Your website is your best salesperson — working around the clock to attract, engage, and convert your visitors.
So, you must continuously maintain your website to increase its conversions so that your best “salesperson” can thrive properly.
However, this is often easier said than done.
Understanding what really makes visitors purchase and identifying a lasting solution can feel like solving a puzzle.
Having delivered more than 2,000 web development projects, Web Loft Designs certainly knows a thing or two about creating a website that converts.
In this interview, Web Loft Founder and President Marina Marsh discusses:
- The biggest challenges website owners face
- Key tactics to ensure a good first impression
- How to drive more website conversions
- How to select the best web development partner
- Why post-launch support is important
Who Is Marina Marsh?
With over 20 years of experience, Marina helps businesses maximize profit by managing the entire project lifecycle, enabling them to focus on core business growth. She has a strong background in sales, tech, and marketing operations, having held leadership roles at Behringer Harvard and worked at American Express Financial Advisors.
Running a successful website is highly challenging, but not impossible.
You need to know what makes your audience act, stay ahead of competitors, and keep up with fast-changing digital trends to ensure your website drives results.
Having witnessed firsthand the struggles her clients face, Marina says that the biggest misstep many website owners make is focusing solely on design.
“While design is important, there’s a lot more that goes into creating a successful website. You need to understand user psychology, optimize for conversions, make sure it’s SEO-friendly, and comply with all the relevant regulations,” she adds.
As a highly experienced web design and development company, Web Loft Designs prides itself on having helped numerous businesses strengthen their online brand.
“Our team of experts guides our clients through the entire process, from initial discovery and planning to ongoing maintenance. We make sure your website is not just visually appealing but most importantly effective at attracting and converting visitors,” Marina shares.
She believes that another common challenge is that many website owners underestimate the cost of building a successful website.
“They often believe that using a platform like WordPress will be inexpensive, but this is not the case. Creating a custom website requires a thorough understanding of the business, audience, and competition.
A successful website goes beyond just assembling elements with DIY tools; it demands a strategic blend of research, planning, design, and development.
Just as you wouldn’t perform surgery after watching a YouTube video, a skilled web developer brings essential expertise in marketing, psychology, and digital trends, creating a site that serves as a 24/7 salesperson for your business.
Companies that want to achieve their business goals must consider investing in a professional website development team that can provide comprehensive solutions tailored to your specific needs,” Marina explains.
How Web Loft Wins First Impressions
Being 20 years in the industry and having built over 2,000 websites, Web Loft Designs has found that the average visitor will only stay three to five seconds on your website unless you give them a good reason to stay.
“It's like speed dating, but for websites,” Marina says.
If you’re struggling with low conversions, watch our video to discover the five key reasons visitors leave websites:
She shares some of the ways Web Loft Designs helps clients win that crucial first impression:
- Hero section
Combine a knockout headline using action-oriented language that tells visitors exactly what you do and why they should care and an eye-catching image or video to make them feel you are speaking their language before they click away.
- Highlight benefits
Focus on how your product or service solves their problems or improves their situation.
- Clear call-to-action (CTA)
A big, bold button telling visitors exactly what to do next. Whether it's "Get a Quote" or "Shop Now," make it impossible to miss.
- Clutter-free design
It helps to keep things tidy and organized, so visitors can find what they need without playing detective.
- Compelling visuals
Custom graphics, high-quality photos, or snappy icons, use visuals that tell your story at a glance.
It's all about making a connection in those first few seconds, Marina explains, so businesses should focus on designing websites that say, "You're in the right place," at a glance.
Key Areas Websites Must Focus on for More Conversions in 2025
While the average conversion rate for websites is 2.35%, top websites have a conversion rate of 11.45% or higher.
To increase conversion rates, businesses should start optimizing key areas of their sites. Marina says these include:
- Placing trust signals including reviews, testimonials, and security badges in critical areas of your site
- Having a mobile-first design to ensure the site meets the expectations of mobile users
- Ensuring fast load times, the site should load before users finish blinking
- Leveraging AI-powered personalization to deliver tailored user experiences that resonate with individual visitors
- Optimizing for voice search to capture the growing number of users relying on voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google
- Making the website accessible — this is non-negotiable and is part of regulatory compliance
- Leveraging video content — if a picture's worth a thousand words, a video's worth a million conversions
Want to learn more about web design? Watch our video below to learn about the different design types, features, and when you should use them:
Marina also shares Web Loft’s process for evaluating a website’s conversion rates:
- We dive into the data using tools like Google Analytics, CrazyEgg, Microsoft Clarity, Screaming Frog, and a few other tools.
- We set up heat maps and user recordings.
- We A/B test: different headlines, colors, and CTAs.
- We benchmark against industry standards, and we are not happy with just "good,” so if a CRO project is beyond our scope, we partner with one of our CRO specialists/agencies.
- We look at the full funnel, not just the endpoint. A high conversion rate doesn't mean squatting if they are all tire-kickers.
- We consider quality over quantity, so we’d rather have 10 solid leads than 100 lukewarm ones.
- We keep an eye on micro-conversions, too. Sometimes it's the little wins that add up to the big W.
She says they like to see conversion rates that go above the 3 to 5% mark.
“But remember, we are not just chasing numbers: we are after quality conversions that turn into long-term, happy customers. In the end, it's all about crafting a website that's not just a pretty face, but a hard-working, lead-generating, conversion-crushing machine,” she points out.
How to Choose the Right Web Development Partner
As a business owner, choosing the right web design and development agency matters more than you think as it can either drive the success of your website or hinder your digital growth.
For brand executives out there wondering how to find a trustworthy agency in the wild, Marina recommends:
- Deep diving into agencies' portfolios and past work. Look for variety and complexity that matches your needs.
- Making sure they're fluent in the latest tech lingo.
- Checking references, and chatting with their past clients. Ask the tough questions: Does the new site deliver results, and if it does not - why? Was the project on time? On budget? Any surprises?
- Inspecting their industry reputation and seeing what people are saying about them when they think no one's listening.
- Ensuring they have SEO baked into their process, not sprinkled on as an afterthought.
- Assessing their communication skills. If they can't explain their process to you without sounding like they're reading a quantum physics textbook, that's a red flag.
- Discovering if they stress the website security.
- Exploring their problem-solving approach. Ask about a time when things went sideways. How did they handle it? The answer will tell you volumes.
- Make sure they are transparent and flexible. Your business isn't static, and neither should your website be. Look for a team that wants to walk with you into the future and see you grow.
“Remember, you are not just hiring a service; you're choosing a partner. You want someone who's going to lose sleep over your project (in a good way), not someone who sees you as just another invoice.
We have clients who have been with us for over a decade. That's like a century in the internet years! And most of our new clients come from referrals,” Marina reveals.
In a previous podcast, we spoke to Billups Global Chief Strategy Officer, Dr. Stephanie Gutnik who shares the biggest mistakes brands make when hiring an agency and how to build strong brand-agency partnerships.
Watch the video to learn more:
After launching thousands of websites, I was curious to hear from Marina about what brands find so valuable in working with Web Loft Designs.
She believes that while many can say that their agency offers creativity, technical expertise, and great customer service, not many can claim the following:
- Versatility and the ability to handle both small and large projects with equal care
- Problem-solving skills and the ability to tackle complicated requests while making them seem easy
- Reliability and integrity and actually delivering on promises seems to be a refreshing change for many clients
- Sound advice on both design and technology aspects is what a lot of clients value
Web Loft also prides itself on creating custom websites that are tailored to each client's unique business goals.
“This is a fun creative process, like giving birth to a child. While we have a library of design elements that we can leverage in addition to new ideas and approaches that we love to explore, every project is approached with a fresh perspective and a focus on meeting specific needs,” she explains.
Marina also shares the agency’s process of developing custom websites:
- Client discovery includes gathering essential information about the client's services and products, target audience, goals, challenges, deterrents, competition, etc. using several tools to analyze the market and uncover the issues as well as define opportunities.
- Customized sitemap and content plan come next. This is a very time-consuming phase that is not much fun for any side, client, or us but is needed as this serves as a foundation for the new site.
- Design and development which is much more tangible and engaging from the client’s perspective as they finally start seeing the “house being built.” Our design team creates a unique and visually appealing design that aligns with the client's brand and target audience. The development team follows the designs precisely (we do “pixel-perfect” everything).
- Integration and optimization: We integrate the website with any necessary back-end systems, such as accounting, CRM, or ERP, to streamline business processes and save time. We also optimize the website for search engines and mobile devices to ensure maximum visibility and accessibility.
According to Marina, businesses should always opt for a fully custom-made website over a pre-made solution because of the following:
- Unparalleled flexibility
- Scalability
- Speed
- Security
- Seamless integration with other tools
- A unique, branded user experience that a pre-made solution simply can't match
“Custom sites are integrations galore. Clients often need their sites to play nice with their CRM, accounting software, ERP, etc. Custom sites are designed for that,” she adds.
Why Post-Launch Website Support Is Crucial for Business Success
Marina also believes that a website isn't the finish line, it's just the start. It is a living, breathing entity that needs ongoing care and feeding.
This highlights that businesses also need reliable post-launch support and they often need help in the form of content updates and management, security maintenance, performance optimization, and SEO monitoring and improvements.
Of course, Web Loft offers this, and it’s part of the reason their projects have been both successful and sustainable.
Watch our video to learn ways to convert SEO leads into customers:
It’s no secret that many businesses struggle to convert their website visitors.
Having a reliable web design and development partner can be the key to ensuring more conversions and positioning the business for sustained success.
With its commitment to a client-centric approach and dedication to great customer service, Web Loft stands out as a top choice for businesses aiming to partner with a trustworthy agency.
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