How long does it take to build a website?

What happens in those weeks?

Taking a six-page site as the example, it goes roughly like this.

Before the clock starts. We meet for about half an hour, at your shop or over a coffee in town. You send me your logo, your photos, your prices and your opening hours.

Week one. I design your homepage, and you see it before you pay anything. You tell me what you would change.

Week two. Once you are happy with the homepage, I build the rest of the pages and write the words for you.

Week three. You look over the whole site and ask for changes. Two rounds of changes are included. I test it on phones and computers, it goes live on your own domain name, and I walk you through it.

A one-page site follows the same steps in about a week.

What slows a website down?

Rarely the design or the build. Almost always it is waiting: for photos, for a price list, or for the login to a domain name that someone set up years ago. That is nobody's fault. You have a business to run.

How can I make it quicker?

Three things, before we start.

• Find out where your domain name was bought, and check that you can log in.
• Gather your photos. Ten good ones of the place, the work and the people are plenty. Phone photos are fine if they are bright and sharp.
• Write down your services, prices and hours, as roughly as you like. I turn them into proper words.

What if I need it by a certain date?

Tell me at the start. If there is an opening day or a busy season coming, we work back from it, and I'll tell you plainly whether it can be done.

Can I pause halfway?

Yes. If a pause runs longer than three months I may need to quote again, but otherwise we pick up where we left off.