202 Top SEO Experts You Should Be Following

Want to learn more about search engine optimization (SEO)?

Then you should learn from the top SEO experts.

Reading the top SEO blogs and publications is a good start. So is attending SEO conferences.

But don’t stop there.

SEO is such a giving community.

We share strategies, tactics, tips, tools, data, and so much more on social media and at conferences – as well as in articles, research, and blog posts.

You will definitely learn something new every day from this list of 202 SEO experts.

Follow them if you want a free SEO education.

Why This SEO Experts List Exists

The term “SEO expert” is thrown around a lot these days.

Do a Google search for [seo experts to follow] and you’ll find plenty of lists.

Here’s the thing about most of these lists: they’re usually deeply flawed in one way or another.

Why?

Generally, top SEO expert lists:

Are just a sneaky way for an unknown author to get himself or herself on a list filled with experts and look like a big-time SEO expert.
Are published by unknown SEO agencies or companies purely for the purposes of attracting links and shares.
Include people who, while brilliant in other areas of marketing (social media, content marketing, etc.), aren’t really SEO experts.
Include people who no longer are really involved in SEO (or never really were practitioners). For example, while Matt Cutts, the former distinguished engineer who was head of the webspam team at Google, might be great on a list if it were still 2013 – it’s no longer 2013.
Include popular “experts” who share bad information that give the industry a bad name. (We won’t name any names here.)

That’s why we began putting together this list of top authorities and experts you should be following or listening to if you want to learn about SEO today.

Bonus: If you want to follow all of these experts on Twitter, we’ve created this helpful Twitter list for you.

How This List Was Compiled

Now the team has updated this list for this year – to bring you what we believe to be the most up-to-date list of high-quality SEO experts you’ll find.

This post isn’t meant to reward everyone who has ever been an SEO professional or includes the acronym SEO in his or her job title. It also isn’t intended to be a popularity contest that confuses expertise with social media follower counts.

The people on this list are all actively involved with SEO now – or they’re sharing SEO information, knowledge, and insights (either via social media, contributing to publications or blogs, or speaking at conferences).

Here was our basic judging criteria (though, like Google, our scoring algorithm was comprised of more than 200 ranking signals ):

Do they share good SEO content on social media?
Do they write good content about SEO for blogs/publications?
Do they speak about SEO at conferences (or webinars, podcasts, etc.)?
Are they currently doing SEO (not mandatory)?

The main idea of this post is to help you find interesting people who know a lot about SEO and are willing to share what they know.

This is just one way is able to direct you to SEO professionals who can help you improve at your job and advance your career.

While I love the idea that there are hundreds of SEO professionals doing great work who go unrecognized – and there truly are! – if they aren’t visible and sharing knowledge, it doesn’t matter in terms of the list you’re about to read.

No offense is intended toward any of those hard-working people, but if you aren’t making yourself visible to the wider SEO community, then it’s the equivalent of ranking on Page 2 of Google.

Our goal with this list is to highlight people who are trying to help move the industry forward by sharing unique insights/knowledge/tips/ideas, etc.

Finally – there is no rankings order here from best to least best. Each person on this list has value in their own way.

Rather than go in alphabetical order by last name, we plugged our list into this list randomizer (though I did make a few minor adjustments) to give everyone a fair shot at where they appear.

Why You Aren’t On This List

Let’s be honest – these posts are always a bit controversial.

After a post like this is published, there are always a few responses you can expect:

Those who are mentioned: Generally, they are honored, humbled, or even surprised. It’s always nice to make someone’s day.
Those who aren’t included: After quickly checking they aren’t on the list, they go to their social media platform of choice and point out its flaws. Typically, it comes in the form of either “this person doesn’t even do SEO,” “you included so-and-so, so this list sucks,” “lists like these devalue our entire industry,” or “this is just a list of the author’s friends.”

Again, no list is perfect.

But we’ve tried to make this list the least imperfect it can be, right now.

If you weren’t included this year, there’s always next year.

If you really want to be here next year, let it motivate you this year – get noticed, share your knowledge with the community, network, and increase your own visibility by building up your personal brand.

And if you really hate this list, you’re welcome to write your own post and publish it wherever you want.

Honorable Mentions

For this year’s installment, no employees or spokespeople from the major search engines were included as part of our 202 SEO experts.

However, we believe every SEO professional should always keep an eye on these people to stay up on the latest updates and get some advice straight from the search engines, as these folks regularly tweet, write, or speak (in Hangouts, at conferences, and on webinars):

Why This SEO Experts List Exists

How This List Was Compiled

Why You Aren’t On This List

Honorable Mentions

202 SEO Experts to Follow Right Now

Areej AbuAli

Dave Davies

Dan Taylor

Jes Scholz

Fili Wiese

Ruth Everett

Tyler Reardon

Carolyn Shelby

Christoph C. Cemper

Craig Campbell

Jackie Chu

Jeff Ferguson

Ross Hudgens

Cindy Krum

Jan-Willem Bobbink

Valentin Pletzer

Lily Ray

Suganthan Mohanadasan

Andrea Volpini

Anna Crowe

Kristopher Jones

Taylor Berg

Brodie Clark

Motoko Hunt

Barry Schwartz

Adam Riemer

Carrie Hill

Mordy Oberstein

JP Sherman

Carolyn Lyden

Steven Kang

John Shehata

Abby Hamilton

Michael King

Kevin Indig

Jamie Indigo

Max Prin

Andy Betts

Claire Carlile

Andy Simpson

Damon Gochneaur

Alexis Sanders

Cyrus Shepard

David Mihm

Mindy Weinstein

Jason Barnard

Lukasz Zelezny

Krystal Taing

Tim Capper

Marcus Tober

Christina Brodzky

Kelvin Newman

Arnout Hellemans

Aysun Akarsu

Paddy Moogan

Shaun Anderson

Bibi Lauri Raven

Loren Baker

Rob Woods

Izzi Smith

Trond Lyngbø

Gerry White

Casie Gillette

Darren Shaw

Alan Bleiweiss

Jori Ford

Bill Hartzer

Andrew Optimisey

Amanda Jordan

Casey Markee

Saijo George

Marie Haynes

Andy Drinkwater

Wil Reynolds

Faye Watt