Commissioning a Website: The Process in 7 Steps

Most clients underestimate the process of commissioning a website. It's not 'the developer builds, I wait' — it's a sequence of steps where your active participation makes the difference between a mediocre and an excellent result. Here's the typical flow for a professional project.

Step 1: Briefing and goal clarification

Before anything gets built, goals must be clear: more leads? New market positioning? Better SEO? International expansion? Requirements derive from goals — anything without clear goals leads to designs that look nice but move nothing.

Step 2: Content and structure

Content is the most common bottleneck. If you only have texts and images after the design is done, you lose weeks. Better: develop sitemap and rough content in parallel with the design. A good developer helps structure and sets clear deadlines for content delivery.

Step 3: Design (wireframes and visuals)

First wireframes without color — pure structure and hierarchy. Then visual design on the best wireframe variant. Anyone planning 2–3 feedback rounds at this stage avoids expensive changes later.

Step 4: Development

Now the build begins. A modern Next.js site typically takes 2–4 weeks of pure development. You'll see regular progress, often on a staging environment. Important: content should be ready by now — otherwise development runs with placeholders and corrections cost extra.

Step 5: Content migration and care

If you have an old site: content gets migrated, old URLs redirected to new ones (301), images optimized, metadata set. Anyone who underestimates this step often loses 30–50% of existing Google traffic.

Step 6: SEO, tests and performance

• →Check Core Web Vitals — all in the 'green' range, mobile and desktop.
• →Set meta tags and structured data (Schema.org).
• →Cross-browser tests: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge.
• →Mobile tests on real devices — not just simulated in browser.
• →Test forms and CTAs — do emails work, do inquiries actually arrive?

Step 7: Launch and care

Switch domain, fully retire the old site, activate Google Search Console and Analytics. Then the real work begins: monitoring, care, regular updates. Anyone thinking 'now it runs by itself' wonders 12 months later why rankings collapsed.

Realistic timeline

A standard website takes 6–10 weeks from briefing to launch — with good response times on both sides. More complex projects (shops, configurators, multilingual sites) take 3–5 months. Anyone promising 'in 2 weeks' is either using templates or lying.

Conclusion

Commissioning a website isn't passive — your involvement in the first three steps determines the final result. Plan enough time, clarify goals and content early and work with someone who can describe the process clearly. More on pricing in the post Website costs explained.