Don’t feel bad if you’re not a budding web developer. Although building a website from scratch is an intimidating task, it’s not that difficult when you have the right resources, time, and patience.
With this article, we’ll show you how long it actually takes to build a WordPress site from scratch in the present scenario. To do so, our researchers have done a lot of research and crunching to gather data for this post.
In the past, it took 2-3 weeks on average to build the first WordPress website with a fully functional capability. But the good news is that in 2022, it’ll only take around 10-12 days on average — and 67% of developers have already cut their time by more than 50%.
However, if you take into consideration all the tasks fully involved in building your new site, the number will surely increase. Now, let’s see all the tools and data needed to make a WordPress website from scratch.
Available WordPress Versions To Make A New Website
WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two different versions of WordPress. They’re both free and open source, but they will require different time frames to finish making a website. So, they do have some differences that you should know about before deciding which version is the best for your site.
WordPress.org
Basically, WordPress.org is a free software package that allows users to publish their own websites. Still, it does not come with any extra features or support aside from what is already included in the software itself. Since you need to design the website manually, the required time will be much higher.
Here, you can download free versions of the software and host your own website on it. There are no fees for hosting or bandwidth, but if you want to get started quickly, you’ll need to pay for either domain name registration and/or hosting.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a hosted service that you can use to run your website on, allowing you to install the latest version of WordPress from the comfort of your home or office. You will receive access to all the features that come with a hosted site as well as some additional ones, like themes and plugins.
So, you need less time to launch a new website from this WordPress organization. Though it’s easy to use and has excellent support, it’s also expensive.
How Long Does It Take To Build A Website In WordPress?
In reality, it depends on how you do it. If you’re creating a simple site and just want to get something up and running, then it can be done overnight. But if you want to build a high-end site with custom-made templates and themes, you’ll need to set aside several days or even weeks.
Some people start with a simple WordPress theme and add their own customizations later on. The most popular WordPress themes are designed for businesses that have websites with simple branding and navigation, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t use these themes for personal projects too.
Specifically, you can have three distinct approaches to building a WordPress website from scratch. These approaches decide how long time and how much effort you need to start your fresh website. Keep in mind all favorable and unfavorable factors before deciding on any of these approaches.
WordPress.com Approach
This approach involves a pay-to-build method, and you need to start your website on WordPress.com. The setup doesn’t require any extra tasks, excluding the site mapping and selecting the themes.
Therefore, you can create a new website within a few hours if you don’t count the content making for your website.
Follow these steps to build a website on WordPress.com:
1. Choose A Theme
First, you’ll need to choose the theme that works best for your content. There are a vast collection of themes available for different website genres.
2. Create Your Content
You can create the content at any time you wish. However, it’s best to prepare some content before scratching your WordPress website.
3. Add A Menu and Submenus
Add in any plugins or widgets you want to use and choose the layout of the site, so it looks exactly the way you want it to. Don’t use too many submenus to reduce the attractiveness of the design.
4. Publish Your Site
This step is to register your domain name with a hosting company or WordPress itself and make it available online. In that case, you can also create a new domain name using the built-in WordPress.com domain registrar. The username and password you use will be the same as your WordPress.com account.
5. Get Upvotes, Comments, and Shares
After finishing the website-making process, wait for visitors and monitor the responses to implement new strategies to get a better website design.
WordPress.org Approach
You’ve already known, WordPress.org is another official website for WordPress, and it contains a vast selection of themes, plugins, and other tools that you can use to build your own personal website.
This site comes with a built-in tool called ‘WordPress Installer’ that allows you to install WordPress onto your server without manually uploading files. However, if you want to install the latest version of WordPress onto your site, it’s best to use the manual upload method for extra security.
In case you want to use the automatic template for your WordPress website, only a few hours are enough to build it, just like WordPress.com. However, for a custom design and modified template, you may need a working period ranging from multiple hours to several days.
Step 1:
Create a new account on WordPress.org.
Step 2:
Register your website.
Step 3:
Install the WordPress software (the application).
Step 4:
Login to your WordPress.org account and choose a template. Then, go to Tools > Install Themes.
Step 5:
Search for the theme you want, click on it and choose Install. This way, set up themes, plugins, and widgets.
Step 6:
Once it has been installed, go back to your dashboard and go to Appearance > Customize. This will open up a new window where you can start customizing your site.
Step 7:
Finally, add content to pages, posts, and categories. Also, design your site, and update or customize any of your themes when necessary.
To simply follow the above seven steps, you don’t need more than a day. Anyway, if you want to have more scratches on your WordPress site, the time length is never limited.
Complete Custom Approach
When you are following the custom approach, the average time will depend on the complexity of your site. We have seen websites built in a few days and others that took over a year to build. The more complicated and unique your site is, the longer it will take to build. That said, we can show you how long do the steps of building up a new WordPress website take on average.
1. Planning For The Website (7+ hours)
Before you even think about building a WordPress website, you need to have a plan.
A proper plan will help you determine what you want your site to do, how much money you can spend on it, and how long it takes to build a WordPress website. It also ensures that you don’t spend all of your time working on something that will never be completed.
Here is the most crucial question that every website owner should ask themselves before starting:
What do I want my site to accomplish?
If you know what your site is going to do, then you can use that as a guide for how much time and money you should allocate towards it. To decide these things, you’ll need several hours of thinking and researching.
Spending more time here on research can help you make the best start. Sometimes, you may need to plan to hire someone else to handle some of the website-building tasks so that they aren’t spread too thin.
2. Purchasing A Domain With Web Hosting (2+ hours)
Finding a web host and purchasing a domain for a new WordPress website is the first step toward getting your site up and running. If you are an expert in this area, you don’t need more than an hour to complete this step. Otherwise, you need two or three hours to decide about the below key things.
Find the Best Hosting Company
A good hosting company can make or break your WordPress website. It’s essential to find one that’s reliable to use for a WordPress website and has exemplary customer service. Also, find one with a low cost per month, so you don’t spend more than necessary.
Choose Your Domain Name
Once you’ve found a reliable and WordPress-friendly hosting company and set up an account with them, you’ll need to choose a domain name that works well with your business name. This can be something simple like “wpweb” or something more descriptive like “WordPress Website Builder.”
Purchase Your Domain Name & Hosting Together
After choosing a domain name that suits your needs and sign up for an account with that domain registrar, purchase both together at once so there are no delays in getting things set up correctly.
3. Installing WordPress (5+ minutes)
To install WordPress for your new website, you will need to log in to your hosting account. The installation process is fairly straightforward and won’t take more than 10 minutes.
Step 1: Visit your hosting control panel and log in.
Step 2: Select the “wp-admin” option under the “WordPress” menu.
Step 3: Use the search bar in the upper right corner of your screen to find the “Install” button and click on it.
Step 4: Follow the steps on the screen to complete the installation process and then click on “Finish” when complete.
4. Choosing A Theme (2+ hours)
When choosing the theme for your new WordPress website, keep in mind that it should have many features, and be responsive. Responsive themes are those which automatically adapt to different screen sizes. To research the theme and install it on your WordPress website, you will need approximately two hours.
What do you look for in a WordPress theme?
To begin with, you need to know that all themes are not created equal. There are some basic factors that you should consider when choosing a theme.
Theme Usability
Is it easy to use? Does it come with tons of customization options? Do they come with manuals and tutorials? Does it work well on different devices? All these questions matter if you want your website to be effective.
Theme Design
What kind of design does the theme have? Is it clean and simple, or does it have lots of options? Before investing in any paid plans or upgrades, you need to check out what kinds of designs are available for free. Some themes have tons of features, while some others are extremely simple but still work great on any device type.
5. Creating Pages And Installing Plugins (8+ hours)
Since you have your chosen theme in your hand, you can start creating pages and installing the necessary plugins for your WordPress website. The required time for these tasks is not fixed. You’ll need at least a day for primary setup, and the project will go on forever.
The first thing to consider when installing plugins on a new WordPress website is the size of the plugins folder. Here, the most common mistake is to install too many plugins. It’s easy to do, and it doesn’t take long for the new site to get bogged down by all those extra files.
What kind of plugin do I need?
Some plugins offer free trials or free versions, which may seem like a good deal at first glance. But before you download any plugin, check out what features are available in the free version and decide whether they’re worth paying for. For example, if there’s only one feature you need, but it’s not available in the free version, don’t download it.
Do I already have everything I need?
The best way to determine whether you need a certain plugin is to look at how many plugins it replaces and how many of those plugins are still being used on your site today. If you don’t use many other plugins, then there’s probably no reason for you to install this one, too (unless it’s really useful).
6. Testing The Website (3+ hours)
By default, your new WordPress site is going to be configured with the default settings. Now, the first step to testing your new website is to install the WordPress plugin Site Check. This plugin will scan your site and tell you what you need to fix. It will also give you a detailed report of all the issues that it finds. After that, you need to make necessary adjustments where necessary.
There are also some other ways to test your new website on WordPress, including the Site Check plugin, which will take three to four hours of time in total.
- A popular way to test is using the X-Ray plugin for WordPress. You can install this plugin and then go to any page on your website and see what is going on behind the scenes. It’s a great way to see how things work and also check if you have broken any CSS or JavaScript.
- Another option is going to the Network Monitor tool in Google Chrome, which will show you exactly what files are being loaded and when (although it doesn’t tell you anything about their contents).
- If you’re looking for something more hands-on, then try the Firebug extension for Firefox. This extension lets you inspect all the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that’s being sent back from each page of your site – including those images that were loaded from other domains (e.g., Google Images or Flickr).
- Publishing Your Contents (25+ hours)
Finally, you need to publish your content on the website to launch it. The number of contents depends on your budget, the quality of your design, and the complexity of your project. If you have a small budget, you can hire someone to create all the content for you.
When you have more money, you can pay freelancers to do it for you or get a custom solution. In any case, you need around three or four days minimum for preparing the primary content to make your website look functional.
You should also think about what kind of content you are going to include in it and how much time it will take for you to prepare this content. If you want to add a lot of content to your new website, it will take much more time than if there are only a few pages and each page has only one or two articles as content.
So, all these seven steps give us a minimum of 48 hours in total.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Part Of WordPress Website Eats Up More Time To Build?
Actually, the content creation part of any website eats the most time at the start. The time it takes to build a WordPress website is highly dependent on the size of the site. The more content you have, the longer it will take to build. If you are looking for a fast and painless way to build your website, using a drag-and-drop builder such as WordPress.com is an excellent solution. However, you need to prepare the contents in any case.
Can WordPress Reduce Time In Website Development?
Yes, you can save time on development with WordPress because it is a combination of several technologies that allow you to make websites quickly and easily.
Mainly, WordPress has a powerful core and is easy to use, which means it can be used for everything from a small blog site to a large eCommerce store. WordPress also has an active community of developers who are always willing to help out.
Which Is The Fastest Way To Build A WordPress Website?
Using a pre-made WordPress theme is the fastest way to build a WordPress website because it doesn’t require any coding knowledge. WordPress has thousands of themes available that are ready-made for your website.
Besides, you can create your own design and colors by giving a simple touch to them. You just need to know how to insert HTML tags in your posts and pages, and you’re good to go!
Final Thoughts
We hope this guide has been a good starting point for you as you think about taking on your next project of building a WordPress website from scratch. According to our estimate from above, we suggest you keep at least one week to work full-time when you want to fresh start a WordPress website. Afterward, take more time to improve your website if necessary.