How long does it take to build a small business website?

Updated October 26, 2026

Short answer: with an agency, usually 6 to 12 weeks. Doing it yourself on a builder, anywhere from a weekend to never, depending on how much time you have. With Frankford & Marsh, usually a few days, because we build a working preview of your site before you ever pay, so the slow part is already done by the time you say go.

The honest range

A typical web design agency takes 6 to 12 weeks for a small business site, sometimes longer. A do-it-yourself website builder can be fast if you have the time and patience, but for a busy owner it often means a half-finished site that sits for months. A done-for-you service that starts from your real information, like ours, is usually a few days.

Why agencies take months

Most of an agency timeline is waiting, not building: a discovery call, a proposal, design mockups, revision rounds, and the content you are asked to write and send over. The actual site build is a small slice of that. The calendar fills up with back-and-forth before a single page is really done.

Why ours is days, not months

We flip the order. Before we ever talk, we build a working preview of your site from your public listing information: your name, hours, services, photos, and reviews. So instead of starting from a blank page and a questionnaire, you are reacting to a finished site that already looks like yours. Once you say go, there is no long build left to do.

What actually takes the time

For us, the real time is your review and any changes you want, plus registering your domain and the short wait for it to point at the new site. That is usually a few days end to end. If you are keeping a domain you already own, your site goes live as soon as that address points at it, and your current site stays up until then, so nothing goes dark.

See yours this week, free

The fastest way to see how quick this is: look at your own site. We build you a free preview from your public information, usually in about a minute, before you pay anything. If you like it, most sites are live within a few days.