A rebuild runs through five phases: structure, design, content, build, and launch. The building is rarely what takes the time. Projects stall waiting on content and approvals from the business, which is why the schedule depends more on your availability than on the developer's.

Phase one: structure

Before anything visual, the page list, hierarchy, and addresses get settled. An hour or two of conversation producing a single page that everything else is built against.

Skipping it feels efficient and is where most revision cycles originate, since an unresolved structural question resurfaces later as an argument about a layout. The detail of what this covers is in building the site structure before the design.

What you supply: the services, the areas, what work you want more of. Typical duration: under a week.

Phase two: design

Usually the homepage and one or two interior templates rather than every page. Once those are agreed, the remaining pages follow the same patterns.

Useful feedback here is specific and about the visitor. "The number is hard to find on a phone" is actionable. "It does not feel right" is not, and it is the response that produces a second round with no clear direction.

What you supply: logo files, brand colours if they exist, and decisions rather than reactions. Typical duration: one to three weeks including revisions.

Phase three: content

The phase that determines the schedule, and the one businesses consistently underestimate.

Every page needs words and images. Where the business is writing them, this is where months disappear. Where someone else is writing them, it still requires an interview and a factual review, and the review is where projects sit when the owner is busy.

What you supply: photographs of real work, answers to questions, and prompt approvals. Typical duration: one to eight weeks, and the range is almost entirely about availability rather than difficulty.

Phase four: build

The part people picture when they think about a website project, and often the most predictable.

Pages are built to the agreed templates, forms are wired up and tested with real submissions, the search layer is applied, and everything is checked on real devices. Because it happens against a settled structure and approved designs, it tends to run to estimate.

What you supply: very little, which is why this phase is quiet. Typical duration: one to three weeks for a small business site.

Phase five: launch

Short, and the phase with the most that can go wrong. Redirects from old addresses have to be mapped and tested. Analytics and search tools reconnected. Forms confirmed to deliver on the live site rather than only on staging. The staging block removed, which is the single most damaging launch mistake and one of several listed in redesigns that hurt search visibility.

A sensible launch happens early in the week and early in the day, so a problem has a working day to be resolved rather than sitting through a weekend.

What you supply: domain and hosting access, if not already provided. Typical duration: a day, plus a fortnight of monitoring.

Where projects actually stall

What makes a project run well

Photographs gathered before they are requested. One person empowered to approve. Replies within a few days rather than a few weeks. Feedback about the visitor rather than about taste. Domain and hosting access confirmed at the start rather than discovered at the end.

None of that is about the developer. A business that supplies these turns a project that could take four months into one that takes six weeks, doing the same work. That is worth knowing before starting, because the schedule you are quoted assumes a level of responsiveness that nobody usually states out loud.

What you should receive at the end

Everything needed to operate the site without the people who built it: domain and hosting in your name, the source, every credential, and documentation. What that list should contain is set out in what you should receive at the end of a project, and it is worth agreeing before the work starts rather than after.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a website rebuild take?

Typically six to twelve weeks for a small business site. The variable is rarely the building, which is predictable, but the content and approval phases, which depend on the business's availability.

What are the stages of a website project?

Structure, design, content, build, and launch. Structure settles the page list and addresses, design covers a homepage and templates, content is words and images, build is production, and launch includes redirects and testing.

Why do website projects get delayed?

Most often waiting for photographs, waiting for copy approval, or discovering nobody can locate domain and hosting access. All three are avoidable by handling them at the start.

What does the client actually have to do?

Supply photographs of real work, answer questions about how the job runs, approve promptly, and provide domain and hosting access. One named decision-maker moves a project considerably faster than a committee.

What kind of design feedback is useful?

Specific observations about the visitor's experience, such as a phone number being hard to find on mobile. General reactions produce another round with no clear direction.

When should a site go live?

Early in the week and early in the day, so any problem has a working day to be resolved. Launching on a Friday evening means a fault sits unaddressed through the weekend.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Never commissioned a website before?

We will walk you through each phase, tell you exactly what we need from you and when, and keep the schedule inside your control.

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