Available from December 2026

Marco Praetorius — Head of Website Solutions · Basel

Leading web teams from strategy to launch — at a third of the usual effort.

Head of Website Solutions at Axisbits, Zürich. I own concept, delivery and ongoing development of B2B websites and lead a distributed design and development team. Grounded in analytics since 2008 and controlled experiments since 2013.

Previously at

IU International University · Finanzcheck · maxdome / ProSiebenSat.1

Portrait of Marco Praetorius

By the numbers

What has changed since 2025

Effort figures compared with similar projects delivered before a standardised production process was introduced.

45–80 %

less production effort on comparable websites

3–4 months

from kickoff to launch for custom B2B websites, including client feedback rounds

9

website and branding projects launched, 4 more in progress

6 years

of team leadership, at IU Group and Axisbits

Approach

Strategy, delivery and measurement in one hand

That way nothing gets lost between the concept and the launch.

01

Strategy & concept

Sitemap, section logic and measurement plan are defined before anything is designed. Every page follows a reasoned argument rather than a template.

Proof

Built on SORTED, a CRO framework I developed myself, with ICE prioritisation

02

Delivery & team leadership

Reusable building blocks, clear sign-off steps and a distributed design and development team that knows what is decided and what is still open.

Proof

Effort cut to roughly a third, 3–4 months from kickoff to launch

03

Platforms & measurement

Choosing between Webflow, HubSpot CMS and headless on cost, benefit and risk. Every site gets a measurement plan, not just a tracking snippet.

Proof

Led the business evaluation of a headless stack (Astro, Sanity, Vercel)

How I work

Strategy before design.Process before pages.Data before opinions.

Selected work

Projects I led since 2025

Four projects in detail. Where I measured it, effort is compared with a similar earlier project. Below: further website projects I led.

Experience

Agency, corporate, university, freelance

Four perspectives on one question: why do people act on a website — or not?

Employed

Axisbits, Zürich
Head of Website Solutions · since March 2025
IU International University
Product Owner CRO & Personalisation · team of up to 12 · 4.5 years
adzLocal
Head of CRO & UX · 7 months
Finanzcheck
UX Research, Design & Conversion Optimisation · 2 years
oncampus
Student assistant

Freelance

onlineconversion
Own CRO & UX consultancy, DE / CH · 2014–2017 and 2024–2025
maxdome / ProSiebenSat.1
Freelance Conversion Specialist · 11 months
oncampus
EU-funded university project
winet
Website support

Talks & writing

Expertise you can check in public

Invited by two of the major testing platforms, plus writing on the topics most often underestimated in projects.

Guide · Forms

Forms people actually complete

Three-part series on form optimisation, written in German: number of fields, error messages, button labels and what really triggers drop-offs.

Framework · Concept

SORTED: six questions every page has to answer

Scent, Offer, Reason, Trust, Ease, Drive: the CRO framework I developed myself for audits, page concepts and test priorities, with evidence ratings and ICE.

Talks & certification

VWO

Webinar · experimentation

AB Tasty

Talk · experimentation

CXL

Certified Optimizer, 05/2023 · 90+ hours in conversion, UX and analytics

Contentsquare

Certified, 01/2023

Fraunhofer

Certified Usability Engineer, Fraunhofer Institute FIT, 01/2017

Contact

Email is the fastest way.

For conversations about a role, a project or a talk. I usually reply within one working day.

2 project slots open from December 2026Also open to the right permanent role.