Usually when talking about SEO gurus you think about who you should follow on social media. This is a great place to see what an influencer is writing, sharing, and who they’re connecting with to help give you ideas for relationships you may want to pursue in the future (remember, relationships are the new ticket to SEO success). In addition, however, knowing a few gurus to follow can also help you find information online whenever you’re searching for answers to your SEO questions. Oftentimes I will type in my question and then an author’s name that I really like to see if he/she has written on a subject. It’s an excellent way to find the answers I need quickly while also keeping up with anything new the influencer is publishing.
There are many big name SEO gurus out there, but the gurus below are making a name for themselves and may be influencers you haven’t researched yet or really gotten to know. If you’re looking for some up and coming gurus, this list is for you.
Mindy Weinstein
I first saw Mindy speak at the most recent SEJ Summit about how to create content for boring industries, and she did an excellent job breaking down the process and bringing in her own experiences (you can read more about her presentation here). After starting to follow her work at Bruce Clay Inc. it became apparent that she was an excellent guru to know. She has great personality in everything she writes and is consistently sharing the work of others.
Will Fleiss
As the Content Manager of Outbrain, Will isn’t someone on this list with 5K followers or a huge list of articles under his belt, but he posts on social media everyday and really seems to understand the importance of quality of quantity. Everything he publishes (including posts that he’s written) he clearly spent a lot of time creating, and he’s the best at retweeting others and keeping his social accounts moving in a good direction and following SEO news. He’s newer on the scene, but I think he’ll be gaining speed in the near future.
AJ Gherigch
Unlike several of the gurus on this list, AJ isn’t managing one of the top blogs in the industry—but he’s well on his way. AJ has been in the industry since 2004 and does an excellent job on Twitter specifically. If you visit his page, you’ll see that almost everything he posts includes a graphic and a unique message, so it’s clear he puts time and effort into how he shares articles. After all, his Twitter handle is @SEO. It doesn’t get much more SEO than that.
Kelsey Jones
Kelsey has been the top dog at Search Engine Journal for only a short time, but she has really transformed the blog into a place with different types of content and media as well as a positive place for commenting and questions. Because this is a content-driven website she has quite a bit of knowledge about SEO and how content fits in to the picture. Just like Adam, I consider Kelsey to be one of the most approachable gurus in the industry who really wants to help you succeed and help solve any unsolvable problem.
Kathleen Garvin
Kathleen is the Editor at one of the most authoritative blogs in the SEO space, SEMRush. Not only does she just manage the blog, but she also continually writes about SEO topics and publishes them for SEMRush readers. You can tell by her writing that she has a very advanced knowledge of SEO and isn’t afraid to share the quality articles she sees around the web on even some of SEMRush’s competitors. If it’s great content, you’ll find it on her social accounts.
Todd Malicoat
This expert is someone who seems to have flown under the radar for a lot of people, but once you visit his social accounts you’ll see that he really knows his stuff. He creates digital marketing training programs for higher education and has given his programs to some major corporation in the past (ex. Marriott, Harvard Business review, Motorola, etc.). One of the coolest things about him is that he publishes a mix of things on his social accounts, and they’re not all about digital marketing. With 18.7K followers on Twitter it doesn’t seem like this guy is going anywhere.
Adam Heitzman
Disclaimer, Adam is a managing partner of our sister company HigherVisibility so this is a little bit of a shameless promotion. Nonetheless, he offers some great insight on social media based on his 10+ years of experience. Adam writes for major publications such as Inc. and Entrepreneur and is consistently sharing these pieces of some of his favorites on social media. He’s also an influencer on this list that is incredibly approachable, so if you wanted to create an SEO relationship in some form he’s going to be someone you can turn to with questions. He generally tweets out of the HigherVisibility Company Twitter account, so I recommend following that first for advice.
Of course there are many other big names in the industry such as Danny Sullivan, Rand Fishkin, and even Matt Cutts, but above are just some of the gurus you may not have been following or aware of in the past. Let us know your favorite gurus and what’s so great about them in the comment section below.