What to Expect When You Hire a Web Designer: A Coaching Website Design Timeline

Hiring someone to build your website is a strange kind of leap. You’re not buying a product off a shelf, you’re handing your business reputation over to someone who is, essentially, a stranger, and then waiting to see what happens. And the hardest part of that scenario? Not knowing what’s supposed to happen next.

I’ve been in that position myself when hiring photographers, coaches, and other people I’ve paid to help build this business. I know how it can feel.

For a coaching website, not knowing the timeline costs you more than a little anxiety. If you don’t know what to expect week to week, it’s easy to assume something’s gone wrong when nothing has, or to stay quiet about feedback because you’re not sure when you’re supposed to give it. A clear timeline isn’t just nice to have. It’s what makes the whole process feel collaborative instead of like you handed your business off into a black box.

In short, the Signature Web Design package at Lovely Impact runs for nine weeks; it’s my most in-depth offer, and the most customizable to your needs. If you want to discover the process week by week, keep reading this post. If you’d rather get eyes on each phase of the project and preview the actual homework forms, watch this video:

I’m Cass, and I run Lovely Impact, a semi-custom web design studio built specifically for coaches.

Here’s the full nine-week breakdown.

Before Week One: How the Project Gets Booked

• Website vision call. We talk through what your business needs and whether Lovely Impact is the right fit.
• Proposal, contract, and payment. If it’s a fit, I’ll send your project proposal, a contract, and a payment link.
• Client intake form. Covers your niche, your offers, and everything you already know about where your business is headed.
• Book your Business Clarity Call. The link is at the bottom of your intake form. This call is what starts your nine-week clock.

Weeks 1–3: Business Clarity, Kickoff, and Getting Ready to Build

Week 1: Business Clarity Call

• 90-minute deep dive into your business
• Niche, ideal client, offers, and how they’re structured
• Brand name, colors, keywords, and a look at palette samples and past logo work
• Brand photography discussion
• Ends with your project kickoff call scheduled

Week 2: Project Kickoff Call

• We talk through what pages you think you need and build an official site map together
• Every remaining call and phase gets scheduled
• Full walkthrough of your upcoming homework, so nothing catches you off guard
• Three forms get assigned here: a Project Timeline Confirmation form, a copywriting form (your biggest piece of homework), and a website setup form
• Copy call gets scheduled before we hang up

Week 3: Copy Call

• Project Timeline Confirmation form due
• Copywriting homework form due
• We talk through your voice, tone, and phrasing
• Clears up anything you were stuck on in the copywriting form
• Sets us up for the copywriting phase

Weeks 4–6: Branding and Copywriting, at the Same Time

Branding and copywriting often overlap with each other, rather than one after the other. It’s a big part of why this timeline isn’t as long as people assume.

Week 4: Creation

• Branding work begins, built from everything gathered in your Business Clarity Call: niche, offers, brand keywords, the palettes and logos you responded to
• Copywriting work begins, page by page

Week 5: Delivery & Review

• Branding delivered through a branding approval form, where you leave your feedback directly
• Copy delivered through a copy approval form with links to the Google Doc, organized page by page, so you can see exactly how it’ll read on the live site

Week 6: Revisions

• Website setup form due
• Branding approval form due, revisions completed
• Branding and logos packaged in preparation for website design, delivered to you for use
• Copy approval form due, revisions completed
• Copy finalized and document locked to prevent further changes until after website design is completed, available to you for use

Weeks 7–9: Website Design, Review, and Revisions

Week 7: Web Design Week

• Domain connection, photo uploads, and account login checks (Google Analytics, Flodesk and/or your booking platform, legal pages, and anything else your site needs) get handled
• I load your finalized copy and images into your site and create your entire website design
• I log in to your Flodesk account and set up your subscribe form, welcome email, and automated delivery workflow

Week 8: Website Delivery & Review

• Website approval form sent to you Monday with the first look at your designed website
• You get a full week to go through every page and document your feedback in a Google Doc

Week 9: Website Revisions

• Website approval form due
• I make the updates from your feedback so the site looks exactly the way you want it
• Once all edits are completed, I go through and wrap things up: adding alt tags to your images, checking functionality of all buttons and links, etc.

Launch Day (and What Happens After)

• Once revisions wrap, we launch your site, or move it to a coming-soon page if you’d rather hold off
• A 14-day support window kicks in after launch. It’s not part of your nine weeks, it’s just here for peace of mind
• Support covers things like Showit errors, issues with your legal popups, or problems with your Flodesk or booking form
• It doesn’t cover new design changes, though you’re welcome to add those on separately if you think of tweaks after launch

“They even met my needed timeline for launch.” — Kellye Mazzoli

So, How Long Does It Actually Take?

Nine weeks, start to finish. At no point should you be left guessing what happens next. But if there is a point where you start to question things, I’m here to answer all of your questions.