Archives for May 2016

SEO Basics: What is SEO? Part I

Posted on by in Industry Trends | 2 Comments

Written by Anitra (DSN Content Contributor)

For today’s digitally connected society, if you have a business, you get a website. Great! Now you and 50-11 others have a website. How do people wade through all of the Internet noise and find yours? SEO. And what exactly is SEO? Search Engine Optimization is a focused, series of steps website owners take to improve the chances that customers, potential customers and search engines find their web page. SEO is not pay-per-click advertising, it is not social media marketing, it is not content marketing. But SEO is used to boost the effectiveness of all of these efforts. If you don’t mind your web page coming up on page 194, then SEO is not necessary. But if you want your web page to be indexed by search engines, and found below paid search ads, maps and local listings, then you’ll need to incorporate SEO best practices to compete.

Does Your Business Need Match Making?

When people use a search engine to look for information, services and products, a search engine will return pages of a website it believes are relevant to the person’s search query. This list of results is called “organic search results.” It is called “organic” because these pages, theoretically, are popular because people like them versus the paid results and search engine chosen results. I liken SEO to match-making – your website is in search of a sponsor, patron or client – and SEO is the behind the scenes primping that will present your website in the most attractive way to gain popularity with search engines and people.

SEO in SERP

SEO in SERP

Getting Found By Search Engines

Once you publish a website, you may be online, but that doesn’t mean that search engines, such as Google, Bing, or Duck Duck Go have found your web pages. Even if they do find 1 page of your website, it doesn’t mean that it’ll find all of your pages or even bookmark any of them. Optimizing your website for search engines involves taking actions that increases the probability that search engines will file (index) all the pages of your website and return them in search results and also that when people visit your page, they like what they experience. SEO can be broken down to two fundamental undertakings: Technical Accessibility and Meaningful Content.

Learning The Basics

In the next part of this series, “What Is SEO?” we’ll look at some of the technical measures that SEO specialists take to help ensure that your website finds its match! In the meantime, head on over to Moz for a great tutorial on SEO basics. And if you have any specific questions, let me know in the comments or visit my website and drop me a line.

Philly Tech Week 2016

Posted on by in Professional Development | Leave a comment

Written by: Narissa Wallace (DSN CEO)

It was really good to see the number of sistas attending the Philly Tech Week festivities this year.  Due to my schedule, I haven’t been able to attend the last few years, but I made a concerted effort to attend at least 3 events this year.

The first event that I attended during the Philly Tech Week was a Women in Tech Workshop that was organized by The Professional Women’s Committee of The Pyramid Club which was held @ on Monday 5/2 from 6 – 8.   The focus was on “Gender and Equality in Tech” and how Philadelphia could position itself to lead the way.  It started out with a very nice networking session from 5 – 6 and then a brief opening by City Councilman David Oh followed by a lively discussion on “Gender & Equality in Tech” by 5 female and 1 male panelist.  This panel was moderated by Franne McNeil, president of Significant Business Results. and consisted of Eileen Gadsen, owner of E-Region Enterprises and former president of the local chapter of Black Data Processing Associates, Brigitte Daniel, Executive VP of Wilco Electronic Systems, NaTasha Richburg, an IT consultant, author and adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Tiffanie Stanard, founder and CEO of Prestige Concepts and We are MENT, and the only male panelist, Philip Jaurigue, President of Sabre Systems, Inc.

On Tuesday, Tuesday, 5/3, I attended an event hosted and coordinated by The ITEM.  This event was titled “Technology & Talent Development” and focused on skills (technical and soft) that employers are looking for to fill existing employment opportunities within their firms and that potential candidates need to have to acquire those positions.  This panel included Tom Elliot, API Engineer from Thomson Reuters, Anthony Clabaro, Principal Software Engineer, Momentum Dynamics, Christopher Coor, Director of Technology, Tonic Design and Tiffanie Stannard, founder wearement.  The panel was moderated by Arie Mangrum, IV of Agile Hires.

The last one that I had the pleasure of attending was the 2nd Annual Women in Tech Soiree, held on Wednesday, 5/4 from 6 – 9 pm.  This networking event was a collaborative effort coordinated by Girl Develop It Philly, Candidate Philly and Mogulette.  The keynote speaker at this event was Amanda Steinberg who was followed by an all-female panel that included Darla Henning-Wolfe, Desiree Peterkin Bell, Amber Wanner, Tiffanie Stanard, and Simone Berkower (NYC) and was moderated by of  Yasmine Mustafa.

As a former Technology Coordinator of the Workforce 2000 Advisory Council and Project Manager for the Mayor’s Commission on Technology for the City of Philadelphia from 1996 – 2007, I used to be very active in the Tech scene in the city when it was just in its infancy.  Now there are start-ups all over the City and the industry appears to be booming.  Although I’m still looking forward to the day when the crowd is more diverse, it was still great to see more young African American women, and men among the crowd and to have the opportunity to move around in this circle once again.

Since I’m currently pursuing several endeavors in addition to the DSNetwork, my schedule stays pretty busy, but I have been making an attempt to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the Philly Tech scene.  It is my hope to identify the sistas who are actively engaged in the Philly Tech scene and get them to share their experiences, successes, achievements as well as their struggle to position themselves accordingly within the industry.   The workshops that I attended barely scratched the surface of the number of the informative workshops scheduled.  However, I can say that I acquired some valuable information and made some great connections.  Hopefully next year the members of the DSNetwork will be able participate in the planning process as well.

Check out the slide show developed by our own DigitalSistas Network member, Bernetta Ayers on our Facebook page!