Shari Thurow

Shari Thurow is the founder and Search Engine Optimization Director for Omni Marketing Interactive. She has been designing and promoting web sites since 1995. Shari says that the first site she ever did was a search engine friendly site and was for a large school bus company. She created all of their multi-media presentations and built their marketing database. During the process, she encountered two SEO early birds, Danny Sullivan and John Audette, who mentored her and became her good friends.

She adamantly insists that search engine optimization has not changed much over the years. Rather, the hype over what is “hot” and not is the only part of search optimization that has fundamentally changed. Accordingly, she cautions newcomers to the industry to be wary of the so-called “experts” and insists that focus should concentrate on usable websites from the perspective of others. She identifies Adam Audette as one of the few newcomers who understands website usability in relation to website design.

She is a member of the American Marketing Association and the International Webmasters Association. She received her B.A. in Genetics and Developmental Biology and M.A. in Asian Studies/Japanese from the University of Illinois. She is the author of Search Engine Visibility, 2nd Edition.