1. How long does it take to build a website?
It really depends on how big you want your website to be. For a rule of thumb (since I've only had one customer), I can get a 3-page website done within half a week.
2. Are SEO/meta tags actually effective?
They are. In fact, I recommend getting a Google Search Console for your website. That will let you set up SEO/meta tags for your website, so when people search key terms, your website will show up in the search results. For example, when I first posted my website, I had a search rating (how far down a website shows up in search results) of 14. After a few days and after I updated my SEO and meta tags, my rating jumped to 7.5 -- now it is at 5.3.
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