Steve's Resume

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Steve Liu
One Townhouse Place #3Q
Great Neck, NY 11021
(516) 234-5487
steveliu7@gmail.com

Experience

11/2009 – Present
Director of SEO
Yodle, Inc.

  • Oversaw development of Yodle Organic, a turnkey SEO product for small and medium sized businesses which was the first of its kind in the industry.
    • Defined and implemented all product features and processes. Efforts achieved page one ranking in Google and Yahoo!/Bing for 95% of clients within the first three months of service.
    • Successfully and quickly adapted product to accommodate Google SERP changes in late 2010 for searches with local intent.
  • Developed and launched a premium SEO product which serves large national clients and their local franchisees.
    • Developed strategy and processes to ensure SEO success for major national brands and their individual franchise locations.
    • Delivered comprehensive SEO consulting and documentation (including SEO style guides) for clients such as Meineke, Share Our Strength, and Doctors Express, which were received with unbridled enthusiasm and appreciation.
  • Conceived and launched vertical authority content sites
    • Championed “expert author” strategy where writers interviewed small business owners and created original, high quality content.
    • Established hub sites such as guidetodentistry.com and guidetoplasticsurgery.com. From January 2011 to June 2011, sites experienced organic search growth of 150% - 400%, including sizable gains following Google Panda.
  • Provide subject matter expertise and training to all levels of the organization, from the executive team to the sales and client services teams.

9/2004 – 11/2009
Director, Web Customer Experience and SEO
1-800-FLOWERS.COM

  • Led a major redesign of www.1800flowers.com, expanding site to support a 1024 pixel screen width and introducing a number of design, usability, and user interface improvements. Resulted in the highest site conversion numbers in the company’s history.
  • Served as Subject Matter Expert for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) across the entire 1-800-Flowers Enterprise spanning 12 independent retail brands. Responsibilities and accomplishments included the following:
    • Maintained expert knowledge of search engine optimization best practices and provided knowledge transfer to all levels of the company.
      • Trained heads of each brand and their teams on the importance of SEO, how to repair SEO issues on their current sites, and how to incorporate SEO best practices moving forward into their “everyday work”.
      • Ensured that new brands implemented SEO best practices from the ground up, obviating the need to retrofit sites for SEO after launch.
    • Led innovation of cross-brand SEO strategies, including cross-brand linking approaches and content sharing, maximizing use of the Enterprise's portfolio of domain names, and helping the enterprise adopt new trends such as social networking, video, and blogs.
    • Initiated and managed implementation of “white hat” SEO techniques ranging from white-hat directory submissions to press release optimization to XML sitemaps to URL canonicalization to building great user-centered content to basic on-page optimization techniques.
      • Maintained top ranking for lucrative phrases such as “flowers”, “send flowers”, “same day flower delivery”, “mothers day flowers”, and more.
      • Performed competitive analysis with major competitors, identifying their tactics and ensuring appropriate responses as necessary.
    • Directed IT to reverse poor architectural decisions which jeopardized proper crawling and indexing of the site.
  • Served as lead product manager for multiple key initiatives for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. Major initiatives have included but are not limited to the following:
    • Usage of Google Website Optimizer to do A-B and multivariate testing for landing page optimization.
    • A platform to produce private labeled versions of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM for business partners such as Macy*s, Bloomingdales, American Automobile Association, and American Airlines.
    • The "Fresh Rewards" loyalty program for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.
    • A major overhaul of the company's Sympathy Flower pages, which directly led to a 32% year-over-year improvement in sales.
    • Deployment of Google Analytics into the 1-800-FLOWERS.COM site and training of company in use of key metrics from bounce rate to conversion.
  • Established a process and leading a team to rapidly conceive, develop and deploy Web pages and sites outside of IT, resulting in faster time-to-market, top quality Web sites, and savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars in development or outsourcing expenses. Major projects included, but are not limited to:
    • Retail store locator, using Google Maps
    • Web site customer survey tool
    • Official 1-800-Flowers blog
    • In-house sweepstakes and contest engine

1/2005 – Present
Freelance and Hobbyist SEO Guru
Various Clients and Personal Sites

  • Achieved page one rankings in Google for the following freelance and personal Web sites through a variety of white-hat tactics.
    • www.doctoremma.com (“garden city orthodontist”)
    • www.darlingsmile.com (“manhattan dentist”)
    • www.princetoneyegroup.com (“nj eye doctors”)
    • www.nutwiisystem.com (“wii exercise games”)
    • www.ps3fitness.com (“ps3 fitness”)
    • www.charitablegiftgiving.com (“charitable gifts”)
    • www.namethathymn.com (“hymn lyrics”)
  • SEO tactics demonstrated in these sites include superb writing abilities, blogging, “link bait” as a link building tactic, discussion forums, video, user generated content, use of Facebook and Twitter, white-hat link building, and Rich Snippets.

1/2002 – 9/2004
Senior Product Manager
International Assembly of the True Jesus Church

  • Oversaw the overall vision and strategy for a major global non-profit organization's Web presence (www.tjc.org).
  • Headed up cross-functional teams to deliver various major Web initiatives. In 2002, initiatives included selection and deployment of an enterprise-level Content Management (CMS) System; development and deployment of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System; management of paid placements on Search Engines.
  • Led cross-functional, multi-national initiative: a major redesign of the corporate Web site, localized for over 20 separate countries and languages.

3/2000 – 11/2001
Web Product Manager / Assistant Vice President
Merrill Lynch

  • Product Manager for www.mlx.ml.com (MLX), Merrill Lynch’s e-Commerce site for Corporate and Institutional Clients. Oversight included Security, third party site integration into MLX, private labeling of MLX features, and personalization.
  • Responsible for understanding business users’ objectives, customers’ needs, and competitive analysis in creating Vision and Scope for new initiatives.
  • Defined and documented Business and Functional Requirements, synthesizing input from end users, Legal, Marketing, Creative, and Technical groups.
  • Worked closely with cross-functional teams to ensure that development, QA, and deployment were carried out on time and according to spec.

5/1996 – 3/2000
Web Program Manager
AT&T

  • Product / Program Manager for Consumer Catalog (www.shop.att.com) and Online Customer Service (www.customerservice.att.com) Web sites at AT&T Consumer Services, as well as AT&T Internet Services Web sites.
  • Worked with Marketing, Marketing Communications, Customer Service, and other groups to define AT&T’s online strategy, identify and prioritize new business needs.
  • Created business requirements and prototypes to define and communicate Web end user experience.
  • Managed development of new Web features, large and small, coordinating with internal and external organizations.
  • Pioneered the concept of online customer service at AT&T, providing customers of AT&T with an alternative to phone-based customer support.

Recognition and Awards 
2011    Since 2007 have given a quarterly lecture on Search Engine Marketing each year to graduate students at Columbia University. Recognized as “top guest speaker”.
2000    Received recognition for outstanding Product Management by Merrill Lynch executives for the successful deployment of a major new security system.
1999    Received three directorate-wide “Spotlight” awards for “Hard Work and Dedication” to “the 99.03 Release and CheckFree Implementation”, “Effective Team Work Associated with the Portal Partner Implementation”, and “the Partner Implementation Process”.
1998    Received directorate-wide "Local Legends" award for overall work with web site development and design.  Also, received "On the Spot" Award for “exemplary display of ‘Common Bond’ values”.
1997    Received division-wide "Forum Appreciation Award" for project management work on AT&T Virtual Private Network Service Customer Care Web site

Education
Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey (August 1995)
MBA in Information Systems and Marketing (GPA 3.7/4.0)

Rutgers College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (August 1991)
B.A. in English and Computer Science 

Skills

  • Passionate and unrelenting dedication to the end user experience.
  • Expertise in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing, with frequent participation in the leading industry conferences and events.  
  • Professional writing skills.
  • Project Management Certification from AT&T and Steven's Institute of Technology.
  • Tremendous amount of experience working with cross-functional teams, throughout the product development lifecycle, from vision, to requirements gathering to design/development to testing and project deployment.
  • Expertise with usability, human factors and user interface design.
  • Expertise with branding, corporate identity, and marketing communications.
  • Expertise with Web analytics tools and research tools such as Google Analytics, Google and Bing Webmaster Tools, Hitwise, Coremetrics, Google Trends, and many more.
  • Deep familiarity with practically all major Web technologies, including HTML, DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, Flash, XML, DNS, Web server administration (IIS and Linux)
  • A consummate team player.

References
Available upon request.