Creating a website can be a very rewarding experience. Whether you’re building a personal site to share things with friends and family or a site for your business, you want to make sure it’s done right.
Key Takeaways:
- Using a “WYSIWYG” (“What You See Is What You Get”) interface means that however you make your site look on the back end is what your visitors see.
- The length of time it takes to build a website depends on many factors and what you’re taking into account when it comes to building the site itself.
- Modern websites typically use multiple programming languages, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more. An experienced programmer should expect to spend between four and six weeks of time ― roughly eight hours per day ― on the project.
Best Website Builders
Building a website is faster and easier than you would imagine. The easy-to-use website building tools can often have a site up and running in less than a day. In this article, you’ll learn how long it takes to build a website using some of the most common tools available, and how to keep it up and running long into the future. Here’s a quick preview of the best five website builders:
How To Use Website Building Services
For the vast majority of people who want to build a website, using some type of website-building software or service is the best option. These tools allow you to create a website without having to know much if any, coding.
In most cases, these services allow you to create a full website by simply dragging and dropping the different components of the page where you want them.
For example, you can add an image or video to a website by uploading the item you want to the tool similar to how you would attach an image to an email. You can then drag it to the location on your page where you want it displayed. You’re also able to type in any written content that you’re looking to share with your audience.
This is all done using a “WYSIWYG” interface. WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get” and means that however you make your site look on the back end is what your visitors see.
How Long Does It Take To Build a Website?
The length of time it takes to build a website depends on many factors and what you’re taking into account when it comes to building the site itself.
The following are some of the most significant things that impact how long it takes for you to build your site:
- How you’re building your site: How you make your site has a big impact on how long it takes. There are several different website building tools that require different steps and, therefore, different amounts of time.
- The amount of customization needed: If you’re looking for a very basic website with little customization it takes less time than a site that’s completely customized from top to bottom.
- Browsing templates: Most website builders allow you to use design templates to get your site started. There are often hundreds, or even thousands, to choose from so how long you take picking out your favorite could have a big impact on the total time you spend making the site.
- Initial content to publish: Generally, you want to include the initial content that you publish in the time spent creating your website. If, for example, you have to write out the content for your home page, that may add several hours of work to the process.
- Your experience: You can create a website with virtually no experience at all, but it typically takes longer to complete. The more times you have made a website, the faster things go.
Of course, other factors can be considered. Whenever allotting time to create a website, you should expect some steps to take longer than you planned, and others to go more quickly.
Different Types of Website Builders
For most users, a website builder or content management system is the best way to create their website. These are services that allow you to make an entire site without having to know any type of programming.
There are many different tools and services available to help you to make a beautiful website. Some of them are designed to create specific types of sites, such as an e-commerce sites. Others can be customized heavily to create just about any site you want.
The following are some of the most popular website builders available today. Some of them are tools that you can use to make a website on any hosting service like WordPress.
Others are full services that include not only the website building tools but also hosting, marketing tools, and much more. Below is a brief introduction of each of these popular options to get a better understanding of how long using each will take.
How Long Does It Take To Build a Website With Squarespace?
Squarespace is another easy-to-use website-building tool that’s very popular. When you sign up with this service, you receive hosting, templates, and lots of design options to consider.
On average it takes a little longer to build a site with Squarespace than many other site-building tools because Squarespace gives you so many choices. The results, however, are excellent.
You can expect to spend an hour getting your site operational with some basic templates. Beyond that, it could take you a lifetime to complete. At Digital.com, we’re big fans of this service and wrote up a guide on how to create a website with Squarespace that you may want to check out.
How Long Does It Take To Build a Website on GoDaddy?
GoDaddy is one of the most popular website builder services on the net today. It has been around for a long time and has several great features. Whether you’re looking to make a simple personal blog or an advanced business site, Wix is there to help.
Getting your site up and running can be done in as soon as 5 to 10 minutes. Making customizations to personalize your site usually takes another hour or so.
Beyond that, you can continue working on your site as you have time. If you’re interested in Wix, consider reading our full GoDaddy website builder review.
How Long Does It Take To Build a Website in Web.com?
When you start to look at website builder templates you’ll find several options – and this would be true for a custom site as well. Options are good in one sense because it ensures diversity across internet websites. In another sense, a wide selection of colors, layouts, and design elements may be hard to choose from when you’re making a website.
If you have a logo, letterhead, brochures, business cards, or ads, you’ve already done at least some visual branding for your business. If you like your logo and your brand messaging, you should choose a template that fits with what you’ve already created.
How Long Does It Take To Build a Website in Leadpages?
Begin with a template, under the Sites section of your navigation menu, there’s a purple button that says, “Create New Site.” This button will launch the sits template gallery. Its templates include pre-built sections with placeholder widgets and are organized into distinct sections, columns, and rows—each of which you can customize to further edit your page.
You can incentivize visitors to opt-in on your site by offering a lead magnet. When you’re satisfied, click Publish in the top-right corner of the builder to go live, each site page will get its own URL at your Leadpages Domain.
How Long Does It Take To Build a Website in Zyro?
Choose the type of website you want to build. Start on your homepage, Zyro has a drag-and-drop interface, it’s easy to try different layouts for your home page and move things around. Then, edit the header, footer, favicon, and logo of your website. Small business owners who are interested in setting up an online store can add e-commerce functionality.
All of your changes are saved automatically as you edit your website. Before you publish your site, make sure you’ve double-checked the mobile version and connected your domain name to your creation. For marketing purposes, Zyro gives you access to a whole integrations section in your website settings for marketing.
How Long Does It Take to Code Your Own Website?
While choosing a website builder tool is likely the best option for the vast majority of people, it’s good to know how long it would take to code your own website.
Modern websites typically use multiple programming languages, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more. For a relatively simple website to be coded from scratch, an experienced programmer should expect to spend between four and six weeks of time ― roughly eight hours per day ― on the project.
Of course, there are some tools and options that could speed things up but developing a new site from scratch is a very time-consuming process.
Don’t Forget to Maintain Your Site
Website builders are available on both online and offline platforms. Building a website generally doesn’t take nearly as long to complete as most people would expect. Finding the best website builder helps you to manage your website conveniently. Maintaining the site and keeping it active with fresh content, however, often takes much longer.
Of course, that depends largely on your goals for your site and the type of content you’re publishing. In the end, you need to be committed to keeping your site updated long into the future if it’s going to be worth your time to build in the first place.