Every year someone publishes a list of the “best SEO experts in the world” that is really a list of whoever has the most followers. This one is built differently. It profiles 55 practitioners who are actively doing and sharing the work in 2026, gives each a card with their current role, location, specialisms and public contact links, and lets you filter by what you need: technical SEO, Google updates, international, local, link building, content, data, AI search and more.
Last updated: October 2026. Disclosure: this list is published by Saad Raza SEO and Saad Raza appears on it at number nine. Contact links go to each expert’s own public website, LinkedIn or X profile; we do not publish personal emails or phone numbers. Where a link could not be verified it has been left off.
Top SEO experts in the world (2026)
- #1
Aleyda Solis
SEO & AI search consultant; Founder, Orainti
Spain
Profile and details
- Follow for: #SEOFOMO newsletter, Crawling Mondays, LearningSEO.io
Aleyda Solis is probably the most widely followed SEO consultant working today. She founded the boutique consultancy Orainti, has advised international brands for well over a decade, and has spoken at conferences in dozens of countries. Her #SEOFOMO newsletter and Crawling Mondays video series are a weekly habit for thousands of SEOs, and in 2025 and 2026 she has been one of the clearest voices on how to measure and earn visibility in AI search.
- #2
Lily Ray
VP, SEO & AI Search, Amsive; Founder, Algorythmic
New York, United States
Profile and details
- Follow for: Core update winner/loser analyses
Lily Ray leads SEO and AI search work at the agency Amsive and is the person most SEOs turn to after a Google core update. Her large-scale analyses of winners and losers, and her practical writing on E-E-A-T and Google’s quality guidelines, have shaped how the industry thinks about site quality.
- #3
Mike King
Founder & CEO, iPullRank
New York, United States
Profile and details
- Follow for: Relevance engineering, AI search research
Mike King founded the enterprise SEO agency iPullRank and wrote The Science of SEO. He is known for engineering-level technical work, for his analysis of the leaked Google Search documentation in 2024, and more recently for his research into how large language models retrieve and cite content.
- #4
Rand Fishkin
Co-founder & CEO, SparkToro
Seattle, United States
Profile and details
- Follow for: Zero-click search studies, audience research
Rand Fishkin co-founded Moz and later SparkToro, an audience research tool. He has spent years publishing original data on zero-click search and where attention actually goes online, and his writing is the best counterweight to tactics-only SEO thinking.
- #5
Brian Dean
Co-founder & CEO, Exploding Topics (Semrush); founder of Backlinko
United States
Profile and details
Brian Dean built Backlinko into one of the most-read SEO blogs in the world, popularised the Skyscraper Technique, and sold the site to Semrush in 2022. His long-form guides remain a reference for link building and on-page SEO, and he now focuses on the trend-research tool Exploding Topics, which Semrush acquired in 2024.
- #6
Neil Patel
Co-founder, NP Digital; creator of Ubersuggest
United States
Profile and details
Neil Patel is the most recognised name in SEO for beginners, with a huge YouTube audience, the Ubersuggest tool and the NP Digital agency. His content is broad rather than deep, but for someone starting out it is the easiest on-ramp into search marketing.
- #7
Marie Haynes
Owner, Marie Haynes Consulting
Ottawa, Canada
Profile and details
- Follow for: Search News You Can Use newsletter
Marie Haynes has spent years helping sites recover from Google updates and manual actions. Her Search News You Can Use newsletter is one of the most careful reads on what Google has actually said versus what the industry assumes, and she now focuses on how AI is changing search.
- #8
Barry Schwartz
Founder, Search Engine Roundtable; CEO, RustyBrick; News Editor, Search Engine Land
New York, United States
Profile and details
Barry Schwartz has reported on Google every working day for two decades through Search Engine Roundtable. If something changes in search, he usually covers it first, with direct quotes from Google staff.
- #9
Saad Raza
Founder, Saad Raza SEO
Karachi, Pakistan
Profile and details
- Follow for: Google update guides, GEO and AI Overview playbooks
Saad Raza founded Saad Raza SEO and works with clients across Pakistan, the Gulf, the UK and North America. His approach joins technical foundations (crawling, indexing, architecture and speed) with content rewritten around real search intent, and he was early to publish practical guides on generative engine optimisation and AI Overviews. He is also the best-known SEO in Pakistan and heads our list of the top 10 SEO experts in Pakistan.
- #10
Cyrus Shepard
Founder, Zyppy SEO
Seattle, United States
Profile and details
Cyrus Shepard led SEO at Moz before founding Zyppy, a consultancy and software company. He is known for turning data studies into simple, testable recommendations, particularly on internal links and title tags.
- #11
Koray Tuğberk Gübür
Founder, Holistic SEO
Turkey
Profile and details
Koray Tuğberk Gübür built a large following for his work on semantic SEO, topical maps and entity-based content. His case studies on building topical authority from scratch are long, dense and widely imitated.
- #12
Kevin Indig
Independent growth advisor; author of Growth Memo
United States
Profile and details
- Follow for: Growth Memo newsletter
Kevin Indig has led organic growth at Shopify, G2 and Atlassian and now advises startups. His Growth Memo newsletter is a regular source of original research on AI Overviews, click behaviour and how SEO fits into a company’s wider growth model.
- #13
Eric Enge
President, Pilot Holding; founder of Stone Temple Consulting
Boston, United States
Profile and details
Eric Enge founded Stone Temple Consulting, later acquired by Perficient, and co-authored The Art of SEO. His large-scale studies on voice search, featured snippets and links have shaped how enterprise teams plan their programmes.
- #14
Glenn Gabe
Founder, G-Squared Interactive (GSQi)
New Jersey, United States
Profile and details
Glenn Gabe is a long-time consultant whose detailed write-ups of Google core updates and site-level quality problems are required reading when traffic drops and no one knows why.
- #15
Matt Diggity
Founder, Diggity Marketing; CEO, LeadSpring
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Profile and details
Matt Diggity runs the affiliate SEO training programme The Affiliate Lab and the Chiang Mai SEO conference, and publishes ranking experiments rather than opinions. His content suits people who build and monetise their own sites.
- #16
Tim Soulo
CMO & Product Advisor, Ahrefs
Singapore
Profile and details
Tim Soulo leads marketing at Ahrefs and is responsible for much of the data-backed content that made the Ahrefs blog a standard reference. He also hosts the Ahrefs Podcast.
- #17
Profile and details
Patrick Stox spent years as Ahrefs’ technical SEO specialist and product advisor and now consults independently. His guides on JavaScript SEO, redirects, canonicals and site migrations are among the most reliable on the web.
- #18
Sam Oh
VP of Marketing, Ahrefs
Canada
Profile and details
Sam Oh produces the Ahrefs YouTube channel, which has taught more people the fundamentals of keyword research, link building and on-page SEO than almost any course.
- #19
Kristina Azarenko
Founder, MarketingSyrup SEO Academy
Toronto, Canada
Profile and details
Kristina Azarenko runs the Tech SEO Pro course and SEO Challenge programmes, and is known for making technical audits approachable, especially for people moving into SEO from other roles.
- #20
Dr. Pete Meyers
Marketing Scientist, Moz
Chicago, United States
Profile and details
Pete Meyers is a marketing scientist at Moz and the creator of MozCast, which tracks volatility in Google results. His analyses of SERP features and AI Overviews are careful and data-first.
- #21
Britney Muller
Independent AI consultant, educator and speaker
United States
Profile and details
Britney Muller was senior SEO scientist at Moz and now teaches marketers how machine learning and language models actually work, which has become essential knowledge for anyone optimising for AI search.
- #22
Joy Hawkins
Owner, Sterling Sky
Ontario, Canada
Profile and details
Joy Hawkins runs the local SEO agency Sterling Sky and the Local Search Forum. Her team’s experiments on Google Business Profile ranking factors are the standard reference for local search.
- #23
Darren Shaw
Founder & President, Whitespark
Edmonton, Canada
Profile and details
Darren Shaw founded Whitespark and runs the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey, the most cited study in local SEO.
- #24
Greg Gifford
Chief Strategy Officer, SearchLab Digital
Dallas, United States
Profile and details
Greg Gifford is one of the best-known local SEO speakers in the world, with a background in automotive dealer marketing and a talent for making local search tactics memorable.
- #25
Andrew Shotland
Founder & CEO, Local SEO Guide
California, United States
Profile and details
Andrew Shotland runs Local SEO Guide and works on multi-location and enterprise local search, publishing large-scale studies on what drives local rankings.
- #26
Wil Reynolds
Founder & CEO, Seer Interactive
Philadelphia, United States
Profile and details
Wil Reynolds founded the agency Seer Interactive and is known for pushing SEOs to use paid search and first-party data to understand intent, and for frank talks on what the industry gets wrong.
- #27
Ross Hudgens
Founder & CEO, Siege Media
San Diego, United States
Profile and details
Ross Hudgens built Siege Media into one of the leading content-led SEO agencies, specialising in content that earns links naturally for ecommerce and SaaS brands.
- #28
Garrett French
Founder & CEO, Citation Labs
United States
Profile and details
Garrett French has run link building campaigns at scale for well over a decade and co-authored The Link Building Book. His thinking on linkable assets and outreach is foundational.
- #29
Jono Alderson
Independent technical SEO consultant; ex-Yoast
United Kingdom
Profile and details
Jono Alderson was head of SEO at Yoast and is now an independent technical consultant. He is a leading voice on web performance, structured data and the long-term direction of the web platform.
- #30
Dawn Anderson
Founder, Bertey
Manchester, United Kingdom
Profile and details
Dawn Anderson combines agency work with academic research into information retrieval and natural language processing, and explains how search engines actually understand text better than almost anyone.
- #31
JR Oakes
VP of Technology, LOCOMOTIVE Agency
North Carolina, United States
Profile and details
JR Oakes is known for applying data science, machine learning and Python to SEO problems and for sharing code and research openly with the community.
- #32
Will Critchlow
Founder & CEO, SearchPilot
London, United Kingdom
Profile and details
Will Critchlow founded the agency Distilled and now runs SearchPilot, a platform for split-testing SEO changes on large sites. His published test results are a rare source of evidence on what actually moves rankings.
- #33
Tom Capper
Senior Search Scientist, Moz (STAT)
London, United Kingdom
Profile and details
Tom Capper is a senior search scientist at Moz and a frequent speaker, known for rigorous data studies on links, SERP volatility and Google updates.
- #34
Areej AbuAli
Founder, Women in Tech SEO; SEO consultant
London, United Kingdom
Profile and details
Areej AbuAli founded Women in Tech SEO, now a global community and conference series, and consults on technical SEO through Crawlina.
- #35
Bastian Grimm
Founder, Peak Ace
Berlin, Germany
Profile and details
Bastian Grimm founded the Berlin agency Peak Ace and is one of Europe’s most prominent speakers on technical SEO, site speed and international expansion.
- #36
Gianluca Fiorelli
International SEO & AI search consultant, I Love SEO
Spain
Profile and details
Gianluca Fiorelli is a veteran international SEO consultant and the founder of the Advanced Search Summit, known for strategic thinking that goes beyond individual tactics.
- #37
Jes Scholz
Independent growth and SEO consultant
Switzerland
Profile and details
Jes Scholz led marketing for international publishers at Ringier and now consults independently on technical and entity-based SEO. Her talks on crawl efficiency and the “brand as entity” are widely shared.
- #38
Olga Zarr
Founder, SEOSLY
Poland
Profile and details
Olga Zarr publishes some of the most detailed technical audit walkthroughs available, with video and written guides aimed at people who want to do the work themselves.
- #39
Crystal Carter
Head of AI Search & SEO Communications, Wix
United Kingdom
Profile and details
Crystal Carter leads AI search and SEO communications at Wix and is a frequent conference speaker on structured data, image search and SEO for platforms.
- #40
Mordy Oberstein
Founder, Unify Brand Marketing; advisor to Semrush
United States
Profile and details
Mordy Oberstein led SEO branding at Wix and Semrush and is known for argumentative, thoughtful commentary on where brand and search meet, especially as AI search rewards recognisable brands.
- #41
Mark Williams-Cook
Director, Candour; Founder, AlsoAsked
Norwich, United Kingdom
Profile and details
Mark Williams-Cook runs the agency Candour and built AlsoAsked, a People Also Ask research tool, and publishes original research on search behaviour.
- #42
Brodie Clark
SEO Consultant, Brodie Clark Consulting
Melbourne, Australia
Profile and details
Brodie Clark tracks changes to Google’s search results closely and is one of the first to document new SERP features and AI Overview behaviour.
- #43
Dan Petrovic
Founder & Director, DEJAN
Brisbane, Australia
Profile and details
Dan Petrovic runs the agency DEJAN and publishes experiments on how Google and language models process content, including early work on ranking in AI-generated answers.
- #44
Jason Barnard
Founder & CEO, Kalicube
France
Profile and details
Jason Barnard coined “brand SERP” and built Kalicube around managing how brands and people appear in Google’s knowledge panels, which has become central to AI search.
- #45
Dixon Jones
CEO & Co-founder, InLinks
United Kingdom
Profile and details
Dixon Jones spent years at the link index Majestic and now runs InLinks, an entity-based internal linking and content tool, and the AI visibility tool WAIKAY.
- #46
Suganthan Mohanadasan
Co-founder, Keyword Insights & Snippet Digital
Dubai, UAE
Profile and details
Suganthan Mohanadasan co-founded Keyword Insights, a clustering and intent tool, and is a respected technical SEO consultant.
- #47
Lidia Infante
Independent SEO consultant (SaaS & finance)
United Kingdom
Profile and details
Lidia Infante has led SEO in-house at SaaS companies and now consults independently, speaking widely on international SEO and on building SEO teams inside product companies.
- #48
Kyle Roof
Founder, High Voltage SEO; co-creator, PageOptimizer Pro
United States
Profile and details
Kyle Roof is known for single-variable on-page SEO tests and built PageOptimizer Pro on the results.
- #49
Nathan Gotch
Co-founder & CEO, Rankability (formerly Gotch SEO)
St. Louis, United States
Profile and details
Nathan Gotch built Gotch SEO Academy and now runs Rankability, publishing long, process-driven guides and videos on building SEO campaigns from scratch.
- #50
Steve Toth
Founder, SEO That Ranks; publisher of SEO Notebook
Toronto, Canada
Profile and details
Steve Toth writes SEO Notebook, a newsletter of short, specific tactics drawn from client work, read by a large share of the industry.
- #51
Nick LeRoy
Independent SEO consultant; publisher of #SEOForLunch
Minneapolis, United States
Profile and details
Nick LeRoy runs the SEO for Lunch newsletter, owns SEOJobs.com and consults independently, and is known for direct, practical commentary on what matters week to week.
- #52
Carrie Rose
Founder & CEO, Rise at Seven
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Profile and details
Carrie Rose founded Rise at Seven and is one of the most prominent voices on digital PR, the link building discipline that earns coverage from journalists rather than buying links.
- #53
Andy Crestodina
Co-founder & CMO, Orbit Media Studios
Chicago, United States
Profile and details
Andy Crestodina co-founded Orbit Media and wrote Content Chemistry. His annual blogging survey and his writing on content and GA4 are widely used.
- #54
Ross Simmonds
Founder & CEO, Foundation Marketing; Distribution.ai
Halifax, Canada
Profile and details
Ross Simmonds founded Foundation and is the leading voice on content distribution, the idea that creating content is only half the job of earning search visibility.
- #55
Marcus Tober
SVP, Head of Enterprise Solutions, Semrush; founder of Searchmetrics
Berlin, Germany
Profile and details
Marcus Tober founded Searchmetrics and later joined Semrush, and has spent two decades building the data platforms the rest of the industry uses to study search.
How the experts were chosen
The four criteria
Each person was assessed on four things: a long track record of hands-on SEO work (not just commentary), a recognisable specialism, public contribution that other SEOs actually rely on (research, tools, newsletters, talks or training), and active work on how search is changing in 2026, including Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Follower counts were not a factor. Numbers reflect overall influence and usefulness in 2026, but the honest answer is that positions 10 to 55 are close together, so use the filters before the rank.
How roles and links were verified
Every role, website, LinkedIn and X link was checked in October 2026 against the person’s own site, employer page or speaker profile. Roles change quickly in this industry; several people on this list moved from agencies or tool companies to independent consulting in 2024 and 2025, and the cards reflect their current public position. If you are listed and something is wrong, let us know.
Who to follow for what
Technical SEO
Mike King, Patrick Stox, Jono Alderson, Glenn Gabe, Olga Zarr, Bastian Grimm, Kristina Azarenko, Dawn Anderson.
Google updates and recovery
Lily Ray, Marie Haynes, Glenn Gabe, Barry Schwartz, Brodie Clark.
AI search and GEO
Aleyda Solis, Mike King, Kevin Indig, Dan Petrovic, Saad Raza, Jason Barnard, Crystal Carter, Britney Muller.
International SEO
Aleyda Solis, Gianluca Fiorelli, Lidia Infante, Bastian Grimm.
Local SEO
Joy Hawkins, Darren Shaw, Greg Gifford, Andrew Shotland.
Link building and digital PR
Garrett French, Brian Dean, Carrie Rose, Ross Hudgens, Dixon Jones.
Content and topical authority
Koray Tuğberk Gübür, Ross Hudgens, Andy Crestodina, Ross Simmonds, Steve Toth.
Testing and data
Will Critchlow, Kyle Roof, Dr. Pete Meyers, Tom Capper, JR Oakes, Mark Williams-Cook, Rand Fishkin.
Beginners and training
Neil Patel, Sam Oh, Nathan Gotch, Kristina Azarenko, Matt Diggity.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the number one SEO expert in the world?
There is no single answer, because SEO has specialisms the way medicine does. By overall influence in 2026, Aleyda Solis, Lily Ray and Mike King are the names that come up most often among working SEOs, which is why they top this list.
How do I contact these SEO experts?
Each card links to the expert’s own website, LinkedIn and X where those are public. Most consultants take enquiries through a contact form on their site; in-house experts are usually reachable on LinkedIn. We do not publish personal emails or phone numbers.
Is Brian Dean still active in SEO?
Brian Dean sold Backlinko to Semrush in 2022 and now runs Exploding Topics, which Semrush acquired in 2024. He publishes less SEO content than before, but his existing guides are still widely used.
Is Rand Fishkin still doing SEO?
Rand Fishkin left Moz in 2018 and co-founded SparkToro. He still writes about search, especially zero-click search data, but his focus is audience research rather than client SEO.
What makes someone a top SEO expert in 2026?
Beyond traditional rankings, the experts on this list are all working on visibility across Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and other answer engines, and publishing what they find rather than guarding it.
Are there top SEO experts outside the US and UK?
Yes. This list includes experts from Spain, Germany, Turkey, Poland, Switzerland, France, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, the UAE and Pakistan. See our separate ranking of the top 10 SEO experts in Pakistan.
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