The usual answer to this question is "it depends on the scope", which is true and helps nobody. So let me try it differently.
Building the site itself usually takes me two to six weeks. Real calendar dates run longer, and the code is almost never the reason.
What those weeks contain
A brochure site with three or four page types: two to three weeks. Design, build, content, testing, launch.
A larger site with ten page types, two languages or a blog: four to six weeks.
An online shop: six weeks and up, and it depends more on how many systems have to talk to each other than on how many products you sell.
A single landing page for a campaign: a few days, if the words are ready.
Those are working times. Calendar time is a different number.
Why the calendar date is longer
Work alternates with waiting. Always. Somebody has to approve the design, somebody has to write the words, somebody has to find the logins.
Here is an honest breakdown of where the time goes:
- Waiting for text. By far the biggest item. Routinely a week to a month.
- Each round of feedback. One round means a day of work and several days of waiting.
- Domain and hosting access. When it turns into a search for whoever set it up, that is easily two weeks.
- Photography. If a shoot is needed, add two to three weeks including scheduling and selection.
- Third party integrations. When somebody else has to issue access to a booking or stock system, you wait for them.
Add it up: a site with three weeks of work in it commonly takes six to eight weeks from signature to launch. That is not a delay. That is normal, and it is fair to plan for it.
What shortens the schedule most
Have the words ready. This is the single change that shortens a project dramatically. I wrote a separate article on what to prepare.
Name one person who approves. With four approvers, every round stretches by a week and the result gets blander.
Sort out access in week one. Not the last week. Domains are routinely registered to somebody who no longer works with you, and that does not get discovered in an afternoon.
Leave something for later. A blog, a second language or a gallery can follow after launch. A site does not have to be complete to start earning.
When it cannot be shortened
If you want to launch in two weeks and you have neither words nor photos, it will not happen. Not because nobody could work faster, but because missing content cannot be sped up by working.
In that situation it is worth inverting the brief: build a small site that does one thing properly, and add the rest later. A small finished site beats a large unfinished one.
What you get from me
The schedule broken into stages, with what I need from you and when. If something slips on my side, I say so. If something slips on yours, I say that too, because otherwise it only surfaces at the end as "this website is dragging on".
Most projects that slip, slip quietly. I try to make it visible before it happens. Tell me in the enquiry form when you want to launch, and I will say straight away whether it is realistic.