When it comes to designing and developing a new website, the two most common questions we hear revolve around price and schedule. How much does a website project cost? How long does it take to launch a new website?
The answers to these questions can vary dramatically depending on the size and scope of your project. Our team has designed, developed and launched websites in a month when absolutely necessary, while other website projects can take a phased approach of over a year. If you are looking for a turnkey website solution with a short timeframe and minimal cost, check out our CiviKit website solution for municipalities.
For any website project, regardless of its size and scope, it always makes sense to follow a well-defined design and development process. We set phases and milestones for each project and make sure we hit the goals of each stage as we move to the next. This phased approach easily translates into a clear website plan and schedule. Having designed and built hundreds of enterprise-level websites, our team knows that this process works and builds a foundation for success. View our case studies to see some examples of our work and processes.
Here, we have summarized the phases involved in creating a website. There is a variation in time associated with each stage, depending on the requirements of each project; however, this list will provide guidelines on what to expect.
1. Strategy and planning (2 to 10 weeks)
This is a crucial phase of the project, as it is this stage that determines the basis for the success of the project. Areas covered at this stage may include research; strategy sessions; creative brief writing; writing technical briefs or more detailed architecture, requirements and definition documents; site architecture plan; wireframes and creation of sitemaps.
2. Design (4-12 weeks)
Based on the creative brief and information gathered in the strategy stage, the project will move to the design phase. It is at this stage that design mockups are created and submitted for feedback to establish a custom or template design that meets the goals of the new website (see this article on custom and template designs for more information). . Design mockups can include home page layouts, multi-internal page layouts, desktop views, and mobile views.
3. Development and Scheduling (5-15 weeks)
Using the approved design, site architecture, white paper, and site map, the project moves to the development stage. This is where the website comes to life and all the elements of the site come together to produce a high quality website. There is little customer involvement at this stage of the project, but a good chunk of the schedule will be required for this stage. If custom web applications, integrations, or tools within the site are required, the timeline for this phase can be extended further.
4. Writing and editing content (6 to 15 weeks)
The value of good content for any website cannot be underestimated. As important as good design, quality content can set a website apart. It can be a slow process to create new content and migrate existing content; however, the reward is worth the effort. Writing and assembling content involves establishing key messages and calls to action, transferring content from existing sites, writing new text, editing text, creating titles, page titles, subheadings, and SEO text, titles, descriptions, and tags. . This process usually overlaps with other parts of the site creation process. Upanup offers services like content training, audits, migration and more to support your team during this phase (or before the project).
5. Beta testing and review (2-6 weeks)
Once the content has been migrated to the newly developed site, it moves to the beta testing stage. The customer is given the opportunity to share the site with necessary stakeholders for review and feedback in a password protected location. Testing is also done during this stage to ensure the site is optimized across multiple browsers, screens, and mobile devices and to ensure the site works as it should before launch.
6. Site Launch (1 day to 2 weeks)
Upon beta stage approval, the new website is launched without interruption of the current site. The release process can be simple and fast, or it can be more complex depending on what it means for the client.
Maintenance and improvements (ongoing)
Once a website has gone live, there must be ongoing maintenance, in terms of hosting and security, as well as content creation and accessibility. There is also a great opportunity to keep improving the site based on real user feedback and requests.For some of our client sites, we recommend scheduling regular reviews so that the website is continually improved.
We hope this helps provide an idea of the time it takes to develop a new website. For more information on website projects, check out our other news posts:
- The Right Budget for a B2B Website
- The Right Budget for a Municipal Website
- Open Source vs. Proprietary Systems
- CiviKit Ready-to-Use Website Solution for Municipalities
- Signals It’s Time for a Website Redesign
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If you’d like If you’d like to discuss your next web project and potential time requirements, we’d be happy to hear about your goals.
Please contact us to start a conversation or request a quote.
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