Website Timelines: How Long a Landing Page, Business Site or Store Takes

Almost every first call gets to this question within ten minutes: how long will it take? The honest answer is that the build is rarely the slow part. Waiting is. Here are the timelines I work to for the three kinds of projects I build most, the things that stretch them, and what you can do to keep your own project on schedule.

The short version

These times start once the scope is agreed and I have what I need to build. They aren’t a promise from the day you first email me. Your written quote sets the actual dates and says what each of us is responsible for.

Landing pages

A landing page is one page with one job. It might back a Google Ads campaign, launch a new service, or give a brand new business something solid to point people at. Because there’s one offer and one call to action, the design and writing move fast. When the copy and photos are ready, I can often build one in a week or two. When they aren’t, a landing page can sit for a month waiting on a headline. Landing pages start at $1,500.

Business websites

This is most of what I build: a site of up to ten pages for a service business, with a home page, service pages, an about page, contact and quote forms, and the search basics set up properly. Three to six weeks is the normal range once content and access are ready. The fast end is a business that hands me finished copy, good photos and quick feedback. The slow end usually means I’m writing the copy, we’re still sorting out photos, or there are more decisions to make along the way. Business websites are $3,900 to $4,900, and the top of that range includes copywriting.

Online stores

Stores take longer, and I won’t pretend otherwise. Every product needs a name, photos, a price, a description and sometimes options like size or colour. Then there are payments, shipping rules, taxes, return policies and the emails customers get after they order. Each of those needs testing with real orders before launch. The schedule depends mostly on how many products there are and who is loading them. Stores start at $6,500, and I set the timeline in the quote once I’ve seen the catalogue.

What actually slows a project down

In my experience it’s almost never the design or the code. It’s one of three things: content, logins or approvals. The good news is that all three are in your hands, and you can sort most of them out before we even start.

Content

Copy and photos are the most common hold up. If you’re writing your own pages, it always takes longer than you think, because it’s hard to describe your own business from the outside. If I’m writing, I need answers to my questions about your services and your customers. Photos are decided per project: your own, careful phone shots of real work, or a professional photo or film shoot when the job needs it. A shoot has to be booked, and a Canadian winter doesn’t always cooperate. Sort out content first and the rest gets easy.

Logins

The second hold up is access. To launch, I need to point your domain at the new site, which means someone has to log in to the company it’s registered with. If a relative registered it years ago and nobody has the password, that alone can cost a week or more. Same with an old hosting account, your Google Business Profile, or the email that runs on your domain. I wrote a whole post on what to have ready before hiring a web designer, and logins are near the top for a reason.

Approvals

The third is feedback. My quotes include two rounds of consolidated revisions. Consolidated means one list of changes from one person, not three partners emailing me separately over a week. When feedback comes back in a day or two, projects stay on schedule. When it takes two weeks and changes direction halfway through, the launch date moves with it. Pick one person who can say yes, and give them the time to do it.

Redesigns need extra care

If you already have a site that gets found on Google, the new one has to keep what works. I list the pages that get traffic, keep the useful addresses, and set up redirects for the ones that change. That checking adds a few days, and it’s worth every one of them. The redesign checklist covers what I look at before a launch.

How to keep yours on schedule

Get your domain and hosting logins sorted before we start. Gather the photos you already have into one folder. Write down the questions customers ask you on the phone, because those become your pages. Choose the one person who approves things. Tell me about any real deadline, like a busy season or a grand opening, on the first call, so the plan works backwards from it. If the date is fixed and the content isn’t ready, a landing page now and the full site after is often the smarter route.

Where to start

If you want to see what each project includes, the packages page lays out the scopes and prices. My website brief guide helps you describe the job, and you can see how I build websites for businesses across Canada. If you want a real date for your project, book a free thirty minute call with me. Tell me what’s ready and what isn’t, and I’ll give you an honest timeline.