SearchViz is a Nashville-based web design and development agency that focuses on search visibility and content management. We employ search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) to ensure that your connection with your audience is optimized. These are coupled with standards-based design and web services integration to leverage your ideas fully. Our goal is to ensure that both the user and search experience are optimized.

Co-Founder and Search Executive Officer (SEO): Thomas F. “Freddie” O’Connell

Freddie is a native of Nashville, where he attended Eakin Elementary and Montgomery Bell Academy (1995). After high school, he attended Brown University (2000), where he graduated with degrees in Music (AB) and Computer Science (ScB). He has been working professionally in the Web and Internet industry for 15 years.

Skeptical of the irrational exuberance in Silicon Valley, O’Connell returned to Nashville after college in 2000 to become one of the first employees at what is now Sitemason—one of Nashville’s relatively few Web start-ups—which arose from the ashes of legendary local internet service provider Telalink. He later joined NetCentral, the e-commerce subsidiary of Books-A-Million. Excited about the number of technology-based businesses using free and open source software, he then co-founded Sitening with the expectation of creating a company to support them. Web development, however, quickly surpassed system and database administration as a core need. One of his customers, NashvillePost.com, hired him as Director of Technology but was then acquired by SouthComm, Inc., where he met Helen (see below) and worked as the Internet Strategist. That is, until he decided to take lessons in the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) and internet strategy to a broader audience.

Co-Founder and Chief Semantic Stylist (CSS): Helen Stevens

After the acquisition of BusinessTN magazine by SouthComm, Inc., Helen joined SouthComm’s newly formed web team as Web Developer. Having worked closely with Freddie–around three feet away in a rather small office–she knew that they would make a great team at SearchViz. Helen enjoys helping clients improve their content management workflow, regex, building super-cool Drupal sites and drinking coffee. She dislikes mean people, splash pages, daffodils and writing bios.

Together they operate SearchViz, a boutique inbound marketing agency focused on helping local businesses get found—through the use of SEO/SEM, web design and development, social media, and analytics.

Get found. Get in touch!