A website design project moves through planning, gathering logins and content, design, build, testing, launch and care after launch. One agency, Clay, says a small site redesign often takes 6 to 12 weeks, and your own photos, copy and logins usually decide the pace.
The steps below are typical for the industry. They are not a promise from us. Most time ranges are Clay's estimates for each phase. Added end to end, they come to more than Clay's 6 to 12 weeks. That's because some steps overlap, and a small site may not need the long end of each range. Ask your designer for a date for each step.
Each step says what you'll be asked for. Get those things ready early, and the project keeps moving. If you haven't hired anyone yet, start with how to choose a web designer.
1. Plan the site
What happens: After you agree on scope, price and timeline in writing, you meet with the designer. They learn about your business and your customers. Together you decide what the site must do, like bring in calls, form fills or bookings. Then you agree on which pages you need.
What you'll be asked for:
- A list of your services
- The one thing you want a visitor to do
- A few sites you like, and why
- The name of the person who approves the work
Typical time: Clay puts strategy at 1 to 2 weeks and planning the page layout at another 1 to 2 weeks.
2. Hand over logins and access
What happens: The designer needs access to the tools your site runs on. Clay names "missing access to hosting, CMS, or domains" as one cause of delays. (A CMS is the tool you use to edit your site, like WordPress.)
What you'll be asked for:
- Your domain registrar login (the company where you bought your web address)
- Your hosting login and your old site's admin login, if you have a site
- Access to your Google Business Profile
- Access to any website stats tool you use
Where a tool allows it, add your designer as a user instead of sharing your own password. Remove their access when the work is done.
Keep the domain registered in your own name, not your designer's, so you stay in control of your web address. The SBA says you register a domain through a registrar and need to renew it "on a regular basis." Know when your renewal is due.
Typical time: This step is quick if you know where your logins are. A lost login can hold up the launch weeks later, so look now.
3. Gather your content
What happens: Content means the words, photos and files that fill your pages. Many projects stall here.
Duda, a company that sells website tools to agencies, including a tool for collecting client content, surveyed 120 agencies. It found that clients cause 87% of content collection delays. Only 2.68% of agencies said they get all content in one day. About three in four said it takes 2 to 10 days. About one in four said 11 days or more. Duda didn't publish how it ran the survey.
What you'll be asked for:
- Logo files, ideally the original files from whoever made your logo
- Photos of your work, your team and your place of business
- Copy for each page, or notes the designer can write from
- Testimonials you have permission to use
- Hours, phone number, address and service area
Ask early who writes the words. If it's you, set a date to finish each page.
Typical time: Often 2 to 10 days, based on Duda's survey. For about one in four agencies, it's 11 days or more.
4. Design the look
What happens: The designer shows you how key pages will look, often starting with the home page. You give feedback. They make changes. Then you approve.
What you'll be asked for:
- Clear feedback, like "make the phone number bigger," not "make it pop"
- Answers within the time you agreed on. Ask at the start how many business days you'll have for each review.
- One final yes from the person who approves
Clay lists slow approvals as another cause of delays. Pick one person to give the final say.
Typical time: Clay puts design at 2 to 4 weeks.
5. Build the site
What happens: A developer turns the approved design into a working site. They make it work on phones, tablets and computers. Your content goes onto each page.
If you're replacing an old site, this step needs extra care. Google says to map your old site's URLs to the new ones. It recommends permanent redirects, such as a 301, so old links send people to the right new page. Google says to keep those redirects "for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year."
What you'll be asked for:
- Quick answers to the developer's questions
- A list of old pages that matter to you, like a page that gets a lot of calls
Typical time: Clay puts development at 2 to 6 weeks. It adds 1 to 4 weeks for moving content and setting up search basics.
6. Review and test
What happens: Before launch, the site gets a full check. A good test covers:
- Phones: Every page reads well and every button is easy to tap.
- Forms: A test message goes through and lands in the right inbox.
- Speed: Google's Core Web Vitals set "good" targets. The main content should load within 2.5 seconds. The page should respond to a tap in 200 milliseconds or less. The layout should barely jump around, with a shift score of 0.1 or less. Google measures these on real visits, so before launch your designer checks them with a test tool.
- Accessibility: People with disabilities should be able to use the site. The W3C encourages using the latest version of its accessibility guidelines, called WCAG. Today that's WCAG 2.2. WCAG has three levels, A, AA and AAA, so ask your designer which level they build to.
What you'll be asked for: Click through the whole site on your own phone. Send in what looks wrong. Then give your final approval.
Typical time: Clay puts testing at 1 to 2 weeks.
7. Launch
What happens: The domain gets pointed to the new site. Redirects go live. The team checks that pages, forms and the phone number all work on the live site.
What you'll be asked for:
- Your registrar login again, or someone who can make changes there
- Time for a short training session on how to edit your site
Typical time: Clay puts launch at about 1 week.
8. Care after launch
What happens: A site needs updates, backups and security checks to keep running well. You'll also want to change photos and hours over time.
What you'll be asked for: Decide who handles updates, you or your designer. Keep your logins somewhere safe. Renew your domain on time.
Typical time: This step never really ends.
How we run a website project
At Xtego Creative, our process has three parts. First, Connect: you tell us about your business, and we show you what's holding your current site back with a free audit. Next, Design: we design your site and strategy. You'll see progress at regular check-ins, and you approve everything before it goes live. Last, Launch: your new site goes live and your technology is set up.
Our website service helps with your copy, using our LiftX messaging framework. We build sites with SEO basics in place, help you through launch and show your team how to use the site.
Ask what we'd need from you
Thinking about a new site or a redesign? Contact us and tell us about your business. We can tell you what we'd need from you to get started. You can also ask for a free website audit of your current site.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to get a website designed?
It depends on how many pages you need, what features you want, like booking or payments, and who writes the words. Ask any designer for an itemized quote so you can see what's included.
How much should a full website design cost?
A "full" project often adds work beyond design and build, like writing every page, a photo shoot, and hosting and upkeep after launch. Ask each designer which of those their quote covers and which cost extra. We help with your copy. Hosting is a separate service.
What is the 3 second rule in website design?
It's a common rule of thumb that a page should load and show what it is within about 3 seconds. An undated guide from Google and Awwwards, Speed Matters, says "53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load." In a 2011 article, Nielsen Norman Group says users often leave web pages in 10 to 20 seconds. So your page needs to load fast and make its point right away.
