a couple of days ago, popped on a theme, and whipped up a sales page header in a matter of about 15 minutes thanks to this thread here in the war room but now rethinking my funnel and may do a bit of a shuffle.

So, it can take me anywhere from half an hour to days or weeks, lol - really depends on what functions are required.

Thanks
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Ofthemix

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Jill Carpenter

So, it can take me anywhere from half an hour to days or weeks, lol - really depends on what functions are required.

This is true. I totally forgot about squeeze pages and sales pages, probably because I never make them. That would be one of the cases where you can throw up a website pretty quickly. There's still promotion to be done though.

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GeorgR. 13 years ago

1 - 1.5 hours for a wordpress blog with all needed plugins and theme and "privacy", "terms" "contact us"

Modifying themes, header and putting content on it is another story
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SeoWizzard 13 years ago

I think it takes me a few hours, from keyword research to buying domain and actually installing all the things on the site.
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MoneyMonkey 13 years ago

It takes me a couple hours to find themes, install them, find plugins, and install them. Installing the software takes around 10 minutes because of all the WP files.
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soliddesign 13 years ago

I normally quote 30 days for 100% completion as a selling point, as opposed to a certain amount of hours. 30 days is less abstract to a client wanting to know when the product will be completely wrapped up and in their hands.

Actual hours vary greatly based on the client, we do all of our sites 100% custom designs and programming, so our times normally ends up a bit longer than people slapping content into wordpress themes. We normally end up somewhere around 50 hours for a small/medium sized site.
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dtang4

13 years ago

I actually just launched a 40K page site today and was tracking the time spent. Start to finish took me 5 hours, including breaks + 2 meals in between.

I've been creating sites for over a decade, so have become quite proficient in the whole process... so this isn't is benchmark time frame for a newbie. However, I do quite a number of things to accelerate and automate the launch process that other people can certainly leverage. Here's some...

* In the design phase, I browse CSS galleries for ideas. I then find a colour scheme and layout I like and borrow from it.
* I mock up my site in a graphics program (I use Fireworks). I find it much easier to create from an image, versus a sketch or something in my head.
* I leverage a lot of code from my older sites, though a good portion is still coded from scratch.
* The way I create a site that have an large number of inner pages is by making it database driven. I use very basic .htaccess mod_rewrite stuff to ensure all the pages are SEO friendly.
* The specific site I built this morning caters to US cities. I have a database of 39K zip codes, and each zip code will have its own unique page (w/ unique content). In fact, I really only created 3 unique files for my site (the index, the city page that pulls from my database, and a contact page).
* For content, I pull it from other sites (either by scraping or using their API). For the site I built this morning, I used their API, which was very easy to use.
* Finally, for the initial SEO efforts, I have a script that will submit to a large list of indexing sites and will auto ping those sites. This allows for my site to be indexed by Google within half a day. I actually am giving this script away for free for a limited time (Rapid Google Indexer - Instantly get your new domain indexed by Google | TheManWhoSoldtheWeb.com). I also linked back to this new site from my portfolio of existing sites.

All in all, the whole process only took half a work day. Now, I am just waiting for Google to crawl the 40K pages.

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techntuts

13 years ago

I usually take 48 to 72 hours to build the website and promote them depending on the content, and sometime more. Its important to build backlinks to you site and it takes half of the effort of creating niche sites...

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sixpack01

13 years ago

It depends:

The first thing it depends upon is what type of web site you want to create.

The second thing it depends upon is the tool you will be using to create the web site.

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2 replies

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fergsi 13 years ago

Very useful thread. Thanks guys
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fergsi

13 years ago

Originally Posted by sixpack01

It depends:

The first thing it depends upon is what type of web site you want to create.

The second thing it depends upon is the tool you will be using to create the web site.

Great point!

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Happy_Balance 13 years ago

If they are my own sites:
It takes me several years...
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haymanpl 13 years ago

I can have a wordpress site up and running in 5 minutes but the content takes time to write especially if its authentic and not paid for copy
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unlimitedmarketing 13 years ago

I use artisteer to build my WP sites, and I make my custom backgrounds and headers. The actual "building" I say takes between 2-3 hours. ( Still learning fireworks and dreamweaver so an html site takes me 40+ hours, just to build)

The longest part is adding content, I have tried PLR and outsourcing, and I was just not happy, so I have to write my own, and it takes some time. I've been able to crank up to 20 posts in a day, but that is pretty much my max.

As far as plugins and stuff I am still learning those. I'm looking for a good amazon / ebay plugin, but it looks like the ones I've found are like $100, so I will continue to do some more research.
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dazzlingDish 12 years ago

Hello everyone, im trying to build a social website and after reading how long it takes other webs designers to build i do not want to spend 15k and wait for 5 months til the site is finished. I build a website prototype, it looks like it functions but the links are props because i dont have the knowledge. can anyone honest please tell me where i can find an honest web designer who can create the site within 30-60days and not charge me 2 arms and 2 legs, would greatly appreciate it! i admit the site i want built will be complex, video search and video play, chat, forums, mapping, paypal, membership sign in, but shouldnt take months to build. please help, i will pay the web designer for reasonable price and on quality. If you want to contact me direct its 516 467 6232 Robert, thanks.
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webstepa 12 years ago

It usually takes from 15 min
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shantanu 12 years ago

Buildin a continous website like this will surely takes 72 hours beacause during links submissiona ndpinging for promotion it takes atleast a day but after 72 hours you will be ready and will be LIVE on internet.
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easternodyssey 12 years ago

Well its hard to say as i have only ever done one website. My first website took about 2-3 months, although that was more down to learning how to do things, searching and testing the right components, writing articles and procrastenating. Personally i could have done it in 1 month. Although i think now after having have designed my first website, i think i could do it in a couple of days and maybe even a couple of hours as long as it was without content or CSS/PHP editing.
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RK Corbes 12 years ago

If redesign, it will take me to create within 12 hours if html/css or wordpress built. If the client is new to websites, it will be pain in the ass, I know I have been there. If it's not properly presented to client, or no layout presentation at all, it will really take time, you will have to tweak it based on the client wants so you will have a satisfied customer.
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dmcbane 12 years ago

I'm working on building a new site right now and when I say right now, I mean the better part of the last month--it's taking forever, but I'm basically learning everything as I go along. The next one will go much faster, mainly because I plan on outsourcing most of it and never putting myself through the design process again.
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timmor29 12 years ago

I personally use EXAI and it takes me only a couple of minutes to create websites. Then it might take me a couple of hours to edit the content and layout to my liking, but after that I'm pretty much done. SEO is built in, so all that's left after that is to market the website with article marketing and such.
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Michael Manansala 12 years ago

less than an hour. for as long you have a Domain and Hosting account you are all set.
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Fierce Brent 12 years ago

You guys are operating in a different realm than I am. I design and develop large, database-driven sites for larger businesses and government agencies from scratch or, at a minimum, custom design the Joomla or Drupal templates. On those, I can spend several months (while working on other projects as well), and that's often working with a team of copywriters and programmers.

As far as a minimum time goes to set up a basic functioning website (assuming Wordpress), using a commercial template with few modifications, it would take less than an hour to install with probably a hour of preparation work spread over a day or two to allow for things like domain propagation. By far the most difficult and time-consuming part would be developing compelling and targeted content to go in that website.
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vnit969 12 years ago

If you have frameword stand . I think you less than an 3 hour to building themes and general website
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How Long Does It Take You To Build A Website?

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