DataU

INTENSIVE: What is SEO anyway? Why is SEO important?

Save yourself the months or years of pain of buying and doing the wrong things and paying freelancers who experiment with your business.

SEO is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. There are many aspects to SEO, from the words on your page to the way other sites link to you on the web. Sometimes SEO is simply a matter of making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines understand.

Many experts say that they know SEO and they probably know that basics. But, without guidance from an actual software engineer with developer access to the major platforms, you can spend many years following “best practices” with little or no results and a lot of money down the drain.

• Target industry: Any industry that is also online
• Target audience: Marketing/technology professionals in a small or large business

1. What is SEO and how has it changed over the last 20 years?
2. Where do you go to learn about SEO and SEO strategy?
3. Why do you use a marketing or tech team to help you with SEO?

Learn about website in this rare intensive by CIO and Co-Founder of Data 360 Marie Smith.

Bio: Marie Smith’s ambitious entrepreneurial spirit has led her to be a founding contributor in her 20 year career to nearly 50 media, tech and wellness companies and projects which have contributed to over $100 million in transactions. After bringing her talents to work at Warner Brothers in their Consumer Products division, Marie Smith began developing her skills in the areas of advertising, sales, dynamic and automated operations, and marketing, working with companies such as Computer Associates, Electronic Arts, Viewpoint Datalabs, Digital Domain, Saatchi & Saatchi and the Nobel Foundation.Additionally, through various ad agencies, Marie has worked with the following companies over the last 10 years: United Healthcare, Bausch and Lomb, Mercedes Benz, Oprah Store, Lindsay Phillips, Valley Crest, Wal-Mart, Macys, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna. Also, Marie has managed outside program, product and services development with both Twitter and Microstrategy.

Marie has continued her educational goals over the last 10 years by attending summer and online graduate programs with Harvard Program on Negotiation and Stanford Center for Professional Development. She is currently pursuing a JD and PhD in legal informatics from Stanford University (currently on extended hiatus). Lastly, Marie has been a speaker/presenter, lectured at and produced curriculum for over 8,000 elementary, middle, high school, college students and workers online and in-person about coding, career development, corporate data analysis and technology development with Harvard Innovation Lab, the University of Southern California, University of California Berkeley, Los Angeles Trade Tech College, California State University Dominguez Hills, conferences and corporations throughout the United States and Europe.