You've decided the business needs a new website, or that the current one needs rebuilding. Before you sign anything, you want to know what the next couple of months will ask of you and your team. This guide walks through the website development process the way we run it, phase by phase, with what you hand over at each stage and where your feedback changes the result.
If you're replacing a site you already have, our website redesign guide helps you decide between a refresh and a full rebuild. The process below covers both, and we point out the extra steps a rebuild needs.
The website development process in four phases
We run every build in the four phases listed on our website development service page. They overlap a little: gathering content, for instance, starts in discovery and carries on through design.
| Phase | What happens | What you provide | Your feedback |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Discovery | We learn your business and goals, plan the site structure and write the scope | Account access, your services, one person who signs off | You confirm the sitemap and scope |
| 2. Design | We design the main page types and refine them with you | Brand files, real photos, draft copy | You review each page type |
| 3. Development | We build the site, connect forms and tools, and test on every device | Final copy, where leads should go, tool logins | You click through a private preview |
| 4. Launch and care | We go live, make sure search engines can find the site, and keep watching it | DNS access on launch day | You report anything that looks wrong |
Phase 1: Discovery
Discovery is where we learn how your business wins work and who the site is for. We'll ask what you sell and where, which jobs you want more of, and who you lose customers to. If you already have a site, we look at which pages bring in calls and form requests and which ones nobody opens.
From there we plan the structure, meaning the pages the site needs and which of them can share a template. We list everything the site has to talk to, such as your CRM or the inbox where quote requests land, and pick the platform that fits: Webflow, Laravel or a fully custom build.
Discovery ends with a written scope and a schedule. Read the scope closely, because it's the document everyone goes back to when a question comes up about what was included. On a rebuild, this is also when we list every URL on the old site, and that list later becomes the redirect map.
Phase 2: Design
We design the main page types first, usually the home page, a service page, the blog and the contact page. Every other page reuses their patterns once you approve them, so adding a service page next year won't need a designer.
The phone layout is designed alongside the desktop one. Accessibility gets settled here too: our builds target WCAG 2.1 AA, which covers things like color contrast people can read and pages that work with a keyboard. Those choices cost little to design in and a lot more to retrofit.
Giving feedback that moves the project forward
Your feedback shapes the site most in this phase. A few habits help:
- Gather comments from everyone on your side and send them as one list, from the person who signs off.
- Describe the problem before suggesting the fix. "Customers won't spot the emergency number" gives a designer more to work with than "make the phone number red".
- Review each design on your phone, with your real words in it where you can. Placeholder text hides problems that only show up once the actual copy goes in.
Phase 3: Development
Development turns the approved designs into a working site. We build the templates and set up the CMS, so your team can edit pages and posts without calling a developer. Then the content goes in, and each form is connected to wherever its leads should land, whether that's a shared inbox, your CRM or both.
Tracking goes in during the build, so the numbers start on launch day. We install Google Analytics 4 through Google Tag Manager and record form submissions as conversions. On a rebuild, the redirects are prepared at this stage as well.
Then we test the site on every screen size and submit every form to confirm the lead arrives where it should. Before launch you get a private preview of the finished site. Use it the way a customer would, and have whoever will run the site try a small edit in the CMS while we're still there to answer questions.
Phase 4: Launch and care
Most of the launch checklist is worked through in the weeks before go-live. Schedule the switch itself for a quiet week, away from your busiest season.
What launch includes
- A redirect map on every rebuild, so each old URL points to its closest new page. Our checklist for redesigning a website without losing SEO covers this step in detail.
- The new sitemap submitted in Google Search Console, with the preview site's block on search engines removed.
- Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager recording from the first visit.
- Every form tested again on the live domain, from a real phone.
- A final pass against the WCAG 2.1 AA target.
The first 30 days and after
After a rebuild goes live, we monitor Search Console for 30 days. The first week is about 404 errors and pages that aren't being indexed. After that we compare clicks and impressions with the figures saved before launch, page by page, because a healthy site-wide total can hide one page that lost its traffic.
A new site won't rank on the day it launches, and building search visibility is ongoing work; our article on how long SEO takes to work sets out a realistic timeline. Some businesses hand the site to their own team from there, and others want ongoing SEO or conversion work as they grow. We keep supporting the site either way, and further work is priced per project once the scope is clear.
What you provide, and when
How fast a project moves depends a lot on your side. We'll ask for:
- At the start: access to your domain registrar, current website, Google Analytics, Search Console and Google Business Profile, plus your logo, your list of services and the area you cover.
- During design: real photos of your work and team, and drafts of your main pages. Rough material helps too, like service notes and the questions customers ask on the phone.
- During development: final copy for every page, who receives each form's leads, and access to any connected tools.
- At launch: someone who can change your domain's DNS settings, or a login that lets us do it.
Content is often where schedules slip, so start writing in the first week.
What sets the website development timeline
Most of the websites we build launch in six to ten weeks, depending on scope. Where yours lands in that range comes down to a few things:
- The number of unique page types. Twenty service pages from one template take less time than five pages that each need their own layout.
- Integrations and custom features. A contact form is quick, while a quoting tool, a customer portal or a CRM sync adds build and testing time.
- Whether the content is ready. Copy and photos that exist in week two move a project faster than ones still missing in week seven.
- How quickly decisions come back. A few days' wait for each approval adds up across four phases.
- Migration on a rebuild. Moving years of old pages and mapping every URL takes longer on a large site.
Most of these move the price as well as the schedule. Our breakdown of what drives website redesign cost goes through them one at a time.
Common questions about the website development process
What are the stages of website development?
We use four: discovery, design, development, and launch and care. Other guides give planning, content writing and maintenance stages of their own; XB Software's guide lists seven that way. Whatever the count, each stage should end with something you review and approve.
How long does it take to build a website?
Most of the websites we build launch in six to ten weeks, depending on scope. A site with a handful of page types and its content ready sits at the short end, while custom features, a large migration or slow approvals push it toward the long end and sometimes past it.
Can ChatGPT build a website for my business?
It can write code and draft page copy, and AI site builders can put a basic template together quickly. It can't decide what your site should say to your customers, or check that every claim on it is true. We use AI tools for first drafts, and a person who knows your business signs off on everything we publish.
Who owns the website when it's finished?
You should, so confirm it before any project starts. The usual arrangement, and ours, is that your domain, your content, and your Google Analytics and Search Console accounts are in your name, and we work in them with the access you give us. If a previous supplier registered any of them to themselves, discovery is a good time to move them over.
How do we get started?
Send us your current site if you have one, the services the new site has to sell, and any deadline you're working toward. We reply within 24 to 48 hours, and once the scope is clear we price the project and agree on a schedule. To start the website development process, tell us about your website project.
