Tom Bennet

About me.

I’m a web developer and SEO & analytics consultant based in London.

I currently work as Web Analytics Lead at Wise (formerly TransferWise). Prior to this I spent 7 years at digital marketing agency Builtvisible, where I worked as Head of Product in the SEO team before building the agency’s new Analytics team. I have extensive experience with marketing attribution, ecommerce analytics, and enterprise-scale tag management, and I enjoy working alongside both product and engineering teams to build scalable tracking infrastructures.

I’ve spoken at conferences including Brighton SEO, Learn Inbound, and SMX, and have run training workshops on a wide range of subjects both in the UK and abroad.

This Website

This website began as an experiment in hand-coded web development; that is, writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript line-by-line without a CMS, framework, or theme. While I would not recommend this long-term unless you are a masochist, it’s a great way to learn rapidly.

I soon discovered the JAMstack approach to web development, and since then I have been experimenting with static site generators including Hugo, Eleventy, and Astro. This site has also been a sandbox for experimentation with new CSS features like Grid and web platform technologies like service workers.

Today, this website is built with Hugo and I use vanilla npm as my build tool. All code is hosted on GitHub and deployment is handled by my web host Netlify. I still scrutinize every line of code.

Writing

As a freelance writer I’ve had features commissioned by Polygon and RockPaperShotgun, and have interviewed video game developers including Naughty Dog and CD Projekt. I’ve also written many articles on web development, SEO, and analytics for Smashing Magazine, Moz, and SitePoint. You can find links to all my articles for these publications on my blog.

During this site’s first year I combined my enjoyment of web development with my passion for writing, and put together a series of individually-designed long-form editorials which you can browse here.

Plants

Since I was a child I’ve been fascinated by carnivorous plants like the Venus Flytrap, and today I have a website dedicated to this hobby: Tom’s Carnivores. That site’s interactive tools and maps have been referenced by the BBC, Kew Gardens, the RHS, and the Eden Project. This site receives upwards of 50k sessions per month and includes a Shopify-powered ecommerce store.

Me

I live in the UK with my family, two cats, and a greenhouse full of unusual plants. I’m also an avid reader of sci-fi. At one time I was an active skydiver, earning my FF2 freefly rating and logging over 250 group jumps in both the UK and internationally.