How long does a website project actually take?
The most common question after 'how much does it cost?' is 'how long will it take?'. The honest answer is that it depends, but that's not very useful. This is a more specific breakdown of what affects timeline and where delays typically come from.
Typical timelines by project type
A landing page, designed and built from a clear brief with existing brand assets, takes two to three weeks. A five-to-eight page marketing site takes six to ten weeks. A web application with a custom backend takes twelve to twenty weeks, depending on the complexity of the data model and the number of user roles.
These timelines assume the client provides content, feedback, and approvals within the agreed windows. When those slip, the project timeline slips with them.
Where delays actually happen
Content is the most common source of delay. Photography, copy, and case studies that were supposed to arrive in week two often arrive in week six. The fix is to agree a content deadline at the start of the project and treat it with the same weight as a development milestone.
Feedback rounds are the second most common source. A design review that should take three days can stretch to two weeks if the decision-maker is unavailable or if feedback arrives piecemeal from multiple people. Agreeing a single point of contact for approvals at the start of the project helps significantly.
Third-party dependencies, such as integrations with external APIs or waiting for a domain to transfer, are harder to control but worth identifying early so they don't block the final stages of the build.
What you can do to keep things moving
Prepare your content before the project starts. Even a rough draft of copy and a folder of photography is better than starting with nothing. Agree who has final sign-off on design decisions before the first review. And flag any external dependencies in the brief so they can be built into the timeline from the start.
A realistic timeline, agreed at the start and tracked through Friday updates, is one of the more straightforward things to get right on a project.