How long does it take?

One of the most common first questions I’m asked by food bloggers is how long a food blog redesign typically takes. I always say to allow at least two months for the work on our end, however, projects can take much longer for a few reasons. Here are four common ones we’ve encountered:

1. Photoshoot delays

A number of our clients have held off relaunching their websites until their photoshoot images come back from their photographer. Since these images are often used prominently on the homepage of the website and often on all pages of the site in a welcome or about section, these can really impact the overall look and feel of the redesign. While the site could launch using older images, food bloggers tend not to do this and wait until everything is in alignment with their new branding.

So, if you’re considering a redesign in the near future, get onto your photographer now to schedule that photoshoot prior to a redesign.

Make sure you get a variety of shots to give us maximum flexibility:

• both portrait and landscape orientations — remember that website banners are landscape

• include one with a pure white background — ideally shot in a studio

• variety of zooms — e.g. from a distance with a lot of background, full-body, headshot

• indoor and outdoor locations — e.g. kitchen, living room, garden or park, outdoor café

• variety of outfits — it looks strange wearing the same clothing in different photos

• multiple poses — standing, sitting, walking, cooking

• more than one hairstyle/makeup — if possible and appropriate

• variety of facial expressions — smiling, laughing, serious, looking thoughtful, looking at the camera, looking away from the camera

Make sure they provide you with the source files, not smaller “web-optimized” ones.

2. Recipe reorganization delays

Typically a food blog redesign involves reorganizing all the old recipes. Many food bloggers have hundreds of recipes, some food bloggers we worked with have over 1,000. Any reorganization of old recipes takes manual labor and the time can really add up — it’s easy to underestimate the time that’s involved here. For example, if you have 250 recipes and it takes 5 minutes to go into each one, read the recipe and determine which boxes to check for the new categories, then save the post, that’s almost 21 hours of dedicated work!

If you have an intern or assistant available to do this, it really helps.

At the start of the project, we’ll talk about recipe organization and determine the new taxonomies (classification system). If there is a lot of reorganization work to be done, we’ll set the new taxonomies up on your live website so that you or your assistant can start this process straight away while not affecting anything seen by your website visitors.

If this work is left to the last minute, it can really hold up a launch.

3. Life delays

For the website redesign process to be efficient, clients must provide timely feedback and information. Putting together a successful site is a collaborative process.

If you have any upcoming known periods of unavailability (e.g. vacations, work trips, being overwhelmed by holiday busyness), it’s best to let us know in advance so that we can adjust expectations on how long the process will take.

Unexpected life delays happen too. Covid, illness, children learning from home, family emergencies, things not going to plan, the list is long. These things regularly delay site launches.

A rough rule of thumb is if it takes you a week to get back to a feedback request from your designer, consider adding an additional five or six days to the launch.

4. Hosting delays

If you’re considering changing web hosts at the same time as the redesign, don’t leave it to the last minute to find a host and create an account. Set this up a couple of weeks prior to go-live so that any issues can be ironed out before the transfer.