A useful answer to “how long will our website redesign take?” needs a start condition as well as a finish date. Is the clock starting when you first enquire, when the scope is agreed or when the designer has the content and access needed to build?
For a straightforward brochure website, it is sensible to discuss a programme measured in weeks. A larger business site can need a programme measured in months. Those are planning scales, not delivery promises. The reliable answer comes from the work, the people making decisions and the dependencies between them.
Separate working time from elapsed time
Ten days of design and development do not necessarily mean a launch ten working days after commissioning. The supplier may have a booking queue. Your team may need time to approve content, obtain photographs or resolve access to the domain. Those intervals affect the calendar even while no page is being built.
Ask a proposal to distinguish the earliest available start, active delivery, review windows and the intended launch date. It should also say what happens if a dependency misses its agreed date. A conditional programme is more credible than a confident deadline with the assumptions hidden.
Confirm the scale of change first. A presentation refresh within a sound system has different dependencies from a new content structure and platform. Our redesign versus rebuild guide helps define that distinction before dates are discussed.
A small brochure website: a worked planning example
Imagine a five-page professional business website retaining its domain and useful URLs. The services are agreed, copy is ready, photography is available and one person can approve the work. There is a standard enquiry form and no complex integration.
A four-week programme could be discussed for that particular brief: review and structure in the first week, design and the initial build in the second, remaining pages and consolidated feedback in the third, then corrections, launch checks and release in the fourth. This is an illustrative allocation of time, not a UK industry average or a Smartcon Works turnaround commitment.
Some work can overlap. Image preparation may continue while the agreed page structure is built. Other work cannot: a service page cannot receive final approval while the business is still deciding what that service includes. A compact site stays compact only if those decisions are contained.
If copy is still unwritten or the approver is away, add preparation or waiting time explicitly. Do not preserve the original launch date by silently removing the final checks. The assumptions are part of the schedule.
A larger business website needs more coordination
Now consider a business with several service groups, sector pages, a project archive and different people responsible for technical information. The design may use a few repeatable layouts, but every piece of content still needs a decision and a check.
For discussion, an eight-week outline might allocate the first two weeks to inventory and structure, the next two to representative designs, the next two to production and migration, and the final two to review, correction and launch. Again, these are example allowances chosen to show the sequence. A large archive, new writing or integration work can make that outline too short.
Test one example of each page type early: a substantial service page, a short project, a project with many images and a page containing downloads. That reveals content or layout problems before they are repeated across the site. Agree who approves the template and who verifies each record’s facts.
Plan the stages around decisions
Review and page structure
Begin with the current website, its useful entry pages and what customers need from the replacement. The output should be an agreed page plan and a record of what stays, moves or disappears. This is the point to resolve overlapping services, not after every page has been designed.
Content and design
Draft the important service information before approving layouts. Real headings, long names and genuine photographs expose constraints that placeholder copy misses. Review the desktop and mobile direction together, with the main enquiry route visible in both.
Build and migration
The approved structure becomes working pages. Content is entered, forms are connected and repeatable layouts are checked with the full material. Moving existing content belongs in this stage’s workload even if the new design itself is already complete.
Approval and release
Final approval should cover actual pages, including mobile behaviour and enquiry handling. Keep a correction window between that review and release. If a substantial service change arrives at this point, assess its effect on the programme instead of treating it as a routine amendment.
Content readiness is a practical scheduling condition
“We have the content” can mean approved copy in a shared folder, or fragments spread across an old website, sales decks and someone’s inbox. Only the first is close to ready for production. The second needs collection, editing and factual approval.
Use a short content register: page, owner, material available, work remaining and approval date. Flag dependencies such as permission to name a client or a planned photography visit. An honest missing-content list lets the designer sequence work around it; an optimistic promise does not.
Nominate someone who can answer questions about the business while the work proceeds. A developer should not have to guess whether two service names mean the same thing or whether an old project still represents current capability.
Approvals need space in the diary
Agree review dates before the project starts and check that the relevant people are available. For UK businesses, bank holidays, annual leave and financial reporting periods can affect both the client and supplier. Count working days rather than treating every calendar week as interchangeable.
One person should consolidate feedback, with a named final approver. This does not prevent colleagues contributing; it prevents the designer receiving incompatible instructions as separate decisions. Resolve the disagreement internally before the next build stage begins.
Make feedback specific. “The coverage statement excludes a region we serve” is actionable. “It does not feel right” needs a conversation, which should be allowed for. Silence should not count as approval unless that process has been expressly agreed.
SEO preservation begins before launch week
Identify useful search landing pages while the new structure is being agreed. Keep established URLs where appropriate and plan changed destinations early. Leaving this until launch can reopen decisions about the pages themselves. Our guide to rebuilding without losing existing SEO value covers the detailed migration work.
Allow time to test redirects, internal links, canonical URLs and indexing settings before and after release. Google’s site-move guidance also explains that visibility may fluctuate while changes are processed. A website launch date is not a deadline by which search engines will have completed that processing.
Keep a genuine launch QA window
A site being visually complete does not make it ready to receive customers. Test the finished content and production arrangements, including:
- Navigation, reading order and forms on smaller screens.
- Keyboard access, visible focus, labels and readable text.
- Enquiry delivery, validation, confirmation and the receiving inbox.
- Images, downloads, page titles, redirects and important old URLs.
- Domain and hosting access, a restorable backup and a recovery plan.
Choose a release window when someone can check the live site and respond to faults. Changing hosting may also involve DNS records and existing email services; establish who is responsible for those settings before the switch. Do not make an unnecessary email migration part of a website redesign.
Shorten the programme by removing uncertainty
Supply approved material early, preserve useful URLs, agree a manageable first release and reserve review time. Those choices remove dependencies. Asking everyone to work faster while leaving the scope open does not.
A phased launch can help when optional content can follow independently. Existing pages with valuable information or search traffic need a deliberate transition, however; they should not vanish because their replacements missed a deadline. Our redesign cost guide explains how these decisions also affect the budget.
A realistic date follows an agreed scope, available content and named responsibilities. See our website redesign approach, or share your current site and target date so those assumptions can be discussed together.