The Bay Area Search Engine Academy is licensed by the Search Engine Academy. Their focus is to teach the same curricula as the Search Engine Academy, and impart a standardized methodology to doing proper, "white-hat" search engine optimization techniques.

They are based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and only teach workshops in the Bay Area, Sacramento and surrounding counties.

Thomas W. Petty, Master Level Instructor

Thomas Petty has been involved with technology since 1989. He had a 21-year career at a Fortune 100 company, most of which was spent in the Information Technology arena. His background spans computer and server support, networks, data centers, web technology and software systems design and deployment.

He has taught many different types of coursework including Windows, programming, networks and other classes.

Thomas is only one of approximately 3000 HFI-Certified Usability Analysts® in the world, having been trained in Web usability by Human Factors International.

He has owned his own San Francisco Bay Area SEO services company in Livermore, California since 2005, and works with many different industries to optimize and market their businesses on the Web.

He is on the Board of Directors of the Livermore Chamber of Commerce and manages their Web site and online marketing efforts.

He is on the Board of Directors with the American Red Cross, Northern California Blood Services Region, and volunteers his time by coordinating community blood drives in Livermore. He has coordinated over 50 community blood drives since 2002, which in 2009, reached a milestone of over 2000 units of blood collected.