Top 100 SEO Experts in the World (2026)

Koray Tuğberk Gübür

Founder & CEO, Holistic SEO & Digital

Known forThe topical authority method and teaching semantic SEO through courses and YouTube

• Set out the topical authority method in a February 2021 semantic SEO case study published on OnCrawl.
• Founded Holistic SEO & Digital in 2020.

Koray is my mentor. His course is where I learned to think in topics and entities instead of keywords.

Jason Barnard

Founder & CEO, Kalicube

Known for'The Brand SERP Guy': how Google and AI assistants present brands and people, including knowledge panels

• Founded Kalicube in 2015.
• Wrote The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business, published in January 2022.

Andrea Volpini

CEO, WordLift

Known forKnowledge graphs and structured data for websites through WordLift

• Introduced SEOntology, an open vocabulary for describing SEO data, in August 2024.
• CEO of WordLift, the Rome-based knowledge graph company founded in 2017.

Muhammad Hamid Khan

Co-founder and CTO, CartCompound

Known forSemantic SEO for e-commerce: topical maps, semantic content briefs and entity-led content systems built on Koray's framework

• Co-founder and CTO of CartCompound, a semantic SEO agency for e-commerce stores.
• Builds topical maps and semantic content briefs that turn large product catalogues into complete topic coverage.

I have worked with Hamid.

Dixon Jones

CEO and co-founder, InLinks

Known forEntity SEO pioneer, author of Entity SEO, co-founder of InLinks and long-time Majestic figure

• Founded UK SEO consultancy Receptional in 1999 and became a founding director of backlink-data company Majestic.
• Co-founded entity SEO platform InLinks with Fred Laurent in 2019; InLinks released AI brand-visibility tool Waikay in March 2025.

Muhammad Ahmad Khan

Co-founder and CEO, CartCompound

Known forSemantic SEO for e-commerce stores, using topical authority, entity SEO and patent-based content architecture

• Co-founder and CEO of CartCompound, which applies semantic SEO to e-commerce category and product pages.
• Founded Build Goat Ltd, the London-registered company behind CartCompound.

I have worked with Ahmad.

Dawn Anderson

Founder and SEO consultant, Bertey

Known forExplaining Google BERT, crawl budget and information retrieval to SEOs in depth

• In April 2020, Search Engine Land's Barry Schwartz said she had written the most comprehensive deep dives on Google BERT.
• Judges the UK, EU, MENA, US and Global Search Awards and sits on the SMX programming committee.

Lazarina Stoy

Founder of MLforSEO; organic growth and AI automation consultant

Known forTeaching SEOs to use machine learning and automation, through MLforSEO, tutorials and talks

• Senior Manager, SEO and Data Science at Intrepid Digital from 2021 to 2023.
• Launched MLforSEO Academy in 2024 and founded Women in Marketing - Bulgaria the same year.

Kevin Indig

Growth advisor and writer of Growth Memo

Known forData-led research on SEO and AI search, published weekly in his Growth Memo newsletter

• Published The Consensus Gap in May 2026, an analysis of about 3.7 million citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews.
• Previously led SEO and growth at Shopify, G2 and Atlassian.

Mike King

Founder & CEO, iPullRank

Known forHighly technical SEO, the 2024 Google documentation leak analysis and 'relevance engineering' for AI search

• Published a detailed analysis of Google Search's leaked internal engineering documentation on May 27, 2024.

Ethan Smith

CEO, Graphite

Known forResearch-led growth and data studies on AI-generated content and answer engine optimization

• Graphite's October 2025 study found AI-written articles outnumbered human-written ones on the web from November 2024.

Ross Hudgens

Founder & CEO, Siege Media

Known forContent marketing and link-earning at scale, and connecting AI search to content strategy

• Wrote Generative Engine Optimization: The Definitive Guide to AI SEO, published by Wiley in 2026.

Britney Muller

Founder of Orange Labs; AI consultant and educator

Known forExplaining how AI and language models work in plain terms for marketers

• Former Senior SEO Scientist at Moz; says she led the 2022 launch of BLOOM, Hugging Face's open multilingual language model.

Duane Forrester

Founder, CitationIQ

Known forLaunched Bing Webmaster Tools at Microsoft; now advises companies on visibility in AI search

• Spent about a decade at Microsoft, where he ran SEO for MSN, launched Bing Webmaster Tools and helped launch Schema.org.
• Author of The Machine Layer: How to Stay Visible and Trusted in the Age of AI Search, after earlier McGraw-Hill books.

Dan Petrovic

Founder, DEJAN AI

Known forHands-on AI search research: probing LLMs to measure and influence how they talk about brands

• Gave an Enterprise Stage keynote at Semrush Spotlight 2025 in Amsterdam and spoke at SEO Week 2025 in New York.
• Trained a language model from scratch to study how AI systems choose their words, and built DEJAN's own AI visibility tools.

Crystal Carter

Head of AI Search & SEO Communications, Wix

Known forExplaining AI search and SEO to businesses; author of The New Rules of AI Search

• Author of The New Rules of AI Search: SEO for Visibility in ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Generative Search (Wiley, 2026).
• Co-hosted Wix's weekly SERP's Up SEO podcast with Mordy Oberstein, which marked its 100th episode in September 2024.

Metehan Yesilyurt

GEO Researcher, Peec AI

Known forExperiments on how AI search engines like ChatGPT retrieve, rank and cite web content

• In October 2026 published a Peec AI experiment showing that 50,000 unverified AI-generated statistics pages kept getting cited by ChatGPT.
• Spoke at brightonSEO in April 2025 on generative AI and GEO.

Chris Long

Co-founder, Nectiv

Known forB2B SEO and AI search strategy, plus data studies on ChatGPT and Gemini query fan-out

• Previously VP of Marketing at the agency Go Fish Digital.
• Presented a study of 28,000+ ChatGPT and Gemini fan-out queries at brightonSEO.

Jes Scholz

Growth marketing consultant

Known forForward-looking SEO strategy on entities, AI agents and audience development for enterprise and media brands

• Named SEO World Champion at SEOktoberfest 2022.
• Writes for Search Engine Land on AI search, including ChatGPT agent mode (October 2025) and measuring AI SEO beyond GA4 (February 2026).

Barry Schwartz

CEO of RustyBrick; founder of Search Engine Roundtable

Known forDaily reporting on Google Search changes at Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Land

• Founded Search Engine Roundtable in 2003 and still updates it daily with Google Search news.
• News Editor of Search Engine Land, the trade publication co-founded by Danny Sullivan in 2006.

Lily Ray

Founder of Algorythmic; VP of SEO & AI Search at Amsive

Known forAnalysing Google algorithm updates, E-E-A-T and how AI search chooses what to cite

• Launched Algorythmic, her SEO and AI search consultancy, in 2026; has worked at Amsive (formerly Path Interactive) since 2018.
• June 2026 study of 100 'best software' queries: self-ranking brands were left out of AI Overview recommendations 69% of the time.

Marie Haynes

Founder, Marie Haynes Consulting

Known forGoogle algorithm updates, quality guidance and how AI is changing Google Search

• Moved into SEO full time after Google's Penguin update in 2012.
• Writes about AI and Google Search for Search Engine Journal.

Glenn Gabe

SEO and AI Search Consultant, G-Squared Interactive

Known forDiagnosing traffic drops and recoveries after Google algorithm updates, with visibility data

• Started G-Squared Interactive (GSQi), his SEO consultancy, in 2001 in Princeton, New Jersey.

Brodie Clark

Independent SEO consultant, Brodie Clark Consulting

Known forTracking changes to Google's search features, such as Discover, shopping results and new SERP layouts

• Named Young Search Professional of the Year at the 2019 Australian Search Awards.

Roger Montti

Staff writer, Search Engine Journal

Known forSearch Engine Journal reporting that digs into Google patents, research papers and algorithm changes

• Became a moderator at the WebmasterWorld forum in 2004 and has spoken at search marketing conferences since 2005.
• Has served as Head Judge for the U.S. Search Awards.

Danny Goodwin

Editorial Director, Search Engine Land & SMX

Known forLeading Search Engine Land's search marketing news coverage after nearly two decades editing search publications

• Edited Search Engine Watch from 2007 to 2014, then was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal from 2017 to 2022.
• Joined Search Engine Land in 2022 as Senior Editor; now directs editorial for Search Engine Land and SMX.

Barry Adams

Founder and SEO consultant, Polemic Digital

Known forSEO for news publishers, from technical crawling and indexing to newsroom workflows

• Began specialising in news SEO at the Belfast Telegraph in 2010 and founded consultancy Polemic Digital in 2014.
• Co-founded the News and Editorial SEO Summit with John Shehata; its first edition in 2021 drew 500+ attendees from 50+ countries.

Dr. Pete Meyers

Principal Innovation Architect, Moz

Known forTracking Google algorithm changes and SERP volatility through Moz's MozCast and algorithm history

• Runs MozCast, the daily Google "weather" report tracking ranking volatility since 2012, and keeps Moz's Google Algorithm Update History.

Gisele Navarro

Managing Editor, HouseFresh

Known forDocumenting how Google's updates hurt independent publishers, through HouseFresh's widely shared 2024 investigation

• Wrote 'How Google is killing independent sites like ours' on HouseFresh, published 19 February 2024.

Mordy Oberstein

Head of Brand Marketing, SE Ranking

Known forBrand-led SEO; led Wix's SEO brand turnaround and co-hosted the SERP's Up podcast

• As Wix's Head of SEO Branding for five years, led the shift in Wix's reputation from 'bad for SEO' to industry leader.
• Co-hosted Wix's SERP's Up podcast, which marked its 100th episode with a live stream in September 2024.

Jamie Indigo

Director of Technical SEO, Cox Automotive

Known forHow search engines crawl, render and index pages, especially JavaScript sites

• Co-wrote the SEO chapter of HTTP Archive's Web Almanac in 2020 and was lead author of the 2024 chapter.

Peter Rota

Senior Technical SEO Manager, HUB International

Known forTechnical SEO for enterprise sites, auditing for AI visibility, and daily practical SEO posts on LinkedIn

• More than 13 years in SEO across local, enterprise and affiliate sites.
• Writes regularly on LinkedIn about technical SEO, AI search and building a personal brand.

Peter was a guest on my podcast. Watch our conversation

Patrick Stox

Independent technical SEO consultant

Known forTechnical SEO, data-driven research and co-founding the Tech SEO Connect conference

• Led the SEO chapter of HTTP Archive's 2021 Web Almanac.
• Co-founded Tech SEO Connect, a technical SEO conference, in 2024.

Jono Alderson

Independent technical SEO consultant

Known forTechnical SEO, structured data and the schema graph built into the Yoast SEO plugin

• Head of SEO at Yoast from 2018 to 2023.
• His specification became the structured data graph that shipped in Yoast SEO 11.0 in April 2019.

Cindy Krum

Founder & CEO, MobileMoxie

Known forMobile SEO, mobile-first indexing analysis and her 'Fraggles' theory of how Google ranks page fragments

• Founded MobileMoxie, a mobile SEO company, in 2008.
• Wrote the book Mobile Marketing (Que, 2010).

Dan Sharp

Co-founder and Director, Screaming Frog

Known forDesigning and leading the build of the Screaming Frog SEO Spider website crawler

• Co-founded Screaming Frog and designed the SEO Spider, whose first release (version 1.0, Windows only) shipped on 23 November 2010.

Patrick Hathaway

Co-founder and CEO, Sitebulb

Known forCo-founding Sitebulb, the website auditing crawler, after co-creating URL Profiler

• Co-founded Sitebulb with Gareth Brown; the website auditing tool launched in 2017. The pair previously created the SEO tool URL Profiler.

JR Oakes

VP of Technology, LOCOMOTIVE Agency

Known forApplying Python, machine learning and LLM tooling to technical SEO; co-founding Tech SEO Connect

• Co-founded the Tech SEO Connect conference and is a founder and moderator of Reddit's /r/TechSEO (52,000+ members, per his site).
• Spoke at iPullRank's SEO Week 2025 in New York on brand visibility in LLMs versus traditional search.

Tory Gray

Founder and CEO, Gray Dot Co

Known forTechnical and JavaScript SEO consulting, and teaching JavaScript SEO through free training

• Founded The Gray Dot Company, a woman-owned SEO consultancy; its site gives 2017 as the founding date.
• Leads Sitebulb's free JavaScript SEO training course and previously developed a course for Semrush Academy.

Fili Wiese

Co-founder and SEO consultant, SearchBrothers

Known forEx-Google Search Quality engineer specialising in Google penalties, technical SEO audits and recovery

• Worked about seven years at Google (joined late 2005) as a senior Search Quality analyst and support engineer focused on spam detection.
• International SEO consultant with SearchBrothers since 2013, which he runs with fellow ex-Googler Kaspar Szymanski.

Serge Bezborodov

Co-founder and CTO, JetOctopus

Known forBuilding the JetOctopus crawler and log analyser for large websites; research on AI bot crawling

• Built the JetOctopus crawler for his own five-million-page site, then co-founded JetOctopus with Julia Nesterets as a standalone business in 2018.

Chris Green

Technical Director, Torque Partnership

Known forTechnical SEO consulting, training and his 'It Depends' short-video series on grey-area SEO questions

• Created the 'It Depends' YouTube series answering 50+ grey-area SEO questions in under 60 seconds each.
• Certified SISTRIX trainer; publishes free tools such as an AI Access Tester and XML Sitemap Auditor.

Mark Williams-Cook

Director at Candour; founder of AlsoAsked

Known forFounder of AlsoAsked and the Core Updates newsletter; runs evidence-driven SEO and AI search experiments

• Voted the #1 audience speaker at Semrush Spotlight 2026, SERP Conf Bulgaria 2026 and Athens SEO 2026.
• Published the joke cats.txt 'web standard' in September 2025 to show how thin the evidence behind llms.txt claims was.

Aleyda Solis

Founder, Orainti

Known forInternational and technical SEO, the SEOFOMO newsletter and the free LearningSEO.io roadmap

• Founded Orainti, her SEO and AI search consultancy, in 2014.
• Named European Search Personality of the Year in 2018.

Bastian Grimm

Managing Director, blackvine GmbH

Known forLarge-scale international and technical SEO, and highly detailed free conference decks

• Named Search Personality of the Year at the 2019 European Search Awards.
• Led Peak Ace, the Berlin SEO agency, through its sale to the HEROIKS Group.

Gianluca Fiorelli

International SEO and AI search consultant, I Love SEO

Known forStrategic and international SEO thinking, plus long-form analysis of AI search on his blog I Love SEO

• Founder and content director of The Inbounder digital marketing conference series, which ran World Tour events in 2017.
• Hosts The Search Session podcast for Advanced Web Ranking and writes for Search Engine Land.

Motoko Hunt

Founder and President, AJPR

Known forInternational search marketing for Japan and Asia, helping multinational brands reach Japanese searchers

• Founded AJPR in 1998 to provide online marketing services targeting Japan, Asia and other markets.
• Named Best Consultant at the 2014 US Search Awards; received the SEMPO President Award in 2009.

Bill Hunt

President, Bisan Digital

Known forEnterprise and international search strategy; co-author of the book Search Engine Marketing, Inc

• Co-authored Search Engine Marketing, Inc. with Mike Moran (IBM Press); the rewritten third edition was published in December 2014.
• Previously CEO of Global Strategies International and Director of Global Search Strategy at Ogilvy.

Nitin Manchanda

Founder and CEO, Botpresso

Known forFounding Botpresso after leading SEO for international travel brands trivago and Omio

• Led SEO for international brands trivago and Omio before founding the SEO agency Botpresso.
• Botpresso lists itself as a European Search Awards 2025 winner on its about page.

Lidia Infante

SEO consultant, writer and speaker

Known forInternational and SaaS SEO leadership, including heading SEO at SurveyMonkey, plus brand-focused SEO talks

• Previously Head of SEO at SurveyMonkey and led international SEO for brands including BigCommerce and Sanity.
• Spoke at SEO IRL 2026 in Toronto in October 2026 on brand as a competitive advantage.

AJ Ghergich

VP Consulting Services, Botify

Known forEnterprise SEO consulting and content marketing for Fortune 500 brands; leads Botify's consulting services

• Joined Botify as Vice President of Consulting Services in December 2022 to launch its consulting offering.
• Previously Chief Technology Officer and Chief Digital Officer at Brado, a St. Louis marketing firm, after founding several agencies.

Rand Fishkin

CEO and co-founder, SparkToro

Known forCo-founding Moz and SparkToro, and audience research including zero-click search studies

• Co-founded Moz (starting the SEOmoz blog in 2003), stepped down as CEO in 2014 and left in 2018.
• Started SparkToro with Casey Henry in 2018 and published Lost and Founder (Penguin Random House) the same year.

Cyrus Shepard

Founder, Zyppy

Known forRanking factor research and SEO testing, and the Zyppy Signal newsletter

• Joined Moz (then SEOmoz) in 2010 and led its audience development team from 2013; founded Zyppy in 2018.
• Published a Google ranking factors survey of 131 practitioners in September 2026.

Eli Schwartz

SEO consultant and advisor

Known forProduct-led SEO: building organic growth into the product rather than chasing single keywords

• Led the SEO team at SurveyMonkey, including international SEO before and after its IPO.
• Wrote the book Product-Led SEO (2021).

Tom Anthony

Chief Technology Officer, SearchPilot

Known forSEO A/B testing technology at SearchPilot and security research on Google and Zoom

• Found a Google XML sitemap ping flaw letting one site rank via another; reported Sept 2017, disclosed March 2018, Google paid a $5,000 bounty.
• Disclosed in July 2020 a flaw that let attackers crack Zoom's six-digit meeting passwords; Zoom mitigated it in April 2020.

Will Critchlow

Founder and CEO, SearchPilot

Known forPioneering SEO A/B testing at SearchPilot after co-founding the agency Distilled

• Co-founded the SEO agency Distilled in 2005.
• Spun out SearchPilot as an independent SEO A/B testing company in February 2020, when Brainlabs acquired the rest of Distilled.

Glen Allsopp

Head of Marketing Strategy & Research, Ahrefs

Known forData-led SEO industry research at Detailed, and the free Detailed SEO Extension; formerly known as ViperChill

• Founded Detailed, which Ahrefs acquired in September 2025; he joined Ahrefs to work with its marketing and product teams.
• Grew the free Detailed SEO Extension to 450,000 weekly users, per his Ahrefs author bio.

AJ Kohn

Owner, Blind Five Year Old

Known forLong, analytical essays on how Google really works, published on his Blind Five Year Old blog

• Published 'What Pandu Nayak Taught Me About SEO' in November 2023, analysing Google testimony released in the US v. Google antitrust trial.
• Was a panelist for SEOmoz's Search Engine Ranking Factors and Google News Ranking Factors studies in 2011.

Tim Soulo

Chief Marketing Officer, Ahrefs

Known forData-driven SEO studies and content marketing at Ahrefs, including research on content that gets no Google traffic

• Published Ahrefs' May 2017 study of 3 million searches on how many keywords a single page can rank for.
• His widely cited study '96.55% of Content Gets No Traffic From Google' was refreshed with new research in December 2023.

Wil Reynolds

Founder and CEO, Seer Interactive

Known forFounding Seer Interactive and pushing search marketing toward data-driven, AI-aware thinking; candid conference speaker

• Started Seer Interactive in 2002 as a one-man operation in his living room; it now has 200+ team members.
• Has spoken at 100+ conferences worldwide, including MozCon and SearchLove.

Ann Smarty

Co-founder, Smarty.Marketing

Known forDigital PR, Reddit marketing and getting brands mentioned in AI answers

• Former editor at Search Engine Journal.
• Founded the content-sharing community Viral Content Bee.

Bernard Huang

Founder, Clearscope

Known forCo-founding Clearscope, the content optimisation platform, and teaching content SEO through its free webinars

• Co-founded Clearscope with Kevin Su in 2016.
• Before Clearscope he was an early growth hire at the Y Combinator startup 42Floors and advised 500 Startups companies on SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer, Orbit Media Studios

Known forPractical content marketing and web optimisation advice, and Orbit Media's long-running annual blogger survey

• Has co-led Chicago agency Orbit Media Studios since 2001 and wrote 'Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing', now in its 7th edition.
• Has run Orbit's annual survey of bloggers and content marketers since 2014; the 2026 edition drew 1,042 respondents.

Fery Kaszoni

Owner, Search Intelligence Ltd

Known forFast-growing digital PR agency Search Intelligence and humorous parody videos built around digital PR case studies

• Founded the digital PR agency Search Intelligence in 2020.
• Spoke on the Future of SEO panel at SERP Conf. Vienna 2025.

Julie Joyce

Owner, Link Fish Media

Known forHands-on, manual link building at Link Fish Media and years of link building columns for search trade press

• Founding member of the SEO Chicks blog and author of more than 120 articles for Search Engine Land, per her Search Engine Journal bio.
• Hosted a monthly 'Show Me The Links!' webinar for Semrush.

Emina Demiri-Watson

Head of Digital Marketing, Vixen Digital

Known forFull-stack digital marketing blending technical SEO, paid media and AI; co-hosts SEOs Getting Coffee

• Co-hosts the SEOs Getting Coffee podcast and organises the SEMantics digital marketing meetup in Brighton.
• Regular brightonSEO speaker; also spoke at WTSFest on scaling with AI responsibly and writes for Search Engine Land.

Neil Patel

Co-founder, NP Digital

Known forMarketing education, the Ubersuggest SEO tool and the Marketing School podcast

• Co-founded the agency NP Digital in 2017 and bought Ubersuggest the same year.
• NP Digital acquired AnswerThePublic in 2022.

Brian Dean

Co-founder and CEO, Exploding Topics

Known forFounding Backlinko and its detailed link building and SEO content guides

• Semrush acquired Backlinko in January 2022.
• Semrush acquired Exploding Topics, which he co-founded, in 2024; Adobe completed its Semrush acquisition in April 2026.

Matt Diggity

Founder and CEO, Diggity Marketing

Known forAffiliate SEO and test-driven SEO experiments taught on his blog and YouTube channel

• Founded the Chiang Mai SEO Conference, first held in 2017 after a 2016 invitation-only mastermind of 35 SEOs.

Eric Siu

CEO & Founder, Single Grain

Known forRunning growth agency Single Grain and co-hosting the daily Marketing School podcast with Neil Patel

• Bought Single Grain, then a struggling SEO agency, for $2 in 2014 and rebuilt it into a full-service marketing agency.
• Co-hosts Marketing School with Neil Patel; new episodes were still publishing in October 2026.

Nathan Gotch

Co-Founder & CEO, Rankability

Known forSEO training for agencies, first as Gotch SEO and now as co-founder of AI SEO platform Rankability

• Co-founded Rankability, AI SEO software for agencies, with Simon L. Smith in 2024.
• Wrote 'AI SEO For Dummies' (Wiley), published 22 September 2026.

Craig Campbell

Founder, Craig Campbell SEO Ltd

Known forStraight-talking SEO training on YouTube and frequent conference speaking

• Started doing SEO from home in 2001 and ran his own digital marketing agency until 2015.
• Moved into affiliate sites and SEO education after 2015, building his YouTube channel and speaking at industry events.

Kasra Dash

Founder of The Masterminders and Searcharoo

Known forRecovering websites from Google algorithm updates and founding The Masterminders SEO conference

• Founded The Masterminders conference; his site lists the 2026 edition for 24-26 June 2026 in Manchester.
• Created mySEO.app, a free learning platform and community for verified SEOs, and founded link building agency Searcharoo.

Matthew Woodward

Director, Search Logistics

Known forDetailed SEO tutorials and transparent case studies, including years of public income reports on his blog

• Launched his SEO blog and YouTube channel in August 2012 as an experiment in ranking a site without link building.
• Published monthly income reports for nearly six years documenting the blog's journey.

Joy Hawkins

Founder and owner, Sterling Sky

Known forLocal SEO and Google Business Profile troubleshooting; owns the Local Search Forum

• Opened Sterling Sky in April 2017; it acquired the Local Search Forum in September 2018 and LocalU in December 2019.
• Volunteers as a Product Expert in Google's Business Profile community.

Darren Shaw

President and founder, Whitespark

Known forLocal SEO research, especially the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey

• Founded Whitespark in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2005.
• Has run the Local Search Ranking Factors survey since 2017; the 2026 edition came out in November 2025.

Greg Gifford

Chief Strategy Officer, SearchLab Digital

Known forHigh-energy, movie-themed local SEO talks and the weekly Local Search Tuesdays video series

• Joined local SEO and PPC agency SearchLab Digital in December 2019.
• Hosts SearchLab's weekly 'Local Search Tuesdays' video series and has spoken at brightonSEO on Google Business Profiles and reviews.

Mike Blumenthal

Local search analyst and podcast co-host, Near Media

Known forTwo decades of writing and research on Google Maps and local search, now at Near Media

• Launched the blog 'Understanding Google Maps and Local Search' in 2006.
• Co-founded LocalU in 2009 (acquired by Sterling Sky in 2019) and GatherUp in 2012 (acquired by Traject in 2019).

Andrew Shotland

Founder & CEO, Local SEO Guide

Known forLocal and multi-location SEO consulting and data-driven posts on the LSG SEO blog

• Founded Local SEO Guide in 2006 after InsiderPages, where he was a founding member, was acquired by CitySearch.
• Was previously general manager of NBC.com.

Claire Carlile

Local Visibility Expert, Whitespark

Known forGoogle Business Profile and local SEO education, and co-hosting The Whitespark Local Update podcast

• Platinum Google Business Profile Product Expert and an expert contributor to the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey.
• Previously BrightLocal's resident Local Search Expert, writing and presenting BrightLocal Academy courses.

Ben Fisher

Co-founder and Lead Consultant, Steady Demand

Known forGoogle Business Profile troubleshooting, suspensions and map spam fighting as a Diamond Google Product Expert

• Began experimenting with and practising SEO and social media in 1994.
• Recognised by Google as a Diamond Product Expert for Google Business Profile; contributor to the annual Local Search Ranking Factors study.

Luke Carthy

E-commerce growth and CRO consultant

Known forEcommerce SEO, conversion rate optimisation and analytics for online retailers

• Spoke at MozCon 2019 with 'Killer CRO and UX Wins Using an SEO Crawler'.
• Has helped brands including Caterpillar, Renault and Chemist Direct grow online sales.

Jeff Oxford

Founder and CEO, 180 Marketing

Known forEcommerce-only SEO, especially link building and Shopify SEO, through his agency 180 Marketing

• Turned to SEO after a 2013 dropshipping venture selling beer pong tables failed, then launched ecommerce SEO agency 180 Marketing.

Jason Hennessey

Founder and CEO, Hennessey Digital

Known forLaw firm SEO; built Hennessey Digital into a leading legal marketing agency; author of 'Law Firm SEO'

• Founded Hennessey Digital in 2015; the agency made the Inc. 5000 list in 2019.
• Hennessey Digital was acquired by Herringbone Digital in June 2025, keeping its brand and executive team.

John Mueller

Search Advocate at Google

Known forAnswering site owners' questions about Google Search in public; coordinates Google Search Relations

• Joined Google in 2007.
• Co-launched Google's Search Off the Record podcast in 2020 with Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt.

Gary Illyes

Analyst on the Google Search team

Known forExplaining how Google crawls, indexes and serves pages

• Has worked on Google Search since 2011.
• Co-authored RFC 9309, the robots.txt internet standard, published September 2022.

Martin Splitt

Google Search Relations team

Known forJavaScript SEO and helping developers and SEOs work together

• Hosted Google's SEO Mythbusting video series in 2019.
• Co-hosts Google's Search Off the Record podcast, launched in 2020.

Danny Sullivan

Director within Google Search

Known forFounding Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land, then serving as Google's Search Liaison from 2017 to 2025

• Started Search Engine Watch in 1997 and co-founded Search Engine Land in 2006.
• Joined Google in 2017 as Search Liaison; stepped down from that role on August 1, 2025.

Loren Baker

Founder of Search Engine Journal

Known forFounding Search Engine Journal, one of the longest-running SEO and search marketing publications

• Started Search Engine Journal in 2003 as a personal blog; it grew into a major search marketing publication.

Kelvin Newman

Founder of brightonSEO, Rough Agenda

Known forFounding brightonSEO, which grew from a meet-up in a pub into one of the largest search conferences

• Won the Search Personality award at the UK Search Awards in 2013.
• Voted by Econsultancy the most influential individual in digital in 2014.

Areej AbuAli

Founder of Women in Tech SEO and Crawlina

Known forFounding the Women in Tech SEO community and technical SEO consulting

• Founded Women in Tech SEO in 2019; its about page now lists more than 12,000 members.
• Wrote Community Building for Marketers, published by Kogan Page in 2025.

Olga Andrienko

CMO, Foxtery

Known forBuilding Semrush's global brand and international marketing community as its long-time marketing leader

• Led brand marketing at Semrush for years, rising to VP of Brand Marketing, before joining the AI learning company Foxtery as CMO.

Bill Slawski

Director of SEO Research, Go Fish Digital (died 2022)

Known forExplaining Google's search patents on his blog SEO by the Sea

• Started SEO by the Sea in 2005, analysing search engine patents.
• Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital from 2013; died May 17, 2022.

Vanessa Fox

Search and AI consultant, writer and tool builder

Known forBuilding Google Webmaster Central (now Search Console); now writes about search and AI crawlers

• Built Google Webmaster Central and helped launch sitemaps.org; wrote Marketing in the Age of Google (Wiley, 2010; 2nd edition 2012).
• Founded Nine By Blue in 2008 (sold 2013); CEO of Keylime Toolbox until 2026.

Eric Enge

President, Pilot Holding

Known forCo-authoring The Art of SEO and founding the SEO agency Stone Temple Consulting

• Founded Stone Temple Consulting in 1997 and sold it to Perficient in July 2018.
• Co-wrote The Art of SEO (O'Reilly, 4th edition) and Using Generative AI for SEO (O'Reilly, 2025).

Stephan Spencer

SEO consultant, author and podcast host

Known forCo-authoring The Art of SEO and hosting the Marketing Speak podcast

• Founded the agency Netconcepts in 1995; Covario acquired it in 2010.
• Co-authored The Art of SEO (O'Reilly, first published 2009), now in its 4th edition.

Joost de Valk

Group Head of AI & Growth, Your.Online

Known forFounding Yoast and its Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress

• Founded Yoast in 2010; sold it to Newfold Digital in August 2021 and left in April 2023.
• Launched Progress Planner in 2024; it joined the hosting group Your.Online in June 2026.

Matt Cutts

Former head of webspam at Google

Known forLeading Google's webspam team and being Google's public voice on search quality for years

• Wrote the first version of SafeSearch, Google's family filter, and headed Google's webspam team for many years.
• Served as Administrator of the U.S. Digital Service from January 2017 to April 2021.

Bruce Clay

Founder of Bruce Clay, Inc. (died 2026)

Known forCalled the 'Father of SEO'; content siloing, SEO training and an early SEO agency

• Founded Bruce Clay, Inc. in January 1996; wrote Search Engine Optimization All-In-One For Dummies, now in its fourth edition.
• Received the History of SEO advisory board's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

Hamlet Batista

Founder of RankSense (died 2021)

Known forBringing Python and automation to the SEO community; founder of the RankSense SEO platform

• Started doing SEO as an affiliate marketer in 2002; later founded RankSense and held US patents on SEO technologies.
• Search Engine Journal VIP contributor from 2019, widely credited with bringing Python to the SEO community.