The honest answer for a small business site is about one to two weeks from the first conversation, and most of that is not us building. If somebody has quoted you three months for a trade website, it is worth asking what happens during the other eleven weeks.
Here is the actual timeline, stage by stage, with the bits that go slowly and why.
Day one: the conversation
Twenty minutes, usually on the phone. What you do, who rings you, what you want the site to make happen, and where you work. That last one matters more than people expect, because it decides what the site is trying to rank for.
We do not need a brief. If you have one, good, but nobody running a van needs to write a document to get a website.
Day one to three: the preview
Within 48 hours you get a link to a real working site built for your business. Not a mock-up, not a template with your logo dropped in, an actual site you can open on your phone and show your other half.
This is deliberately the first thing rather than the last. It turns a vague conversation into something specific, and it means you are judging a real thing instead of a promise. If it is not right, you say so and there is no cost and no chase.
Why we build before you pay. Because everybody has been shown a lovely mock-up that turned into something else, and because it puts the risk on us rather than on you. It also cuts weeks out, since the conversation about what the site should be happens with the site on screen.
Day three to seven: your bit
This is the stage that decides whether you go live next week or next month, and it is entirely about how quickly a few things come out of your head.
- Photographs. Your own work, from your phone, is better than anything we can buy. Twenty decent job photographs is plenty.
- Services. The real list, including the one you do not advertise but keep getting asked for.
- Areas. The towns you genuinely work in, not everywhere you would drive for the right job.
- The details. Hours, phone number, whether you want an email form, insurance and qualifications worth stating.
- Reviews. Anything customers have written that you are proud of.
A business that sends this in two days is live in a week. A business that means to do it on Sunday for four Sundays running is live in a month, and that is the single biggest variable in the whole process.
Day five to ten: changes
You look at the preview properly, we go through it, and things change. Usually copy rather than design, because the design conversation happened when you first saw the preview.
Two rounds of changes is normal and covers almost everything. More is fine. What causes the long drift is a business with four people who all need to approve it, which is why small businesses genuinely go live faster than big ones.
Day seven to ten: the technical part
This is ours and it happens in the background.
- Domain and DNS, either the one you have or a new one.
- Hosting, certificate and the redirects so both the www and the plain version work.
- Google Business Profile set up or fixed, which is as important as the site.
- Analytics, so you can see what is actually happening. Cookie free, so there is no consent banner to argue with.
- Sitemap submitted, and the site checked on real phones rather than a simulator.
The one thing that can genuinely slow this down is a domain sitting with a provider you have lost the login for. If that is you, start looking for it now, because it is the most common cause of a launch day that slips.
Then it goes live
Going live is the quick part, usually under an hour once the domain is in order. Then the slow thing starts, which is Google getting to know the site.
You will be findable by name within days. Being found for the searches that matter, your trade plus your town, is a matter of weeks to months, and it depends on the listing, the reviews and how much competition there is where you are. Anybody promising you page one in a fortnight is selling you something.
What makes it slower
- Waiting to have everything perfect before starting. Start, and the gaps become specific.
- A lost domain login. Worth a phone call today.
- Too many opinions. One person deciding is worth a week.
- A busy month. Which is fine, and it is why we do not chase. The preview does not expire.
What this looks like in practice
The last few we have taken live have run roughly to this shape. Direct Landscaping and Tree Care went live this year with the domain, the redirect from a second domain and the Google profile all sorted as part of it. Kent Chemistry Tutor in Maidstone was a smaller build and moved quickly because the content was already clear in the owner's head.
You can see everything we have live on our work page, where concept builds are labelled as concepts rather than passed off as clients.
The cost of the time, since it comes up
Builds are £395, £650 or £1,200 depending on depth, paid once, and you own the site. A build can be split into three payments, same price, no interest and no fees, within twelve months. Care plans for hosting, changes and monitoring are £45, £85 or £150 a month with no minimum term.
None of that is due until you have seen the site and said you want it.
Common questions
What actually takes the longest?
Waiting for you. Not in a blaming way, it is simply true: the build is a few days of our work, and the photographs, the list of services and the answer to what your opening hours are on a bank holiday sit in somebody's head until there is half an hour to get them out. Businesses that have those ready go live in about a week.
Can you do it faster than that?
We can, and sometimes we do, usually when somebody has lost a site or is about to start advertising. The preview is 48 hours regardless. Beyond that, going faster means fewer rounds of changes, not us cutting corners on the build.
Do I need everything ready before you start?
No, and waiting for everything is the main reason projects stall for months. We start with what you have, build the preview, and the gaps become obvious and specific, which is far easier to fill than a blank request for content.
What if I want changes after it goes live?
Small changes are part of a care plan at £45, £85 or £150 a month with no minimum term. Without a plan we quote for the work. Either way the site is yours and nothing is locked.
Why do agencies quote three months?
Sometimes because the project genuinely warrants it, a big site with integrations and several people approving things. Often because the work sits in a queue behind other clients and the timeline is really a scheduling estimate rather than an amount of work. For a small business site, three months is mostly waiting.
Start the clock today
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