Stacey Morgan Smith, Certified eMarketer
Director of Search Engine Optimization

Stacey Morgan Smith joined our team in early 2007. She is a certified eMarketer and is certified in Google Analytics. In addition to SEO, she specializes in social media marketing and proofreading.

Stacey spent over 14 years as an editor, writer, and proofreader. She worked for The National Captioning Institute, creating closed captions for recorded video, and for Elias, Matz, Tiernan, & Herrick LLP, a Washington, D.C. corporate law firm. She has moved from Northern to Central Virginia and back again as the wife of a Virginia State Parks Chief Ranger.

Stacey earned a B.A. in English from Virginia Tech and, with her passion for learning, takes several courses a year to continue her education. She is currently expanding her HTML & CSS knowledge.

Before joining NetStrategies, Stacey ran her own decorative art business, creating and selling beadwork and gourd basketry. This gave her insight into helping her customers make the best decisions to fulfill their needs and taught her the importance of good website design and search engine optimization.

Why did you make the switch to SEO?

I learned the basics of SEO while working on my own art website. I found it really interesting, and it used a lot of my skills, including proofreading, writing, and attention to detail. After beadwork took its toll on my wrists, a move back to Northern Virginia presented the perfect opportunity to begin this new endeavor, which is a natural extension of my English degree.

What is the most frequent error you see in websites when it comes to SEO?

A site that has the same title on every page. A well-structured, targeted title is like a page summary. It lets searchers and search engines know exactly what a page is about.

Do you recommend any good books on SEO?

A good website needs good structure, great design, and exceptional content. "Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works" by Ginny Redish offers great advice on this crucial part of search engine optimization. Good content will entice customers and earn links.

What is the advantage of hiring an SEO professional versus doing it yourself as a Web master?

After seeing my own art website gain traction when I updated content and made basic changes to its structure, I wondered what other improvements I could pursue. As a small business owner, though, I simply didn’t have the time to create my art, market it, run my business, AND learn and implement search engine optimization.

This is where having a dedicated SEO specialist can help. Outsourced SEO requires no benefits and no sick days!

Follow Stacey on Twitter for tips to help you with your SEO.