Tom Dalton :: Doer of Good

So, Tom. What do you do?

Corporate websites are often confusing and ineffective. I help make them work better.

Really? How do you do that?

I help businesses define their goals and measure specific things on their sites, so we can make changes to improve it over time.

Huh! (Nodding.)

A website can be a business' most effective sales channel. But most companies' sites are created by graphic designers or committees of people without specific insight into how to best use the Internet for marketing. For instance, Genetree is a genetic testing company. They had a site with a shopping cart, but it was hard for people to use and the site was confusing. The site didn't sell very many products at all.

I installed SiteCatalyst, a very good site tracking system, to help me see how people were actually using the site. I identified areas where people were leaving the site, and found that the shopping cart had a few specific problems. We redesigned the cart, cleaning up the forms and asking for less information. We rewrote some of the main pages and designed some ads and buttons to make the site easier to follow. We also added new pages for search engines to find and set up an affiliate program for them.

Their website has grown steadily over the last three years, and now it is their main source of sales. It is also the most popular website in the genetic testing industry -- its market share on the search engines is almost twice that of their next competitor.

Woah! Can you do that for me?

Yes. Yes, I can. (Smile.)