It’s exciting to have your first website live for everyone to find. When you want a steady stream of viewers and potential customers, it’s vital to have your website up and running as soon as possible. But how long does it take to launch a website?
From start to launch, a website usually takes a minimum of 14 weeks to go live. This period involves 3 weeks of discovery, 6 weeks to design, 3 weeks to develop, and 2 weeks to modify the initial development.
14 weeks is usually the minimum amount of time it can take to launch a website, but this can take a bit longer depending on a lot of other factors. What are those factors?
What Is Involved in the Discovery Period of Launching a website?
The Discovery period is when the website developer finds all the information, they need to make the client’s website a success. This involves:
- Researching and understanding the client’s needs and goals
- Understanding who the client’s target audience is
- Researching and reviewing the technical or design specifications
A key aspect of saving time is by having a good line of communication between the web developer and the client. If you’re setting up a website, then preparation and having everything lined up for your website will optimize the amount of time it takes during the discovery period.
Once all the necessary information is accessible you can move on to the website design.
What Is Involved in Designing a website?
Designing a website takes at least 6 weeks to complete when creating a website from scratch. It’s pivotal and can make or break your success, so you need to be intentional and well-informed. When it comes to designing a website there are three things that you will always need to pay attention to:
- Content creation
- User Experience (UX)
- User Interface (UI)
Let’s look at what is involved in these three aspects of designing a website:
Content Creation
This part of website design can be the most time-consuming to make sure that it is appealing and practical for anyone who accesses the website. Content creation involves:
- Visual content
- Video content
- Audio content
- Text
Every good website needs calls to action, page titles, headings, key messages, and keywords to make sure its performance is optimized on the different search engines, which will help get as many people to view your website as possible.
User Experience (UX)
User experience is about ensuring your website is easy for people to use. It goes a long way in making sure that people who visit your website enjoy it and find it easy to navigate, find that it brings clarity, and encourages them to interact by clicking different buttons.
Here are some important aspects to remember with designing with User Experience in mind:
- Credibility
- Accessibility
- Usefulness
- Find-ability
- Value
- Desirability
- Usability
User Interface (UI)
This part of your website design focuses on everything to do with its look and layout. Where User Experience (UX) focuses on the practical uses of the website, User Interface (UI) focuses on its aesthetic.
Different aspects involved in designing a great User Interface (UI) are but are not limited to:
- Animations
- Button styles
- Color Palettes
- Diagrams
- Graphics
- Typography
An important part of the design will always be the research because trends are always changing and the market’s taste will change too. Stay on top of trends and always keep your website up to date to be successful.
What Is Involved in Developing a website?
Web development is also known as coding, and this takes the majority of the time in launching a website. It’s vital that significant testing happens during the development of the website to make sure the product or service is of high quality. Things that require complex coding for the website are:
- Integration with third parties
- Complex queries
- Complex data processing tasks
What Is Involved in Modifying the Initial Development of a Website?
The period of modifying and testing is when you need to keep a sharp eye on everything involved in your website before its launch.
The modification period is for correcting typos, features, and pages that don’t load and slow-loading pages. Final approval of designs and specifications will also take place during this stage. It is important to receive as much constructive criticism as possible to work out any problems or improve on anything before the website is launched to the public.
What’s Involved in the DNS Changes?
If you make any changes to the Domain Name Server (DNS), the server that is responsible for translating URLs to numeric IP addresses and leading you to the correct website can take up to 72 hours.
Changes you can apply to your DNS are changing your IP address or adding something extra to your hostname. Usually, these adaptions occur within a few hours but things that can increase that time are:
- Internet Service Provider
- Domain name registry
- Time to Live settings
Conclusion
Making a website from scratch will take longer than using different platforms like WordPress, Wix, and Reddit. But if you’re looking to have your own unique website it will take a minimum of 14 weeks to launch to ensure its success.
