If you are planning a new website, the first question is usually time: how long will it take, how many hours go into it and what can speed it up. The honest answer is a range, because roughly half of any website timeline depends on the client rather than the developer. This guide gives realistic timeframes by project type, explains where the weeks actually go and lists the handful of things that reliably make a build faster or slower.
The short answer
- Single landing page: about one week. Ours are live within a week when content is ready.
- Standard business site, five to seven pages: two to four weeks. Ours run two to three weeks including copywriting.
- Larger business site, ten to fifteen pages with custom design: four to eight weeks.
- Complex corporate site with multiple templates, stakeholders and integrations: eight to twelve weeks.
- eCommerce store on WooCommerce or Shopify: six to twelve weeks, longer with large catalogues or integrations.
- Complex builds with portals, memberships or bespoke functionality: three months or more.
These assume reasonably prompt feedback and content. They are not padded and they are not best-case. Compressed timelines are possible with prepared content, one decision-maker and a fixed scope; they work by removing choices, not by working faster.
How many hours go into a website
A landing page takes 20 to 40 hours of strategy, design, build, tracking and testing. A five-to-ten-page service site takes 60 to 120 hours across discovery, UX, design, development, integrations and testing. A complex corporate site takes 150 to 300 hours or more once workshops, multiple templates, custom components and governance are included. An eCommerce store takes 120 to 250 hours or more for catalogue setup, payments, shipping, GST, performance and checkout testing. Hours vary with scope and how ready your content is; good preparation saves more time than anything the developer can do.
Where the weeks actually go
A WordPress project moves through six stages and they overlap less than people expect.
- Discovery and planning (about a week). Goals, audience, competitors, page structure, functionality, integrations and access to domain, hosting and third-party tools. Skipping this is the most common cause of a project running long, because scope surfaces later instead of earlier.
- Content gathering (one to four weeks and the usual bottleneck). Copy, images, logos, product data, testimonials, team bios. It runs in parallel with design but almost always determines the finish date. This is why we include copywriting in our standard packages: it removes the step that stalls most projects.
- Design (one to two weeks). Wireframes to lock structure, then key page layouts presented and revised. Two rounds of feedback is normal; endless rounds are where timelines die.
- Development (one to three weeks). Templates, custom blocks, forms, search, schema, populating content and connecting payments, CRM, booking tools, GA4 and pixels, all on a staging site.
- Testing and review (about a week). Cross-device and cross-browser checks, form testing, speed, accessibility, proofreading and your own review round.
- Launch and settling (a few days, plus follow-up). DNS changes, SSL, redirects from old URLs, analytics verification, Search Console submission, uptime monitoring, training and handover of full ownership, then monitoring for anything missed.
A sample eight-week timeline
Week one: discovery, sitemap, wireframes. Week two: visual design, component library, content assignments. Week three: design approval, WordPress build begins. Week four: template development and integrations. Week five: content population, analytics and CRM setup. Week six: QA, performance tuning, client review. Week seven: final changes, payment testing where relevant, training. Week eight: launch, DNS switch, monitoring and tidy-up. A small business site compresses this to two or three weeks by running design and build in parallel on a proven structure; a corporate or eCommerce project stretches it.
What actually causes delays
Content, by a wide margin. Copy and photography sit with the client and are easy to postpone. After that: slow or fragmented feedback, particularly when several people comment separately over weeks; scope added mid-project, such as a booking system, a second language or an extra integration; third-party dependencies like payment gateway approvals, API access and supplier data feeds; access delays for domains, hosting or analytics, especially where a former developer holds the logins; and decision by committee with no nominated approver.
How to make it go faster
Write or commission the content before design starts, not during. Book photography early; it has the longest lead time of anything. Approve branding (logo, fonts, colours) before design begins. Nominate one decision-maker who consolidates feedback into a single written response per round. Lock scope before development starts and park good ideas for a phase two. Gather your domain, hosting and analytics logins at the outset. Decide integrations up front rather than discovering them in week five.
Launching around the Australian summer holidays
Melbourne effectively shuts from mid-December to late January and many sites are wanted before Christmas. Lock the timeline by mid-November, front-load content before December, confirm who will be available to approve things, secure payment and shipping approvals early for stores and avoid major feature changes close to launch. A site launched in the first week of December with a quiet fortnight of monitoring is a better outcome than one rushed live on the 23rd.
What happens straight after launch
Redirects and analytics are verified, the sitemap is submitted to Search Console and the first weeks are watched for broken links, form failures and indexing issues. You retain full ownership of the site, domain and accounts, with training and documentation so your team can manage content. Then ongoing maintenance begins, ideally paired with Australian managed hosting so one team is accountable for both.
Frequently asked questions
Can a website be built in a week?
A single page or a simple brochure site, yes, if content is ready and scope is fixed. We deliver landing pages in a week routinely. A multi-page site in a week means cutting corners somewhere.
Why do quotes give a range rather than a date?
Because roughly half the timeline depends on the client: content, feedback and approvals. A fixed date is only meaningful alongside fixed turnaround commitments on both sides, which is how we run fixed-price projects.
Does WordPress take longer than a website builder like Wix?
Slightly longer to build, considerably faster to extend later. Builders trade setup speed for flexibility and ownership.
How long does an eCommerce website take?
Six to twelve weeks for a standard catalogue. Product data quality drives the timeline more than page count; clean, structured product information saves days. Our ecommerce design guide covers what goes into a store build.
How long does a website redesign take?
Similar to a new build of the same size, plus time for content migration and redirect mapping. Our guide to redesigning without losing SEO explains the extra steps.
What is the single biggest thing I can do to speed it up?
Have your content ready, or pay for copywriting so it isn’t waiting on you. Everything else is secondary.
VisualWeb builds WordPress websites for Australian businesses on clear, fixed timelines and our cost guide covers what those builds cost. For a timeframe based on your actual project, get a quote or get in touch.
