Web design and development is one of the most common kinds of services that SERP Matrix offers, and we have worked on scores of company websites for clients in Houston, surrounding communities in Texas, and many other locations across the United States. We build custom content management-based websites and mobile applications for companies of all sizes and know how to effectively develop a website that will exceed your expectations.
Not all of these websites necessarily required extensive time spent on coding either. While we do this work for many people, you should know that it is not terribly complicated to build a website on your own.
Website coding is an area that will depend on the scope of your project, how much experience your developer has, and what your expectations are for quality. Here is a good idea of how a website can be built.
Website Categorization
When we discuss categorizing websites, there are many different ways a person can build a website. You should be familiar with all of your options so you can know which choice is going to best suit your individual needs.
All of the following website options can vary in terms of their complexity, scope, and skill required for creation. Here are some of the most common:
Drag-and-Drop Websites
Drag-and-drop websites are convenient because they allow any person with a computer and internet connection to essentially create a website. You do not have to worry about writing code or learning HTML.
A drag-and-drop website only requires you to pick a basic layout and drag pre-set elements to where you want to place them on each page. You can usually add such items as images, videos, text blocks, titles, galleries, forms, slideshows, and buttons.
There may also be some structural components you want to include, and again, these elements are merely dropped on the page where you want them to be. A person can create multiple pages in a matter of a few hours.
Theme Customization Websites
Many simple websites allow people to simply purchase a theme or download a free theme to host wherever they want. The costs of redesigning websites and setting them up this way can range from only a couple hundred dollars to a few thousand.
Several WordPress websites are built this way using themes from ThemeForest, but people can also set up websites on Hubspot with their premium program.
Custom Theme Websites
Many custom websites are built on a content management system (CMS), with WordPress now becoming one of the most common. Instead of a template, a website designer will prepare unique designs that a developer codes.
This option requires many more hours than the previous two types of websites.
Enterprise Websites
An enterprise website is a group of web pages with a single domain name representing an enterprise. The website allows companies to have an online presence and widen their audience reach.
Unlike regular websites, enterprise websites have different features and tools to build and usually involve a unique content management system known as Enterprise Content Management (ECM). These projects also require significant hours.
How long should developers take to code a custom website?
When it comes to how long it takes web developers to code websites, estimates are largely based on custom theme development projects. Because so many websites nowadays are built on WordPress, that data can be fairly representative of many other CMS solutions, such as Drupal or HubSpot.
With the exception of more advanced functionality requiring plugins or custom development, development work on these kinds of platforms is fairly similar, with a combination of front-end development and ensuring the correct content is being displayed from the CMS. The time it takes to build a typical brochure website without any advanced functionality generally breaks down as follows.
It typically takes 40 hours to build a custom WordPress theme website:
- 10 hours on the home page
- 6 hours on services overview
- 4 hours on the service detail
- 6 hours on blog overview
- 4 hours on blog posts
- 4 hours on the contact page
- 6 hours on responsive views
Installation and client feedback can factor into these numbers. The total breaks down based on three categories: project scope, developer experience level, and expectations on quality.
Scope of Project
To know whether a website project will be a 40-hour project or not, you have to review the entire project scope and all of the necessary requirements. Many websites have templates consisting of only a few pages, but there can be long-tail websites using some simple but unique pages in the designs.
Some of the main scope factors that can affect your expected coding time will include the scope, such as:
- The number of page templates, which can add 4-8 hours apiece
- WooCommerce, adding 20-60 hours
- Animations, adding 8-20 hours
- Advanced filters, adding 2-12 hours
- Content migration, adding 20 minutes per page
- Design complexity, adding 10-30 percent for complex backgrounds and designs
- Content structure complexity, adding 4-20 hours
- Pixel perfect requirement, adding 20 percent or more if compatibility with legacy browsers is required
- Custom responsive designs, adding 10-30 percent if there are separate designs for mobile and tablet
- Change requests, adding 20 hours if you are seeking changes after development has begun
Then there is the back-end setup, which can involve:
- Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), included in the 40 hours
- Page builder, which may add 10 hours
- Premium theme, can add 8-30 hours
More customization typically translates to more time and effort. All these concerns can add to the length of a build-out because they require more attention from a developer and additional quality assurance (QA).
A small website may take as much as twice the time when you add requests for advanced filtering and perfect execution down to the pixel across all browsers.
Level of Experience
While many websites are 40-hour projects, it can be easy to spend more than 40 hours to perfect some websites. A total for time spent will often include extra hours spent on additional scope requests.
A developer’s experience level often has a major impact on the time it takes to complete a website build. Junior developers are classified as having about one year of coding experience, middle developers have 2-3 years of experience, and senior developers will have more than five years of experience.
The efficiency of web developers increases based on their years of experience. A website that takes a junior developer 60-65 hours to build might only take a middle developer 50 hours and a senior developer about 40 hours.
All of these figures assume that your project will not require functionality going beyond the capabilities of a junior developer. When it does, then a project may take much longer because developers will need to educate themselves to get the job done.
Developer experience will also play a major role during the feedback phase. On a typical project, developers can spend the following averages in feedback stages:
- Junior developer: 14 hours
- Middle developer: 8 hours
- Senior developer: 7 hours
Quality Expectations
The final factor for development time relates to the detailed execution of a project. In many cases, quality relates directly to price, and a more expensive product typically means it is made with better quality materials or by more experienced craftsmen.
Many people do not have enough experience to know what level of quality to expect from a website. Some developers enjoy making every line of code unique and as solid as it can be, but an extra level of precision and originality will come with a price tag.
For the websites we have discussed, quality can be reflected as perfect alignment and spacing of all elements on the website, optimization on all browsers and devices, fast and smooth animations, websites loading instantly, logical and easy-to-navigate admin back-ends, and easy maintenance.
Most of these qualities of websites go unnoticed by website visitors unless your products and services are also high-end. They can still affect your experience and performance in the long run.
Differences Based on Individuals
When hiring another person to build your website, remember that different people have different styles and techniques. This can mean different manners of coding and different levels of motivation.
Some developers can perform builds far quicker, but fast development could mean more mistakes needing to be handled by an internal quality team. Even when a developer does end up with a good overall efficiency score, it can take time from other team members.
In Conclusion
You should know that it is usually possible to predict how long it can take a developer to build a website, so long as your project will not be too complex. To better understand what price and timeline you should expect if you are ordering a website, you must account for the scope of your website and your expectations on quality, as well as be aware that not all developers operate at the same speeds.
You should generally expect a 6-8 page template website to take about 40-100 hours to complete, and try not to lose your cool if there are some small imperfections. When your website will require additional features and pages, you can use the metrics quoted here to factor into your price and timeline.
Find a Website Design company in Houston, TX | SERP Matrix
SERP Matrix does much more than just web design and development. For example, we have a content writing team that can create custom content for your website.
We also assist companies with local SEO and PPC advertising for their websites. You can also turn to us for logo and graphic design. We are a full-service digital marketing agency.
SERP Matrix has a team of digital marketing experts who know how to deliver top-of-the-line websites for our clients. Feel free to call us at (713) 287-1134 or contact us online so you can schedule a free consultation to talk about your needs.
