I disagree with a recent article about how long it takes AI to build a website.
That’s not the same thing as building a website that supports a business’s marketing, brand, SEO, and revenue goals.
Where I strongly disagree with the articles conclusions:
They underestimate several important parts of website development:
- Brand strategy: Understanding the business, its competitors, audience, positioning, and differentiators.
- Content strategy: Researching search intent, planning service pages, developing messaging, and establishing a logical site architecture.
- Design: Creating an experience consistent with the brand rather than relying on generic AI-generated layouts.
- Development: Integrating CRMs, forms, analytics, conversion tracking, and other systems.
- SEO: Keyword mapping, redirects, internal linking, technical SEO, and preserving existing search equity.
- Client involvement: Stakeholder interviews, gathering assets, revisions, approvals, and coordinating multiple decision-makers.
AI doesn’t eliminate the decisions, coordination, or quality assurance.
What I consider realistic timelines:
These are my planning estimates, not published industry averages.
| Website project | Reasonable timeline |
|---|---|
| Generate a website Mockup | 1–7 days |
| Small business website using an existing brand | 4–8 weeks |
| Custom marketing website with SEO and integrations | 3–5 months |
| Full business website with brand strategy and extensive content | 4–9 months |
| Complex enterprise or e-commerce website | 6–12+ months |
A nine-month estimate is more plausible, especially for a comprehensive website project that includes all the above factors. But could be accomplished with a smaller (less than 20 page site) for under 90 days.
To claim that AI can do it more quickly vs effectively are not the same. AI can publish a website quickly, but not understand how long it takes to develop an effective digital marketing asset.
Market research, brand positioning, content strategy, customer approvals and feedback, and ongoing SEO and content maintenance will extend your timelines.
For NerdBrand, those aren’t optional extras. They’re fundamental to the work.
AI hasn’t shortened the process of understanding a business by the same amount as making a website, period.
And that’s an important distinction.
