AI Search
“SEO is dead!”
Said no actual SEO expert ever.
SEO in 2026 is no longer the same as it was one year ago. With the introduction of AI, AEO, GEO, etc., the industry is seeing a massive shift.
So, only a few experts in the SEO industry are moving ahead of the manual phase and taking their expertise to the next level with the help of AI.
In this article, we’ve shared a list of 18 SEO experts you should follow, including big names like Brian Dean, Rand Fishkin, Matt Diggity, Steve Toth, and more.
These professionals have years of experience and proven strategies to help you succeed in the ever-changing world of SEO. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to fine-tune your skills, this list will guide you to the best in the industry!
Here is the list of the top 15 SEO experts you should consider following.
Brian Dean is a famous name in the SEO industry because he is the founder of Backlinko, after failing with his first five online projects.
Semrush acquired Backlinko in 2022. Since then, Brian has been actively educating aspiring marketers on Semrush Academy and helping their platform gain a reputation in digital marketing education.
Now, he has also sold his “Exploding Topics” to Semrush in 2024, which is integrable within the Semrush ecosystem to find emerging topics.
He developed the “Skyscraper Technique” back in 2015. This technique helped many marketers earn high-quality backlinks by improving their websites’ SEO. This technique is not very popular these days, but it is still used by 18% of marketers for link-building.
If you are just starting out in this SEO industry, then his blog can be beneficial for you. He believes that all online marketers should ace the art of link building so that their websites can get better results.
Rand Fishkin is the co-founder of the renowned tool Moz. He was the CEO of Moz between 2004-2014, before handing the post to Sarah Bird. Currently, is the co-founder of SparkToro, focusing on audience research and understanding where your target customers spend their time online. Rand has a total of 20 years of experience in SEO.
You can learn a lot of things from him, whether it is related to on-page or off-page. SparkToro helps SEO marketers discover what their audience reads, watches, and follows. Moz is still known as one of the best authoritative resources in the SEO industry. He also wrote a book called “Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Guide To The Startup World.”
Steve Toth is one of the renowned SEO gurus who offer actionable SEO advice. His contributions through SEO Notebook which is quickly becoming a valuable resource for many in the SEO community. I have been following his newsletter for a while, and his resources are quite helpful as they cope with the new AI-driven search algorithm.
As founder of Notebook Agency and former SEO Manager at FreshBooks, Steve helped marketers dramatically boost organic traffic, such as achieving a fivefold increase for FreshBooks and ranking it #1 for competitive keywords.
He is known for sharing simple, useful guides and new ideas for using AI in SEO. He helps businesses and individuals stay up-to-date with clear, practical advice that actually works.
Danny Sullivan is the founding editor of Search Engine Land, and he has co-founded Third Door Media as well. Search Engine Land focuses on providing the best SEO techniques. He has worked for 21 years as a chief content officer in Third Door Media. Danny was Google’s Search Public Liaison and stepped out of this post in early August 2025 after serving for 7 and a half years. Now, he is moving ahead to a new role at Google for new projects.
Now he focuses his time on connecting the general public with the SEO employees of Google. You can follow his blogs to get incredible insights into SEO. Many SEO experts have also recognized his work and praised him for that. He also conducts events at MarTech and Search Marketing Expo.
Matt Diggity is a leading expert in affiliate marketing SEO, renowned for optimizing websites that generate passive income through affiliate commissions. He is the founder of The Search Initiative, Diggity Marketing, Affiliate Builders, Leadspring LLC, The Chang Mai SEO Conference, and The Affiliate Lab which is one of the best affiliate marketing courses. He is one of the best affiliate marketers worldwide. He is an SEO expert who teaches everything related to SEO in his online course, the Affiliate Lab.
You can get SEO coaching from him and learn how you can better SEO results. No matter what level of SEO experience you have, he can help you gain more SEO knowledge. He helps you in preparing for upcoming Google updates so that your website doesn’t get hit by the updates. You can quickly learn how you can increase your website’s traffic from Matt. Check our detailed Affiliate Marketing statistics here.
His deep understanding of AI SEO, combined with affiliate marketing expertise, makes him one of the few authorities who can bridge monetization tactics with AI-powered search optimization effectively.
Join his YouTube channel to get updated with new AI-driven SEO and content strategies.
Aleyda Solis is an internationally acclaimed SEO consultant known for her technical SEO expertise and education efforts. Founder of Orainti, she specializes in helping brands transition from traditional SEO tools to using cutting-edge AI SEO tools and generative engine optimization (GEO).
Her work focuses on structured data, schema implementation, and optimizing for AI-powered voice and answer engines (AEO). Aleyda assists global brands in maintaining technical health while adapting content for new search paradigms driven by artificial intelligence. This makes her a top educator and strategist in the industry for 2026 and beyond.
She is pretty active on LinkedIn and posts AI-related stuff frequently. She loves to crack the changing behaviour of search engines due to AI. Follow her on LinkedIn, you will love her sense of humor and the knowledge she has on AI SEO and AEO.
Similar to Search Engine Land and Moz, there is one other trustworthy SEO blog on the internet called Search Engine Roundtable, and Barry Schwartz is the founder. He is the news editor of Search Engine Land and also contributes to Marketing Land. He is also CEO of RustryBrick, which is a custom web development company.
Beyond detailing SEO news, Barry provides critical insights into Google updates, AI SEO developments, and how these affect search visibility. His coverage helps marketers anticipate algorithm changes and understand global trends in AEO and GEO.
Dr. Marie Haynes is a specialist in Google algorithm analysis, site quality audits, link audits, and penalty recovery. Founder of Marie Haynes Consulting, she excels at integrating E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) principles with the demands of AI SEO and generative search evaluation.
Marie helps brands understand how Google’s quality raters and AI systems assess content trustworthiness, making her a leader in preparing websites for AEO and GEO contexts. She has published multiple books, including “Unnatural Links: A Guide to Recovery,” and hosts a weekly podcast about SEO. Her expertise lies in understanding Google’s quality guidelines and helping websites recover from penalties.
Her recent podcast on “The Agency Insider Show” was outstanding, where she explains recent AI updates, AI Overviews, and how AI is transforming SEO. Watch this whole video and learn from her experience.
An SEO by Day and a DJ by night, Lily Ray is a Senior Director of SEO at Amsive Digital, acclaimed for her expertise in E-E-A-T, Google algorithm updates, and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
She bridges traditional SEO practices with AI-driven search innovations, making her an authority on optimizing for direct answer features, voice assistants, and generative engines (GEO). She was named the #1 most influential SEO expert in 2022 by USA Today and is known for her deep expertise in Google algorithm updates and technical SEO.
Cyrus once led the SEO and content team at Moz before founding Zyppy, which specializes in technical SEO, site architecture, and internal linking strategies. His strengths include optimizing websites for SEO fundamentals like site architecture and user experience, while increasingly focusing on AI SEO by preparing content for AI understanding and generative search contexts.
Cyrus educates clients on adapting traditional SEO to the complex demands of AI-powered search results, making his expertise valuable for businesses that want to merge classic SEO with future-facing AI SEO strategies.
Vanessa Fox is known for her contribution to Google’s Webmaster Central, which is a search engine optimization tool that teaches about indexing and Crawling. She is now the CEO of Keylime Toolbox, and before that, she founded Nine by blue, a search analytics firm. Keylime Toolbox is a company that offers SEO tools that can help you increase your website’s traffic.
She also wrote a book called “Marketing in the Age of Google,” which is a must-read for all business owners who want to grow their businesses. She uses her past experience with Google to provide key insights into SEO. You can read her Keylime Toolbox blog to know more about SEO.
Craig Campbell is an affiliate SEO expert known for delivering practical SEO training with a focus on affiliate marketing, link building, and YouTube SEO tutorials. His approach to SEO education helps marketers develop strong backlink profiles and content optimized for conversions. He appeared in many SEO and affiliate marketing conferences and was a keynote speaker at those events.
Craig also adapts his strategies for AI SEO by including AI-generated content oversight and algorithm changes impacting affiliate niches. His video tutorials and courses provide marketers with current, actionable insights on leveraging AI-powered search engines to maximize affiliate income. Check out his YouTube Channel for more search engine optimization and money-making tips.
Jacky Chou loves to brag about revenue on his Twitter and loves to buy websites only to sell them later. He is the founder of Indexsy, an SEO agency, and has become famous for operating a vast portfolio of websites (reportedly around 35), many built from scratch or acquired as starter sites.
Chou is known for his innovative methods of monetizing SEO through affiliate marketing, “rank and rent” models, and link-building strategies using private blog networks (PBNs). He has also achieved major success in e-commerce, dropshipping, and Amazon FBA, which broadens his influence beyond SEO.
You can say Jacky is a modern-day SEO expert. Even though he is not as experienced as other members on this list, you can learn a lot of SEO tricks and strategies from him.
Jono Alderson is an independent technical SEO consultant with a focus on schema markup, structured data, and web performance optimization. Widely recognized for his expertise in website performance, structured data, and WordPress, Jono has helped brands like Meta, Yoast SEO, Nokia, Samsung, and dozens of other companies.
Jono pushes the SEO industry and digital marketers to “Think Bigger” while remaining audience-centric, even if AI takes over traditional SEO. Because at the end, search intent and solutions are what matter the most.
Aaron Wall is the sole founder of SEOBook, which is an SEO website. This website offers an SEO training program that offers you over 100 different custom training modules, exclusive premium tools, a private forum, and more. He launched this website back in 2003, and it is one of the oldest SEO websites that keeps up with all the SEO trends.
With his affordable learning program, you can learn the ins and outs of SEO and implement his techniques to improve your website’s SEO. He also manages his blog, where he shares actionable insights into SEO. You can also follow him on Twitter to get connected with him.
Let’s talk about the SEO head of our very own Demandsage – Shubham Singh. His journey from zero to hero is truly inspiring. He started his career after an unfortunate accident in 2017, leaving him in a wheelchair for life. However, this didn’t stop him from running a full-time SEO agency all by himself.
He began as a content writer after dropping out of college. While working as a freelance writer, he started learning from free resources. Slowly, Shubham started his own small websites as side hustles and kept working on them using whatever resources he had. In 2021, he founded MyDigital.io, and everything changed since.
In just 3 years, he earned himself a name and has become a recognized figure among top SEO experts; he even traveled across the world to meet them. What’s good about him is that he keeps experimenting with new tools and AI strategies. That’s why most of his sites appear in AI citations, not just in the top SERPs.
Karl Kangur has a proven track record of helping business owners across different countries for the last 14 years. He approaches SEO with a focus on simplicity and measurable results, which sets him apart from other experts he collaborates with. Karl uses high-impact tactics to drive authentic growth.
Over the years, Karl acquired many 5-figure SEO projects while treating them as side projects and grew them to 7-figure within two years. He teaches marketers to get quality links, even if there is an investment, to grow 10x faster than others. He can be your go-to expert if you are seeking impactful SEO growth. Follow him on LinkedIn to know more about him and his strategic thinking toward new AI-driven SEO algorithms.
Glen Allsopp, also known as ViperChill, entered the digital marketing field when he was just 16. He began with a blog where he shared in-depth, candid insights about viral marketing and affiliate strategies. He used his alias to build a reputation for original strategies and research, which had not been revealed before revealing his true identity.
After being low profile for more than 12 years, Glen is now a public-facing SEO expert actively posting his case studies on Twitter and LinkedIn. He likes to dig deeper after every Google core update to find out what exactly works for blogs and content to rank on SERPs. You can sign up for his free course and newsletter to get 100% actionable insights for your own business.
So, this is my list of top SEO experts in the industry, and Brian Dean tops the list. SEO is expanding its core day by day, and these SEO experts are reinventing their strategies with the new AI-driven algorithms.
If you want to keep up with the new changes in the SERP and ranking, consider following your favorite SEO expert. Learn from their experience and take your business to new heights.
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