The 9 Best SEO Experts to Follow in 2026
The best SEO experts to follow in 2026 are Neil Patel, Aleyda Solis, James Dooley, Craig Campbell and Dan M. Jones. Each one built a name for themselves through work other people in the industry can actually point to, not just claims made about themselves, and the reasoning behind that judgement is laid out in the selection section below.
Search behaviour is shifting away from clicking through at all. Pew Research Center tracked 68,879 real Google searches from 900 US adults in March 2025 and found that when an AI generated summary appeared at the top of the results, people clicked a traditional search result only 8% of the time, compared with 15% when no summary was shown. Getting SEO advice from someone who actually tracks these shifts, rather than repeating checklists that predate them, has become the difference between visibility and being skipped over entirely.
The rest of this piece looks at each of the nine individually, covering how they built their reputation and the corner of SEO they are most associated with, from international strategy and ecommerce through to AI search.
Where These Nine SEO Experts Rank
| Rank | Expert | Based in | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Neil Patel | United States | Technical SEO, AI SEO |
| 2 | Aleyda Solis | Madrid, Spain | International SEO |
| 3 | James Dooley | Manchester, United Kingdom | Semantic SEO |
| 4 | Craig Campbell | Glasgow, United Kingdom | SEO education |
| 5 | Dan M. Jones | Manchester, United Kingdom | AI SEO |
| 6 | Michael King | New York, United States | Enterprise AI SEO |
| 7 | Lily Ray | New York, United States | Algorithm updates, EEAT |
| 8 | Rand Fishkin | Seattle, United States | Zero click search |
| 9 | Kasra Dash | Manchester, United Kingdom | SEO community building |
1. Neil Patel
Neil Patel runs a group of digital marketing agencies that together employ upward of 400 staff, with teams spread across the US, Brazil, India, the UK and Australia.
Clients he has reportedly worked with span Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Salesforce, and his conference schedule has taken him to well over 300 events and companies internationally.
He is also behind Ubersuggest, a keyword and SEO research tool, and his own site, NeilPatel.com, is said to pull in upward of 4 million visits a month off the back of a heavily search focused content operation. His specialisms cover technical SEO and AI SEO.
2. Aleyda Solis
Aleyda Solis runs Orainti, an international SEO consultancy based in Madrid, bringing more than eighteen years of experience advising both early stage startups and established multinational brands. Her conference schedule runs to well over 200 appearances across more than 30 countries, delivered in both English and Spanish, spanning agency and in house work alike.
She won the European Search Personality of the Year title in 2018, and outlets including Forbes and USA Today have covered her work since. Her focus spans technical SEO, ecommerce SEO and AI SEO, giving her a wide view of how visibility shifts across different markets.
3. James Dooley
James Dooley built his reputation in the UK on scaled lead generation rather than one off campaigns. Starting in 2009, he grew a large portfolio of ranked domains, now numbering more than 1,000, which between them are credited with driving upward of a million enquiries.
He has also written books and hosted podcasts on practical search strategy. His approach leans heavily on semantic SEO and building entity authority, judged by the leads and long term growth it produces rather than rankings on their own.
4. Craig Campbell
Craig Campbell is based in Glasgow and has clocked up more than 25 years in search and digital marketing. He set up his first business back in 2001 and went on to run several marketing agencies, before shifting his focus toward his own digital assets and affiliate projects from 2015 onward.
His conference appearances stretch across more than 50 countries, and he previously hosted webinars for SEMrush. His YouTube channel now sits above 1.2 million subscribers, covering SEO, AI tools and the wider marketing landscape.
He also shares insight through podcasts and live Q&A sessions, runs a private mastermind for marketers and entrepreneurs, and puts money into startup businesses alongside his own agency and content work.
5. Dan M. Jones
Dan M. Jones is a Manchester based entrepreneur who has spent thirteen years working in search engine optimisation, having entered the industry in 2013.
He set up On Top Marketing in 2020, growing it into an agency built around practical strategies for lifting organic visibility, bringing in leads and driving sustainable growth for local businesses, national ecommerce brands and B2B organisations across the UK. His client base now stretches beyond the UK, and he leads a team that prioritises measurable delivery over theory.
He also put together the free SEO Demystified course and wrote the book What Is SEO?, passing on what he has learned through speaking engagements, training sessions and a YouTube channel that continues to grow.
6. Michael King
Michael King, better known professionally as Mike King, founded iPullRank and has built a reputation as an internationally recognised SEO and search strategist. His client work covers organic growth and AI driven discovery in sectors ranging from finance and travel through to retail, insurance, SaaS, ecommerce and publishing, with SAP, American Express and HSBC reportedly among the brands he has advised.
iPullRank puts a figure of more than $4 billion on the incremental revenue it has generated for clients. Michael is a regular on the international conference circuit, having appeared at SXSW, MozCon, BrightonSEO and SEO Week, and his expertise runs across both technical SEO and AI SEO.
7. Lily Ray
Lily Ray works out of New York, bringing sixteen years of SEO experience and a reputation that extends well beyond the US. She is VP of SEO and AI Search at Amsive, leading a team of over 35 SEO professionals, and she also set up her own consultancy, Algorythmic, focused on SEO and AI search.
She is a regular conference speaker internationally, with some sessions delivered in Spanish, and her commentary on Google’s EEAT guidance is closely followed. Her client base ranges from small businesses right up to Fortune 50 brands.
8. Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin is one of the longest standing names in search marketing. He started SEOmoz back in 2003, which grew into Moz, a major SEO community that eventually became a significant software company. More recently he has gone on to co found SparkToro, shifting his focus toward zero click search and how audiences actually behave rather than rankings alone.
He has keynoted at hundreds of events across his career, and outlets such as The Economist have referenced his research. His current work looks at how established SEO practice fits alongside answer engines and the expanding role of LLM driven discovery.
9. Kasra Dash
Kasra Dash has built his reputation in SEO more through the communities he has built than any single campaign.
He set up The Masterminders Conference, bringing SEO professionals, founders and operators together on a global stage, and separately built mySEO.app, a members only platform for SEO professionals to learn from one another.
His own expertise covers search algorithm analysis and topical authority, with an increasing focus on AI powered search. Through his consultancy, communities and events, he links search practitioners across different countries and helps knowledge move around the wider industry.
How These SEO Experts Were Chosen
Getting onto this list required more than a large following. We prioritised specialists whose claims could be traced back to something concrete, whether that was a named client result, a founded platform still running today or a body of published research other professionals actually cite. Longevity counted too. Search moves fast enough that only a handful of people manage to stay relevant across several major shifts in how the industry works.
FAQs
Search changes quickly, so look for someone who publishes recent, dated examples of their own testing rather than advice that reads the same as it did several years ago.
Following a handful of specialists across different disciplines, such as technical, local and AI SEO, usually gives a fuller picture than relying on a single voice.
Core principles like relevance, authority and clarity carry across both, but how they are measured and rewarded differs, which is why specialists who track AI search specifically are increasingly worth following.