The 100 Most Influential People In SEO
- 2021 EDITION -
For nearly 20 years, anyone who wanted to climb Google ranks had to have an incomprehensible amount of SEO experience. Now, it’s possible to reach that coveted first page position without years of trial and error.
Why?
Because of the hard work of many SEO experts. They are creating strategies that allow you to climb search engine ranks without any SEO experience, in mere hours, not weeks or years like the SEO experts of the past had to do.
These 100 people are the most influential people in the SEO space. They are all helping build, design, and promote SEO strategies to new heights.
Danny Sullivan
Danny Sullivan is Google’s public search liaison, helping users better understand search and Google listen to public feedback. Prior to Google, he co-founded industry publication Search Engine Land which provides news and information on SEO and search engines. He was also the Chief Content Officer at Third Door Media until 2017.
Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin is the co-founder of SEOMoz, a leading SEO management platform. He is perhaps best known for his popular "Whiteboard Friday" video series, training thousands of marketers in SEO. More recently, Fishkin founded SparkToro in 2018, a market research tool that helps users identify an audience’s sources of influence.
Barry Schwartz
A self-confessed search geek, Schwartz is a blogger who writes about SEO and search engines. He is the founder and editor of Search Engine Roundtable, an online news platform covering search engine marketing. He is also the CEO and President of RustyBrick Inc. a New York based software development company. Schwartz also edits online SEO news platform Search Engine Land.
Stephan Spencer
Renowned SEO speaker, author, and strategist, Stephan Spencer has co-authored numerous best-selling SEO books including "The Art of SEO", considered to be the bible on SEO. Back in 1995, Spencer also founded his own SEO agency Netconcepts, later acquired by Covario in 2010.
Lee Odden
Lee Odden is a B2B marketing strategist and CEO of TopRank Marketing, an agency specializing in strategic internet marketing. An executive editor of TopRank’s marketing blog, he’s published over 1.4 million words on digital marketing since 2003. Lee also wrote “Optimize”, a comprehensive guide to integrating SEO, social media, and content marketing.
Brian Dean
Brian Dean is the founder and CEO of the popular SEO blog backlinko.com. After struggling to succeed with five different online businesses, Brian made a name for himself in the personal finance sphere. He then created Backlinko as a way of sharing the actionable SEO tips he learned along the way.
Aleyda Solis
Aleyda Solis is the founder of the boutique SEO agency Orainti and an international SEO speaker and consultant. With more than ten years of experience providing search engine optimization services, she has also spoken at more than a 100 conferences. Solis blogs about SEO trends and news at Moz and Search Engine Journal.
Kristopher B. Jones
Kristopher B. Jones is the founder of SEO services and software company LSEO.com. Prior to this, Jones was the founder and former CEO of marketing firm Pepperjam which he sold to eBay in 2009. He is also the author of the bestselling manual “SEO Visual Blueprint”. A serial entrepreneur and angel investor, he’s founded multiple successful businesses including ReferLocal.com and APPEK Mobile Apps.
Cyrus Shepard
An SEO strategist, Cyrus Shepard is known for leading SEO at Moz and for blogging about practical SEO tactics. Shepard founded Zyppy SEO to help startups and Fortune 500 companies build online growth and solve SEO problems. He also regularly speaks about inbound marketing and SEO.
Dr. Pete Meyers
Marketing scientist Dr. Pete Meyers works in Moz’s data science division building research tools to monitor Google. A trained computer scientist, Meyers created MozCast, a weather report detailing turbulence in the Google algorithm over the last five days. He also curates the Google Algorithm History, a timeline of Google updates back to 2002.
Ann Smarty
Ann Smarty is the brand and community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She is the former editor in chief of Search Engine Journal as well as a contributor to social blogs like Mashable. Smarty founded sites MyBlogU and Viral Content Bee to educate readers about SEO and content marketing. She frequently speaks about SEO and internet marketing at PubCon.
Aaron Wall
SEO consultant Aaron Wall is the founder of SEO Book, a site and training guide for building web visibility. Having launched his SEO site in 2003, it’s one of the oldest regularly updated SEO sites available. Created to offer practical SEO tips, and support the SEO ebook, it sold over 1,000,000 copies.
Bill Slawski
Bill Slawski is the Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital, an award-winning D.C based digital marketing agency. He regularly speaks about topics including universal and blended search, and search engine algorithms. Slawski is the editor of the SEO blog, SEO by the Sea, a platform that helps users learn SEO directly from search engine whitepapers and patent filings.
Wil Reynolds
Ex-high school economics teacher, Wil Reynolds is the founder and director of strategy at Seer Interactive. Reynolds scaled his search agency to generate $25MM in annual revenue. He principally spends time developing SEO strategies and innovations to help clients generate traffic. Reynolds is a frequent conference speaker on the future of search.
Oleg Shchegolev
Oleg Shchegolev is the CEO and co-founder of SEMrush, a market-leading keyword research tool and SEO management platform with 2 million users and revenue close to 100 million. Prior to SEMrush, Shchegolev studied information security, teaching himself SEO and founding SEO toolkit SEOquake in 2006.
Lukasz Zelezny
Lukasz Zelezny is head of organic acquisition at uSwitch.com, a UK based price comparison website. Prior to this, Zelezny was responsible for the organic performance at companies including Thomson Reuters, HomeAway, and the Digital Property Group. He regularly speaks at SEO and social media conferences.
Gianluca Fiorelli
As a strategic SEO consultant, Gianluca specializes in inbound marketing and international SEO. Fiorelli is one of a few freelance Moz Associates and is an official blogger for State of Digital. He is also the founder of The Inbounder, a digital marketing conference series bringing the most advanced actionable SEO ideas to a broad audience.
Will Critchlow
Will Critchlow is the CEO of Search Pilot, an SEO A/B testing and meta-CMS platform. Prior to this, Critchlow started the SearchLove conference series in 2009, a multi-day event that brings together the world’s leading online marketers. He is also the SEO partner at Brainlabs, a digital marketing agency focused on analyzing data to reach commercial marketing goals.
Michael King
SEO consultant to Fortune 500 brands, rapper, and keynote speaker, Michael King is the founder of iPullRank an agency specializing in SEO and content marketer. Previously, King was the marketing director for iAcquire where he led the transition from link-building to content marketing. He’s credited with leading SEO campaigns for the likes of LG, Citi, and Cartier.
Eric Enge
Eric Enge is the General Manager of Perficient Digital, an award-winning digital marketing agency. Prior to this, he was the founder and CEO of Stone Temple, a digital marketing agency acquired by Perficient in 2018. He is also the co-author of the acclaimed SEO bible, “The Art of SEO”, with Stephan Spencer.
Brent Csutoras
Brent Csutoras is the managing partner of the online digital marketing publication Search Engine Journal. Csutoras is also a digital marketing strategist at his own agency Brent Csutoras, LLC. Prior to this, he has worked as a social media consultant and an SEO advisory board member. A sought after SEO speaker, he speaks at Pubcon, Affiliate Search, and State of Search.
Vanessa Fox
Ex-Google employee, Vanessa Fox is the CEO of Keylime Toolbox, SEO software that provides key metrics and analytics. During her time at Google, she was a key creator of Webmaster Central. Following Google, she wrote “Marketing in the Age of Google” outlining her principles of ranking well in search engines by understanding target audiences and solving their problems.
Brett Tabke
A passionate community builder, Brett Tabke is the founder of Pubcon, a leading SEO, PPC, and digital marketing conference. He also founded WebmasterWorld, a news and forum site for online marketers. He’s credited with coining popular SEO terms “Link Farm”, “SEO Themes” and “SERP”. His “26 steps to 15k a day” is one of the most widely read SEO documents.
Ian Lurie
A self-proclaimed digital marketing nerd and data addict, Ian Lurie created Portent, a digital marketing agency in 1995, and sold it to Clearlink in 2017. Lurie is now a leading technical SEO consultant and educates marketers on the principle of creating content for users and not letting SEO get in the way.
Glenn Gabe
Glenn Gabe launched SEO agency G-Squared Interactive in 2001. As an SEO consultant, he focuses on algorithm update recovery, technical SEO audits, and SEO training. He shares his latest SEO tactics and tips on his blog, The Internet Market Driver, and is also a regular columnist at Search Engine Land, writing about complex SEO topics.
John Doherty
John Doherty is the founder of GetCredo.com, a service that connects businesses with marketing providers to facilitate growth. As an SEO and growth consultant, he’s helped drive hundreds of millions of visitors to websites. He also writes guides to SaaS SEO, eCommerce marketing, and hiring a digital marketing firm.
Annie Cushing
Passionate about making data sexy, Annie Cushing wrote a book of the same title. Cushing specializes in analytics, technical SEO, and everything to do with data. She’s on a mission to rid the world of ugly data and ensure it’s beautifully presented. She blogs about analytics and SEO and PPC tactics at Annielytics.com.
Ross Hudgens
Ross Hudgens is the founder and CEO of Siege Media, a content marketing agency specializing in SEO. Hudgens is also an active investor, backing tech startups with a focus on SEO and content marketing. Prior to this, he built websites for the insurance and mortgage industry, discovering a knack for ranking number 1 very quickly for competitive queries.
Glen Allsopp
Glen Allsopp created Detailed.com as a way of sharing his own secret SEO insights from thirteen years working in SEO. As part of Detailed, he built and funded his own link index which currently tracks 90,000 legitimate links a day. He also algorithmically ranks the world’s biggest blogs in multiple categories.
Marie Haynes
Obsessed with understanding Google algorithm updates, Marie Haynes, helps businesses improve their online visibility while complying with Google’s guidelines. Previously a veterinarian, Haynes got hooked on SEO while figuring out how to boost her site’s visibility. She’s best known for tackling Google penalties and her in-depth knowledge of Google’s Penguin algorithm.
Marcus Tandler
Marcus Tandler is the co-founder and managing director of Ryte.com, a platform dedicated to improving website usability, increasing traffic, and conversion rates. One of the most authoritative SEO experts in Germany, he’s a regular keynote speaker, on the topics of online marketing and website optimization.
Dave Naylor
Passionate about eliminating jargon and explaining technical concepts in plain English, Dave Naylor is the head of search marketing at Bronco, a leading digital agency he founded in 2003. He spends time training search engine employees on the concepts of SEO and search engine structures.
Barry Adams
Barry Adams is an SEO consultant specializing in technical SEO for eCommerce websites and news publishers. He’s been building and ranking websites since 1998 and has worked with everything from small businesses to large media companies. Adams founded Polemic Digital in 2014 to offer specialized SEO services to a global client base.
Rae Hoffman
A serial entrepreneur and marketer, Rae Hoffman became an SEO in the ‘90s before shifting to become an award-winning affiliate marketer. She’s known for competing in over 50 keyword verticals via her affiliate websites. Having co-founded several successful digital marketing agencies, Hoffman now prefers to work with brands on a consultant basis.
Britney Muller
Formerly Moz’s Senior SEO Scientist, Britney Muller is a well-known keynote speaker, data researcher, and creator of educational materials for the SEO community. She previously started and ran a boutique medical marketing agency, Pryde Marketing in Colorado. Muller is a speaker and educator on harnessing AI in marketing.
Bruce Clay
Bruce Clay is known for programming the first website analysis tool. A founding-father of SEO, he started his agency Bruce Clay Inc. in 1996 and was one of the first people to popularize the term. He has created a popular SEO plugin for WordPress, an acclaimed training course, and in-person classes worldwide.
Nat Eliason
Nat Eliason is the founder and CEO of Growth Machine, a leading SEO focused content marketing agency focused on growing businesses’ blogs. In under a year, he grew the agency revenue to $85,000 a month. He’s credited with building a large web presence for brands like Patreon and AppSumo.
Robbie Richards
Leading SEO at his agency Virayo, Robbie Richards plans and executes SEO for leading SaaS brands. He has also generated over a million page views for his blog and built an email list of 20,000 subscribers. Leveraging his highly technical knowledge of SEO, he created The SEO Playbook online course.
AJ Kohn
AJ Kohn is the founder of specialized search agency, Blind Five Year Old, best known for its philosophy of treating search engines like they are blind five year olds. A known thought leader, he is a Marketing Land curator and has been a panelist for both Moz and Google Search Engine Ranking Factors.
Jon Henshaw
Jon Henshaw is the lead SEO at ViacomCBS. He is also the founder of Coywolf, a premium content site providing insights on digital marketing and entrepreneurship. Previously, he co-founded popular SEO management software, Raven Tools before selling it to TapClicks in 2017. Prior to Raven Tools, he worked as an interaction designer for Visa.
Julie Joyce
As the owner of link building company Link Fish Media Inc, Julie Joyce built her company to build links for increased search engine visibility for companies in competitive niches. Joyce is the co-founder of the popular blog SEO Chicks. She also regularly writes a column at Search Engine Journal.
Dan Shure
Dan Shure is the owner and an SEO consultant at Evolving SEO, a boutique SEO agency that helps clients grow their blog traffic. He also hosts Experts on the Wire, a podcast dedicated to trends, tactics, tools, and people in SEO that’s been downloaded over half a million times.
Rhea Drysdale
CEO of Outspoken Media, Rhea Drysdale created her agency to focus on growing, protecting, and managing brands online. She’s passionate about building responsible and honest businesses online. Previously she has worked at startups, Fortune 1000s, and a multichannel retailer.
Omar Kattan
Omar Kattan is the managing director and CSO at Sandstorm Digital, a performance marketing agency focused on giving customers a reason to visit websites. Previously, he worked on brand communication strategies and launched campaigns for world-leading brands.
Dawn Anderson
Dawn Anderson is the managing director at Bertey, an audience-centric and data-driven agency. She also lectures on digital marketing strategy and regularly speaks internationally on technical SEO. She specializes in undertaking advanced forensic technical SEO audits and regularly contributes to industry publications.
Melissa Fach
In the industry for 15 years, Melissa Fach is a senior SEO analyst at Cox Enterprises, a leading telecommunications company. Previously, she was the lead editor at Search Engine Journal and an editor at the Moz blog. She has also been the community manager at Pubcon and the blog editor at SEMrush.
Tim Soulo
As the CMO and product advisor at Ahrefs, an industry-leading SEO management SaaS, Tim Soulo is a certified SEO thought leader. With 10 years of SEO experience, Soulo shares his knowledge by presenting talks and frequently writing for the Ahrefs blog. He’s conducted a number of data-driven SEO research studies and written numerous detailed SEO guides.
Lisa Paasche
CEO and founder of SEO agency Verve Search, Lisa Myers is a regular speaker at global search and social media conferences and frequently contributes to both online and offline SEO press. An advocate for women in SEO, Myers is also the co-founder of SEO-Chicks.com and Women in Search.
David Mihm
David Mihm is the founder of Tidings, a company focused on helping small businesses make the most of their digital marketing budget. Mihm is best known for his emphasis on local SEO tactics. Previously, he was Moz’s Director of Local Search Strategy and was critical in the development of Moz Local, an automated listing management tool.
Greg Gifford
A specialized local SEO consultant, Greg Gifford focuses on the automotive industry. He is also the Vice President of Search at SearchLab, a boutique agency focused on local SEO for small businesses. A regular speaker at search conferences, he’s known for his crowd-pleasing movie-themed slides.
Duane Forrester
Duane Forrester is the Vice President of Industry Insights for Yext, a data management cloud tool that tracks businesses’ location-related information on multiple directories. Prior to Yext, Forrester was the VP of Operations of SEO agency Bruce Clay Inc. He was also a product marketing manager at Microsoft and was responsible for launching Bing’s updated Webmaster Tools in 2012.
Debra Mastaler
Debra Mastaler is a world authority on link building services and is an OMCP Certified Link Trainer. Mastaler is the President of Alliance-Link a boutique link agency offering consultations for in-house SEO teams. A regular speaker, she’s consistently voted as one of the top women in SEO. She’s also a regular columnist for Search Engine Land.
Loren Baker
The founder of online SEO news site Search Engine Journal, Loren Baker originally built it as a personal blog. He is the VP of marketing at BlueGlass Interactive and a specialist link builder. Baker has impressively been building links since 2000 before links were a key search engine ranking factor.
Martin MacDonald
A technical SEO specialist and the founder of MOG Media Inc., Martin MacDonald leads the enterprise digital marketing consultancy which works with the largest sites on the web. Previously he was the head of SEO and content marketing for the Expedia Group. He has also launched his own poker and casino site, under the MOG Media brand.
Simo Ahava
Simo Ahava is a partner and co-founder at 8-bit-sheep, a digital data and strategy boutique agency. Focused on the analytics side of SEO, Ahava is also a Google Developer Expert for Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. He also runs a popular blog, simoahava.com that provides insights on web analytics.
Cindy Krum
Pioneering the mobile marketing movement, Cindy Krum is the CEO and founder of MobileMoxie, a mobile marketing consultancy and a toolset that helps users test, research, and analyze their mobile website performance to improve site visibility and traffic. An established thought leader in mobile SEO and ASO marketing, she regularly speaks at international conferences.
Paddy Moogan
Paddy Moogan is the co-founder of UK based digital marketing and web development agency, Aira. He fell into SEO while studying for a law degree in 2004 and has worked for agency Distilled as their VP Operations. He is the author of “The Link Building Book”, an ebook dedicated to credible link building strategies.
Justin Briggs
Moz Associate Justin Briggs is the CEO of Briggsby, a boutique consultancy that focuses on mobile marketing for websites and apps. Briggs is consistently recognized as one of the most knowledgeable technical SEOs in the industry. He regularly blogs about mobile marketing and link-building strategies.
Bill Hartzer
An expert SEO consultant, Bill Hartzer is the chair of State of Search, an annual search marketing conference. Practicing SEO since 1996, Hartzer is the CEO of his own firm Hartzer Consulting. He is also a globally recognized domain name expert having studied the marketing impact of different names.
Jennifer Slegg
With 20 years of search experience, Jennifer Slegg is the founder and editor of The SEM Post, an in-depth look at search industry news. She’s also a regular speaker at Pubcon, SMX, and ClickZ and has been presenting international conferences for over a decade.
Paul Shapiro
Paul Shapiro is the Global Director of technical SEO at Condé Nast. Taking a collaborative and community-based approach to SEO, Shapiro runs the /r/BigSEO community on Reddit known for its industry AMAs and he is also the founder of Online Geniuses, a Slack Chat community for internet marketers.
Ginny Marvin
With more than 15 years of search experience, Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor in Chief, writing about paid digital advertising, and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, and MarTech Today. Prior to this, Marvin has been a marketing consultant and held both in-house management and agency positions.
Andy Drinkwater
Specializing in SEO audits, link building, and Ecommerce SEO, Andy Drinkwater is a leading SEO consultant. He’s known for creating a 242 point SEO audit checklist and for focusing on technical sides of SEO that always follow Google’s evolving best practices. He is also a ‘Fellow of the Institute of Data and Marketing’.
Alan Bleiweiss
Alan Bleiweiss is a forensic SEO audit consultant for medium to large businesses. His agency of the same name also specializes in rectifying sites hit with Google Penalties. Bleiweiss is credited with creating the first comprehensive database-driven real estate site in California back in 1995.
Darren Shaw
Darren Shaw is the founder of Whitespark, a platform helping small businesses get more revenue through Google. Passionate about local SEO, Shaw leads research initiatives such as the Local Search Ranking Factors survey and the Local Search Ecosystem. He is also the co-host of The SaaS Venture podcast.
Matthew Howells-Barby
Matthew Howells-Barby is the Senior Director of Acquisition at HubSpot, a leading marketing management software. He is also the co-founder of Traffic Think Tank, a leading SEO training platform and Slack based community. A prominent lecturer on SEO and content marketing, he’s contributed to a number of online courses, including the HubSpot Academy.
Mike Blumenthal
Commonly known as Professor Maps, Mike Blumenthal is often cited as the top local search expert in the U.S. He’s the author of the industry’s most respected blog ‘Understanding Google Maps & Local Search’ which provides marketers with unique insights into local SEO strategies, news and problem-solving.
Dixon Jones
An international internet marketing advisor and SEO speaker Dixon Jones is also the CEO of InLinks.net, a content optimization software. Previously, Jones was the marketing director at Majestic, the largest commercial Link Intelligence database in the world. A regular speaker, he presented at the first-ever Pubcon.
Ian Howells
Ian Howells is the co-founder of Traffic Think Tank and regularly produces training courses around SEO and other digital marketing topics. He also builds and ranks sites as a consultant at LuckyPixel. Previously, he was the director of SEO for eBay and LendingTree.
Kelvin Newman
Kelvin Newman is the founder of Rough Agenda, a company that organizes digital marketing events, including Brighton SEO, a bi-annual search marketing conference attended by over 3,500 marketers. Newman is also Marketing Director at SiteVisibility, an agency with an SEO track record since 2001 working with clients like Hotels.com and Vax.
Natzir Turrado
As a marketing, UX, SEO, and web analysis professor, Natzir Turrado is passionate about educating marketers about Google’s ever-evolving algorithms. Also a freelance SEO consultant, he uses data science to establish scientific SEO strategies as opposed to following checklists. He also specializes in removing search engine penalties.
Eric Siu
Investor, podcaster, and consultant, Eric Siu is the CEO of Single Grain, a digital marketing agency he bought for just $2 in 2014 and grew to $4 million in revenue within 4 years. He’s worked with companies like Amazon, Salesforce, and Uber to help them generate more customers. Siu hosts the Marketing School podcast with Neil Patel.
Andrew Shotland
Andrew Shotland is the CEO and founder of LocalSEOGuide.com, an SEO agency offering SEO audits and consulting to multi-location brands. He also provides a definitive Local SEO Ranking Factors study for search marketers. He regularly contributes to Search Engine Land, and previously was the head of product and business development for Insider Pages, a local-social search engine.
Joe Hall
A self-described web-head, Hall is a respected SEO thought leader who founded his SEO business Hall Analysis in 2007, a boutique consulting firm for businesses looking for technical SEO audits and search marketing analysis. He is also the founder of Cloud22, an end-to-end solution for WordPress management and optimization.
Kristine Schachinger
Consultant, speaker, and writer, Kristine Schachinger is the founder of Sites Without Walls, a full-service digital marketing SEO group. She also writes the popular column “Ask an SEO” for online news platform Search Engine Journal. An internationally recognized speaker, she focuses on technical SEO, UX, and site recovery.
Heather Lloyd-Martin
Described as the pioneer of SEO copywriting by Forbes, Heather Lloyd-Martin has been in SEO for more than 20 years. She is president and CEO of SuccessWorks, a digital marketing firm providing SEO consulting and training. She also publishes a regular SEO-focused newsletter and offers online training.
Christoph Cemper
Christoph Cemper is the founder of LinkResearchTools, a specialized link building, and analysis toolset. He regularly speaks and writes about link risk management and launched Link Detox, software built for identifying links that pose a risk to a site’s backlink profile. Semper also built Impactana, a content marketing intelligence software that helps marketers find content ideas.
Jim Boykin
Jim Boykin is the founder and CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas, first launched as a one-man SEO company that soon grew to become a world-renowned content marketing agency. Boykin is also the former CEO of the leading internet marketing communities WebmasterWorld and Threadwatch.
Richard Baxter
A veteran marketer of 15 years, Richard Baxter built agency Builtvisible up from a one-man-band to a globally recognized name in search. Having sold out via an MBO in 2019, Baxter remains on the board and dedicates much of his time to launching websites. He’s passionate about devising a site’s initial architectural structure and UX.
Tom Anthony
Tom Anthony is the VP Product at SearchPilot, an A/B testing platform designed to identify SEO changes that boost a site’s search traffic. Spun out of Distilled agency, Anthony brought the product to market. Previously, Anthony won a bug bounty from Google for a blackhat SEO attack. He has also defended a PhD thesis on AI.
Joy Hawkins
Local SEO expert Joy Hawkins split her time between running her agency Sterling Sky Inc, a local search forum Local Search Forum, and teaching marketers her tactics at LocalU. She also volunteers as a Product Expert on the Google My Business Forum. Hawkins is the author of The Expert’s Guide to Local SEO, an SEO training manual.
Matt Siltala
Founder of Avalaunch Media, a leading SEO focused digital marketing agency, Matt Siltala is an online search industry leader. He’s led search campaigns for brands like GoDaddy, Salesforce, and GoPro. Previously, Siltala launched several high-performing ecommerce and marketing companies. He leads a weekly marketing podcast @bizofdigital.
Nick Eubanks
Nick Eubanks is a partner of SEO education platform, Traffic Think Tank, and the founder of I’m From The Future, an ecommerce optimization platform. He’s also an active angel investor and advisor in the tech startup space Eubank is currently working on building his first SaaS, Sentinel.
Ruth Burr Reedy
Once the head of SEO at Moz, Ruth Burr Reedy now runs her own SEO consultancy. She specializes in building a strong technical SEO foundation for an effective inbound marketing strategy. She’s now the director of strategy at UpBuild, an end-to-end SEO agency.
Lily Ray
Drummer, DJ, and SEO Director at Path Interactive, Lily Ray provides strategic leadership for the agency’s SEO programs. An advocate for white-hat SEO, she helps sites affected by recent algorithm changes improve their authority and recover from penalties. Born into a family of software engineers, Ray brings a strong technical edge to her SEO strategies.
Russ Jones
Russ Jones is the Principal Search Scientist at System1, a consumer internet and applications company. Prior to this, he sold a software asset to Moz in 2015 and came along with the acquisition as a search scientist. Jones began his career at Hive Digital, a full-service digital marketing agency.
Alex Chris
Alex Chris is the founder of Reliablesoft.net, an SEO focused digital marketing agency he launched in 2002, during the advent of search engines. Chris is also the author of The Complete SEO Course, an online guide to search marketing. Previously, a software developer, analyst, and project manager, Chris is an expert at developing web properties.
Carolyn Shelby
Carolyn Shelby is the lead SEO for ESPN.com and the ESPN network of internet properties. Shelby has been developing and marketing internet technologies since 1994 when she was the co-founder and managing partner of an internet service provider. She has also been the director of SEO at Tronc, on publishing platforms including the LA Times.
Fili Wiese
Ex-Google engineer, Fili Wiese was a technical lead in the Search Quality team. He offers SEO consulting through Search Brothers, specializing in fighting web spam and click spam. Wiese is a leading expert on Google webmaster policies and backlink risks. He also curates the top digital marketing conferences at his site Online.Marketing.
Kelsey Jones
SEO and content leader, Kelsey Jones is the Editor in Chief of NeilPatel.com, a leading SEO site with over 10 million views a month. Jones is also the founder of Six Stories, an SEO and content-driven marketing agency working with brands like Salesforce. Previously, Jones was the executive editor at Search Engine Journal.
Patrick Stox
Patrick Stox is a product advisor, technical SEO, and brand ambassador at Ahrefs, a market-leading SEO management platform. He writes for the Ahrefs blog and has contributed to digital publications Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Journal. A keen speaker, he often speaks at search conferences Pubcon and SMX.
Jenny Halasz
As the president and founder of JLH Marketing Inc., Halasz specializes in search strategy with an emphasis on intuitive user experience and successful customer acquisition. Previously, she’s worked as a VP of Search for Acronym Media and has worked in affiliate marketing. She writes a regular column for Search Engine Land and regularly contributes to podcasts.
Stephen Kenwright
Stephen Kenwright is the technical director of Rise at Seven, a specialist creative SEO agency. Kenwright also co-founded SearchLeeds, which has grown to be one of the largest digital marketing conferences in the UK. Graduating with a master’s in literature, he also mentors communication students.
Jamie Alberico
Jamie Alberico is a technical SEO at Not a Robot, specializing in taming disorderly JavaScript frameworks like Angular and React. She’s best known for her ability to engineer complex infrastructures and system governance. Alberico spends her time studying how search engines crawl, index, and render the web.
Kevin Indig
Kevin Indig is VP of SEO & Content at G2, a leading B2B software marketplace. He specializes in content, technical SEO, and organic user acquisition. Indig also mentors startups in growth at GermanAccelerator. He’s the creator of newsletter and podcast Tech Bound which provides the principles, tools, and growth strategies he applies to SEO.
Izzi Smith
A self-acknowledged SEO nerd, Izzi Smith is a technical SEO analyst at the SaaS Ryte. Passionate about educating marketers about technical topics, Smith often gives talks at search marketing conferences. She hosts a weekly ‘edutainment’ podcast ‘The Izzi & Nils Show’ for digital marketers demystifying topics like CRO and UX.
Areej AbuAli
Founder of the Women in Tech SEO community, a support network of over 2,000 women working in the technical SEO field, Areej AbuAli is an SEO Manager for the Zoopla property website. A qualified computer engineer, AbuAli also frequently speaks on the international search conference circuit.
Andrew Cock-Starkey
Having worked in marketing for more than two decades, Cock-Starkey launched his own SEO consultancy service Optimisey. He runs a series of free SEO-meetups where he gets guest SEO experts to share actionable advice in Cambridge, the UK where his consultancy is based.
Ryan Jones
A web developer turned SEO, Ryan Jones has been working in SEO since before Google went public. He runs the popular parody SEO blog, WTFSEO.com as well as other sites and SEO tools he’s built. Jones currently leads the SEO team for Razorfish, a full-service marketing agency.
Laura Lippay
Laura Lippay is a freelance SEO consultant. She’s worked with brands like Tesla, Netflix, Microsoft, and Yahoo. A data-driven SEO, she began her career as a developer and now splits her time between organic search and audience research. Lippay now specializes in building in-house reporting systems and optimizing CMS platforms.
Alexis Sanders
Alexis Sanders is the SEO director at performance marketing agency Merkle Inc. She regularly contributes to the Moz blog, Search Engine Land, and TechnicalSEO.com. Sanders is also the creator of the TechnicalSEO.expert challenge. When not thinking about SEO, Sanders is passionate about developing her knowledge of machine learning.
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