From learning code in 6th grade to cracking open Photoshop since version 5 (gosh, I am showing my age aren’t I?), I have been creating things online for as long as I can remember. From message boards to e-commerce sites, to blogs. I have built and managed them all. Not only that, I went on to work professionally as a web developer and designer for 9+ years. To say I have seen it all in the digital space is definitely not an understatement.

Being in my field, it was inevitable I had to know some sort of SEO. Truth be told though, it was a topic I was extremely confused about for a very long time before I finally sat down one day to figure it out. And once I started understanding it, it opened my eyes to the opportunities that my websites had in search engines. Not only that, I also learned it’s not impossible to outrank other websites out there.

This was a huge revelation for me. I always had this belief in my head that because everyone else is doing SEO, how could I possibly ever rank at the top of Google? But then I understood: I had only believed this because I didn’t fully understand it.

Fast forward. After being in the trenches and doing SEO for a number of small businesses, I have noticed patterns to my clients’ successes. This isn’t about secret formulas or understanding the algorithm, I am just going to tell you the obvious: it all comes back to how much you care about your users and their experience.

When I am not on the interwebs critiquing websites for quality however, you would usually find me decorating my home, adding even more Tamagotchis to my virtual pets collection (fun fact: I have more than 150+ in there so far!), or cuddled up with my 4-year-old furbaby, Mochi.

My love for web design had taken me through many successes and failures, but most importantly, it taught me the importance of quality. There is always a pattern I see with websites that succeed, and that is how much they care about their users.