Currently in Development
Craft Salon
A custom digital presence being shaped around the salon's atmosphere, services, clientele and place within the Old Saybrook community.
Your website should reflect the quality, expertise and reputation you've spent years building. For many established businesses, it doesn't yet.
The Marketing Shop designs and builds websites that help the right prospective clients understand why your business is the right choice — not by adding decoration, but by organizing and presenting the proof, expertise and positioning your business has already earned.
Your complimentary strategy call includes a Digital Authority Assessment, custom homepage mockup and detailed pricing guide.
Businesses change. Websites often don't keep up.
The business has grown, but the website still reflects an earlier stage of it.
Your most valuable services are buried on a subpage — or missing entirely.
The copy could describe almost any competitor in your industry.
The visual presentation doesn't match the quality or the price point of the work you actually do.
Your reviews, results and credentials exist — they're just hard to find.
A referral understands your business better than a stranger visiting your website ever could.
None of this means the business has a reputation problem. It usually means the website was built for an earlier version of the business — and hasn't been asked to keep up.
We don't manufacture a reputation your business hasn't earned. We find, organize and communicate the expertise and evidence that are already there.
That evidence often already exists — just not in a form a stranger can find. It may live in:A website's job is to bring those pieces together into one clear, credible story — one that works whether the person reading it already trusts you or has never heard of you before.
Before someone can trust your business, they need to find it. That starts with search engine optimization, or SEO — helping search engines understand what you do and where. It increasingly includes answer engine optimization (AEO), which structures content around the questions buyers ask, and generative engine optimization (GEO), which considers how clearly your business can be understood in AI-assisted search.
In practice, this means clear service pages, sound technical structure, mobile-friendly and accessible design, thoughtful internal linking, titles and metadata, structured data (schema), and consistent business information across your digital presence. None of this guarantees a ranking or result — together, it gives your business a fair chance to be found.
Being found isn't the same as being believed. Trust comes from specific positioning and real proof — testimonials, case studies, credentials and a consistent story across your website, Google Business Profile and wider digital presence. There's a real difference between claiming something and substantiating it, and buyers can tell.
Even a trusted business can lose the sale to confusion. This is where user interface, user experience, clear messaging and calls to action come together to make the next step obvious. Conversion, done well, isn't about pressuring every visitor — it's about helping the right prospective client understand your value with confidence.
Built to be found. Designed to be trusted. Structured to convert.
Most owners can tell at a glance whether a website looks right. Far fewer can see what happens underneath: whether Google can find every page, whether a visitor on a phone can reach the next step, whether an inquiry is even recorded. These problems are quiet, and a handsome design can hide them for years.
Pages search engines cannot discover or index, content that misses what people actually search for, and structured data that is missing or wrong.
Slow pages, mobile layouts that fight the visitor, navigation that makes people hunt, accessibility barriers, and expertise that never makes it onto the page.
Vague or missing calls to action, thin trust signals near the decision, no tracking to show what works, and systems that leave you dependent on one vendor to change anything.
Not every website has these problems, and some matter more than others for a given business. Design is one part of performance, not the whole of it. If you're unsure how yours measures up, the Website Strategy Call is a calm place to find out.
Book your complimentary Website Strategy CallRead The Authority Website
No two established businesses arrive with the same reputation, audience, or ambitions. Every website begins with understanding what has already been built — and designing the digital presence capable of carrying it forward.
From recruiting and professional services to hospitality, beauty, wellness and personal brands, the industry changes. The standard does not.
A custom digital presence being shaped around the salon's atmosphere, services, clientele and place within the Old Saybrook community.
A custom digital authority platform designed to position an experienced recruiting advisor for the next chapter of her business — clarifying her expertise, strengthening her professional presence and creating a foundation for national visibility.
A refined digital home for a historic Connecticut stay, designed to turn the character of the property into a clear, inviting guest experience. The original site was built on a template for an earlier property; the customized site that replaced it was built around the new property, guest experience and booking journey.
A complete repositioning of an established marketing agency, translating its founder’s sixteen years of experience into a custom digital platform built around visibility, credibility, consistency and authority. Every finished page here rests on real decisions about hierarchy, proof and the path to the next step — not decoration alone.
Based in Connecticut. Designing for established businesses here and in select markets nationwide. See our Connecticut website design and Texas website design work, or how we approach website design for recruiting firms.
Your industry may be different. The work still begins in the same place: understanding what makes your business valuable, then building a website capable of making that value visible.
Discuss Your Website →Before any design decision, we work through your goals, your customers and how they decide, your competitors, the reputation you already have, search opportunities, content needs, user journeys, conversion points, technical requirements and where the business is headed. The structure follows the strategy, never the other way around.
We start with your business, audience, goals and current digital presence — including what's working and what isn't. You bring the knowledge; we ask the right questions.
Before design begins, we define how your business should be positioned and what should be said, informed by your competitive landscape and how buyers actually search and decide.
We plan the site's structure and develop the content through guided interviews — you don't need to arrive with a finished brand strategy or polished copy.
Your website is designed around your business, buyer and brand — not fitted into a template.
The design is built out, tested and refined, with your feedback incorporated along the way.
Before launch, the site is tested for performance, accessibility and technical soundness. After launch, we strongly recommend ongoing Website Care, starting at $97 per month, to help protect and maintain your investment. Website Care is optional, and clients retain ownership and control of their websites whether or not they enroll. Additional pathways are available for businesses ready to keep building visibility and authority.
A premium website is not defined by how complicated the technology sounds. It is defined by how thoughtfully the strategy, message, design and technology work together — and by what the engagement actually includes.
We begin with discovery — your business, audience, competitors and goals — so every decision that follows has a purpose, not a guess.
Positioning, messaging and copywriting are developed specifically for your business, not adapted from a purchased template. Custom refers to the strategy and content behind the site — not a claim that no professional tools are ever used.
Information architecture, custom visual design and user experience are shaped around what a visitor needs to understand, believe and do next, with accessibility and a fully responsive experience across desktop, tablet and mobile built in from the start.
Foundational SEO, AEO and GEO considerations, structured data and schema, and clear technical architecture help search engines and AI platforms understand your business — without ever promising a specific ranking, citation or result.
Experience, credentials, case studies and other trust signals are built into the site so your reputation is visible, not assumed — with every page structured around real decisions about hierarchy, proof and the path to the next step.
Before launch, the site is tested for performance, functionality and technical soundness, with integrations and analytics included where the engagement calls for them. Ongoing care, content and visibility work can continue to build on that foundation afterward.
The visible design is only the surface. The value lies in the decisions beneath it.
Your reputation may already be exceptional. Your website should make that unmistakable.
Every program below builds on these same six categories — larger engagements extend the research, architecture and proof further, which is reflected in the scope and investment ahead.
A strategic website is priced around what it's actually being asked to do — not a single flat rate. The right starting point depends less on page count and more on how many services, audiences and markets your website needs to represent.
Evaluate a website the way you would any business asset: by what a client is worth to you, the quality of the inquiries it brings, how well it supports your sales conversations and the time it saves your team. A bigger budget isn't automatically a better website, and a full redesign isn't always the right call. Sometimes the better recommendation is to improve the site you have, and we'll tell you when that's the case.
Our primary program, and the right fit for most established businesses whose current website no longer reflects the caliber of their work. It begins with a Digital Authority Assessment and full research into your business, audience and competitors, then builds up to five strategically planned pages with custom design, conversion-focused user experience, strategic copywriting throughout, foundational SEO with AEO and GEO groundwork, appropriate schema, and everything needed to be found, understood, trusted and contacted.
Built for a business with three or more distinct, profitable services that a five-page site would force to compete for the same space and the same search visibility. This program gives each priority service its own page and its own path to conversion, supported by deeper competitor and keyword research, expanded proof and testimonial architecture, a case study or results page, and local search strategy where relevant.
Designed for a well-established company competing for category or regional leadership across multiple services, audiences or markets. This is a larger infrastructure — typically ten to fifteen or more pages — with complete proof architecture across multiple case studies, a custom lead-generation asset, advanced structured data, and preparation for visibility in both traditional and AI-driven search.
For organizations that need a functioning digital system, not only a content site — membership accounts, directories, bookings, payments or significant integrations. Every project at this level is scoped individually around the functionality it requires, from chambers of commerce and membership organizations to multi-location businesses with more complex operational needs.
Focused one-page engagements may be available for businesses with one clearly defined offer. These projects are considered individually during the Website Strategy Call.
The right starting point matches what your website needs to accomplish now — and what the business is preparing to become. We'll help you determine that together on your complimentary Website Strategy Call.
Before launch, the site is tested for performance, accessibility and technical soundness. Analytics and integrations are included where your program's scope calls for them.
After launch, we strongly recommend ongoing Website Care, starting at $97 per month, to help protect and maintain your investment. Website Care is optional, and clients retain ownership and control of their websites whether or not they enroll. Ongoing content, search visibility and continued improvement are separate, available through our authority pathways and defined by the plan you choose.
For most of the established businesses we serve, we build on WordPress. It isn't the only good platform. It's the one that best lets us build a website you control.
Your domain, content, files and administrator access, held in your name.
Built well, the site can move to a new host or a new partner without starting over.
Custom design, integrations and new functionality as your needs change.
Your team can update routine content without calling a developer.
New services, markets, locations and articles fit a structure planned for them.
WordPress doesn't make a site fast, secure or portable on its own. That comes from how it's built, hosted, licensed and maintained, which is where our attention goes. When another platform would serve a project better, we'll say so.
The Marketing Shop has built websites for established businesses since 2016. Our founder, Tracy Gibb, holds a degree in Business and Technology from the University of Connecticut and has hands-on experience writing HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The person shaping your strategy also understands what happens beneath the page builder, so business decisions and technical decisions are made together.
It's likely not the right fit if you need only a temporary online presence, an idea that hasn't been validated yet, the fastest possible template with no strategy involved, or if price is the only factor in your decision. There's nothing wrong with any of those situations — they're just a different project than this one.
Our custom website programs begin at $7,500 for an Authority Foundation Website and scale according to the number of services, audiences, markets, content requirements and functionality the website needs to support. Larger engagements begin at $10,000, $15,000 and $20,000 depending on scope. Focused one-page projects may be considered individually when a business has one clearly defined offer. During your complimentary Website Strategy Call, we'll review what the website needs to accomplish and recommend the appropriate level.
The timeline is established when your project is scoped and reflects the size of the website, its content and functionality, and the complexity of any integrations. Your proposal will include a clear project schedule before work begins.
No. We use guided discovery and interviews to develop the content and copy with you — you don't need to arrive with a finished brand strategy or polished writing already in hand.
Yes. We start by reviewing your current WordPress site, including its pages, content, and navigation. We identify what is worth keeping and what needs to change so the redesign reflects your business today.
Yes. We use discovery interviews to clarify your messaging and write the page copy. Foundational SEO is part of the build, including a clear page structure and relevant headings. We can scope ongoing SEO separately.
SEO (search engine optimization) helps search engines understand and surface your website. AEO (answer engine optimization) structures useful content around the questions buyers ask. GEO (generative engine optimization) considers how clearly information about a business can be discovered, understood and corroborated in AI-assisted search experiences. None guarantees a specific ranking, citation or result.
Yes. We're based in Connecticut and work with established businesses in select markets beyond it.
After launch, we strongly recommend ongoing Website Care, starting at $97 per month, to help protect and maintain your investment. Website Care is optional, and clients retain ownership and control of their websites whether or not they enroll. From there, businesses ready to keep building visibility, credibility and content can choose to Build Authority with Guidance, Delegate Done-for-You Authority, or Become the Visible Face of the Authority — whichever pathway best matches their goals.
It can help, though nothing about AI-generated answers can be guaranteed. Clear, well-organized content, consistent business information and structured data all make it easier for AI systems to understand and accurately describe your business. Whether a specific platform surfaces or cites you depends on many factors outside any one website's control.
Yes. For Ardith Rademacher & Associates, a recruiting advisory firm, we designed a website that clarifies the firm’s expertise and supports its national visibility. Read the case study to see how we approached the project.
The complimentary Website Strategy Call is the place to begin — with a clear picture of what your website needs and why.
As part of the process, you'll receive
You will leave the call with a clearer understanding of what your website needs, what the appropriate investment looks like and how The Marketing Shop would approach the work.