Why I don’t have a ‘website in a week’ offering as a web developer

In recent years I have seen a rise in the number of web designers and developers offering a ‘website in a week’ service.

The idea is that the web designer or developer creates a new website for the client in just one week. Usually there is a lot of pre-work involved to help the web designer or developer prepare and gather everything they need from the client ahead of time. However, the actual website build takes just one week.

Now, I completely understand why this concept is so attractive to businesses. As a society, we’re pretty impatient! We are obsessed with instant gratification and getting things immediately. That’s why services like ASOS Premium and Amazon Prime exist.

In the past, clients would have had no other option other than to wait weeks, even months, to have a website built for them. Now, in a matter of days they can have a fully-functioning website up and running.

But is that a good thing? And does it actually work? Can a website really be designed and developed in just one week?

The ‘website in a week’ concept will work for some websites… but not all

Here’s the thing; I do believe that the ‘website in a week’ concept can work.

I’ve seen web designers who have introduced this offering to their businesses and have found success with it.

However, it absolutely will not work for everyone and for every website.

Whether or not the ‘website in a week’ concept will work will depend on the type of website that is being built, the platform that the website is being built on and the type of functionality that is required.

The ‘website in a week’ concept would work for…

Let’s say you are building a website for a serviced based business in Squarespace. They need a couple of pages like a home page, a page outlining their services, a contact page and perhaps they have a blog.

The ‘website in a week’ concept could work well for this.

This is a relatively small website that doesn’t require the integration of any complex functionality. A web designer can use a pre-made Squarespace template along with its drag-and-drop functionality to quickly create a website that meets the clients requirements.

The ‘website in a week’ concept would not work for…

Let’s say you are building a membership website using WordPress. The client needs some standard pages like a home page, about page, and contact page, but they also need a membership sales page, a sign up page, a checkout page, an order confirmation page, a login page, an account page, and other pages that will display the restricted content that only members will be able to access. They need to be able to take recurring payments for the memberships with multiple payment gateways (like Stripe and PayPal), and automatically send out emails to members, for example when a payment is due.

The ‘website in a week’ concept would not work well for this type of website.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying it would be impossible. With a pre-made theme, a page builder plugin and a membership plugin, I could definitely create a membership website on WordPress in a week.

However, I wouldn’t be satisfied with the resulting website and I wouldn’t be completely happy to hand this over to a client.

Websites built in a week have limited scope and features

When you choose to build a website in just one week, you have to accept that there will be compromises.

You’ll have to compromise on the website platform that is used to build the website, and the design of the website. You’ll have to compromise on the number of pages, and the featured and functionality.

There simply won’t be enough time to achieve everything. As a designer or developer, if you try to do so, you will probably struggle to deliver the website on time, or it will result in a website with many issues.

Sometimes I’ll spend a whole week working on one specific piece of functionality for a website, and that’s not because I’m slow! It’s because certain types of functionality just take a long time to build out and test.

And this brings me on to my next point…

Websites built in a week don’t undergo a lot of testing

It would be great if we lived in a world where if you build something it will work first time, but unfortunately life doesn’t work like that. This is why testing is such a crucial step in the process of building a website.

When I develop a website, I test all of the functionality I develop. I test that contact forms are sending emails to the correct email address and not landing in a spam folder. If there’s ecommerce functionality, I test the checkout to ensure different types of cards and payment gateways work. I test the loading time of the website as this has a huge impact on search engine optimisation (SEO). I test the accessibility of a website to ensure it meets accessibility standards. I test the website in different browsers and on different devices to make sure it looks and functions the same for everyone.

And I’m only scratching the surface with this list!

Testing a website can take days. When a website is built in a week, there just isn’t enough time to test all of the functionality as thoroughly, and this can lead to more problems in the future.

Websites built in a week are more likely to encounter problems in the future

Following on from my last point, when you don’t allow enough time for testing, the website you create is more likely to have issues in the future.

When you hand over a website to a client that has issues and it doesn’t work as they expect it to, you end up with an unhappy client. Then you have to decide how you’re going to handle the situation; are you going to fix the issues for free, which is going to cost you time and money? Or are you going to require them to pay for you to fix the issues, which is going to leave them out of pocket, and probably in a pretty bad mood?

I’ve been contacted by website owners who have had their website built by someone else and who aren’t happy with the website they received because it doesn’t work as they expected, it looks unfinished, or it’s full of bugs. In the end, they have to spend more money getting the issues resolved, and this takes time too. Suddenly, the whole ‘website in a week’ concept doesn’t seem so great!

Websites built in a week may not be scalable

As I mentioned before, the ‘website in a week’ concept won’t work well for all website platforms. It’s better suited to drag and drop page builder platforms such as Squarespace.

And while Squarespace might be a good choice for the client in the moment when they want to get a website up and running as quickly as possible, it might not be the best choice in the long run.

Yes, the client might only need a basic three page, information-based website right now, but what about one or two years time? What if they have plans to add functionality to the website that can’t be achieved in their website platform of choice?

Their existing website that was built in one week might not be scalable. And if they’re going to need to move to a different website platform in order to scale their website, they’re going to need to have a new website built, which in turn is going to cost more money.

A high quality website takes time to build!

All of the above reasons are exactly why I don’t offer a ‘website in a week’ service as a web developer.

In order to create a high quality website that meets the client’s requirements and helps them to achieve their goals, I need time. I’m not prepared to cut corners and make sacrifices as I know this will ultimately cost the client more money in the long term.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I do believe that the ‘website in a week’ service can work for certain websites, built on certain platforms, with certain functionality, but it’s not a universal solution. So I am not saying “Don’t offer this a service”; I am just explaining why I don’t offer this as a service.

It’s important to recognise when a client and their business would be a good fit for the ‘website in a week’ concept and to ensure they know the drawbacks of this approach and avoid any difficult situations in the future.

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