SEO Podcasts

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According to growth marketer and former HubSpot manager Alex Birkett, B2B content needs to meet four criteria to rank #1 on Google.
The 44th episode of the DesignRush Podcast explains why you should play a long-term game when it comes to SEO, as well as which indicators to look at when assessing the quality of the content on your website.
Tune in to the show to learn:
Alex is the co-founder of a content marketing & SEO agency Omniscient Digital. Before starting his agency, he worked on freemium growth at HubSpot where his team invented a new organic strategy called the “surround sound strategy” which led to Semrush building a tool based on this approach. Alex’s team drove thousands of net new freemium signups across their product suite.
In 2024, SEO isn’t just about topping search results – it’s about perfecting user experiences. With 58% of searches coming from mobile devices, the stakes for optimized, engaging content are higher than ever.
Our editor Vianca Meyer discusses with Alex how his agency approaches enabling businesses to scale their organic traffic.
Omniscient usually runs a website through a four-part audit:
LEARN MORE ABOUT SEO: 11 Types Of SEO & How They Can Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
A lot of people think about SEO audits as technical, Alex says.
You pump them through Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Screaming Frog and look at technical issues. That’s one dimension we use, but there are four in total.
One’s going to be a share of search and your visibility about competitors, topics, and the customer journey keywords – we map these out and give the business a visibility score.
Related to that is the content inventory, which I had mentioned before, and that’s gonna be your existing content assets, both the coverage of topics as well as where they fit in the customer journey.
Maybe you’re overweighted on top of funnel terms and underweighted on the bottom funnel. Maybe you’re overweighted on blog posts and underweighted on landing pages.
It’s gonna be an allocation of what kinds of content as well as the quality of the content:
Then there’s technical and UX.
We lump that into the same category because it’s based on the website infrastructure and the readability and findability, Alex notes.
Kosta Hristov, QGP’s founder and SEO lead, also believes that UX plays a major role in the success of modern SEO strategies.
“Here’s how it goes. You acquire links. Then Google gives you a spot on the first page to test your site.
Then it tracks the engagement metrics like CTR, and time on page, i.e. the UX. And if it’s not good enough, it drops you off the first page.
UX is an On-Page SEO factor that needs to be taken care of,” he shares.
Lastly, there’s off-page SEO.
So backlinks – how do you appear off-site? What are the off-page signals that show Google that you’re a reputable source? Usually, the off-page SEO of large companies is incredible, their technical SEO is off the charts. Sometimes, UX could use some work.
In the case of a recent client, the content they had published was pretty good and ranking – they just needed to publish more.
And that was one case where the solution was very simple.
You don’t need an SEO expert to say that if you don’t publish content, you’re not going to rank or attract visitors and convert them. However, we were able to quantify the largest opportunity and say don’t even touch your off-page.
Don’t even touch your technical – you can do micro tweaks as you go later on. We brought this client from their current 2/10 SEO score to a 10/10 by making them publish more content.
Don’t miss all of these keyword opportunities, Alex concludes.
With the latest algo updates, Google emphasizes user-focused content even more to ensure that the quality content that answers user needs ranks as high as possible in the SERPs.
Renowned SEO experts Daniel Foley Carter and Lily Ray previously explained this trend on the DesignRush Podcast.

Alex stresses that all serious businesses should focus their SEO efforts on the long-term game.
We’ve always indexed on the long game – We even call our podcast ‘The Long Game‘. Our core principle is to play long-term games with long-term people. As part of that, we always optimize the content for the user.
Many SEO experts chase everything Google says. Alex argues we shouldn’t care about this but stick to the SEO basics instead.
Ultimately what Google is trying to do is to align the best content to the user intent and create a good experience that allows users to use their search more, click more ads, and bring Google more revenue.
If you skip the platform, you should wonder what would the users want.
They want information from a trustworthy source – somebody who’s done this thing before, an expert. The content needs to be comprehensive and answer the question of the query. There’s search intent alignment.
Hopefully, Google will keep improving.
Alex admits there are a bunch of mid-term steps where Google ranks, for example, Forbes for best blenders. However, he still claims focusing on the long-term game is the best way to increase organic traffic in 2024.
If we look at the long game, we’re doing the right things that are going to parlay into great outcomes, regardless of what happens with Google updates or if SGE takes over.
Whatever the case is, we’re building for that long-term game.
Still, it’s often challenging to recognize where the hidden gems lie when it comes to ranking #1 on Google. An experienced SEO agency can assist every brand in doing so.
Concluding the conversation, Vianca asked Alex to explain how his agency measures the results of their SEO success and what’s the hardest part when it comes to managing client expectations.
Alex’s “simple” answer involves looking at two groups of indicators:

We’ve always been in an agency that attributes ourselves to growth outcomes, Alex confirms.
We map toward business outcomes, not just traffic outcomes. The leading indicators in the search-focused content strategy are going to be the number of indexed pages and visibility – impressions in number 1-3 search rankings and traffic. All of these metrics need to be in place to attract the traffic that’s going to convert.
An example of a lagging indicator is conversion, a qualified lead. In some cases, we have clients who have very advanced revenue and marketing operations that can help us connect data sources.
We’ve got our marketing & website analytics with GA4, and then the client might have a CRM or product analytics so we can stitch that together and say: we’ve attributed this much revenue to the content that we’re producing.
Then, we can build that based on whatever attribution model we’ve agreed on. A lot of the time, last click, sometimes first click, sometimes multi-touch, that’s getting into the weeds a little bit.
For more guides on perfecting your SEO game, check the latest trends on DesignRush.
It’s not always about revenue, Alex concludes.
Startups typically want revenue. They’re very much driven by how much money are they putting into SEO: how much money are they getting out and in what timeframe.
On the other hand, a lot of enterprises have a lot of SEO to do for their market. They’re looking at the overall visibility compared to their competitors. That’s where the share of search visibility comes into play.
We’ll always try to quantify that with an earned media value equivalent – if you were to buy this traffic, how much would that cost? It depends on what goal the client is aiming for, but we always attach it to some meaningful business metric.
If I had to draw some conclusions right now, I’d say the following:

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We’ve heard plenty about the power of SEO, but it seems like the rules of the game just keep changing, even more so from industry to industry.
To better grasp how to get it right in the B2B sector, DesignRush reached out to an expert on the matter — Sam Dunning from Breaking B2B.
In our discussion, Sam unveils ways to stand out in the B2B industry and talks about emerging SEO trends and the biggest traps companies face when growing their digital presence.
Sam is a marketing and B2B SEO expert, who is a sales director and co-owner of Breaking B2B. He specializes in business growth through SEO, web development, SaaS development, and digital marketing. Sam is also a founder and host of the B2B marketing podcast “Business Growth Show.”
As a co-owner of Web Choice, Sam shares how he has managed to set himself apart in the B2B industry highlighting that he learned the hard way over the last 13 years he’s been doing SEO.
“I thought we could sell anything to anyone. However, trying to be everything to everyone means being nothing to anyone. It’s better to have a niche and be transparent about who you’re for. This approach attracts the right business prospects and repels those who don’t need your services,” Sam explains.
He says that today, Web Choice UK primarily works with B2B companies with sales teams, specializing in service-based or tech/software companies.
“We generate inquiries through SEO and conversion-focused websites. We prefer these industries because we understand them well,” he adds.
Additionally, Sam runs a podcast focused on business growth which gives him insights into the tech marketing and the B2B market. Having interviewed over 300 tech and marketing leaders, he mentions that he has a good grip on how tech marketing and the B2B market work.
“Rather than just going for vanity metrics like traffic and rankings, we understand that the result is a qualified lead. That’s the output that these companies want,” he reveals.
Sam points out that businesses, especially small or bootstrapped ones with limited cash that like to start with quick wins, should focus on the easiest and most effective channels first.
“You have to think, ‘Where are my target buyers, my target prospects, and the clients that are ideal for me? Where are they most likely going to go when they need my service right now? What are the quickest routes to market for my company?’” he explains.
A good SEO content strategy is to target specific keywords the audience uses. For instance, if people are searching for the “best proposal software tool,” create ads that appear for those keywords.
“This can be one of the fastest ways to reach your market,” he concludes.
Watch our short video below for some tips on how to convert SEO leads into customers:

Sam also believes that SEO takes time and doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone. He advises businesses to consider what prospects will search for when they need your service to maximize positive results.
For tech or software companies, investing in aggregator sites like DesignRush that rank well on Google and have lower cost-per-click (CPC) compared to AdWords can quickly generate leads.
According to Sam, content that sells is all about giving your target prospects what they care to see.
He emphasizes that from a search standpoint, a business has to do a few things when creating content:
“The strategy is to make content to directly attack that, whether that’s an article, a video, or a podcast. The beauty is that the content is evergreen. That means that loads of people are searching for it every day. Evergreen content is really powerful,” Sam adds.
According to renowned SEO expert Lily Ray, with the volatile nature of Google’s algorithm updates, it’s best to use a white-hat SEO approach, prioritizing quality content while sticking to search engine guidelines to maintain a website’s integrity.
QGP Founder and SEO Lead Kosta Hristov agrees good content is a key component in a successful SEO strategy.
However, he points out that backlinking is crucial in helping websites rank high on Google, adding that without powerful backlinks, even the highest quality content may not get noticed.
“Content needs to be unique, useful, and trustworthy. But quality content is nothing without powerful backlinks pointing to it. Build links to get your content noticed, until it starts driving traffic by itself,” he explains.
Listen to the full podcast with Sam on Spotify:

When tailoring SEO strategies for different client niches, the focus should be on what prospects are specifically searching for, starting at the bottom of the sales funnel, Sam says, adding that businesses often generate content without considering user intent, leading to traffic but not necessarily leads. 
He believes that effective SEO involves understanding the exact needs of prospects who are ready to engage with sales, such as searching for specific tools if you’re a SaaS provider.
“These prospects probably want to get their question answered. Maybe they’ll sign up for your newsletter, follow your podcast, or follow you on YouTube, which is fine for the top of the funnel.
Those prospects can be nurtured over time and can eventually become customers. But you want to research several ways, such as using keywords, research tools like Ahrefs, and SEMrush, as well as sales schools.
This is something that not a lot of SEO agencies do because companies make the mistake of thinking they must go with high-traffic search terms, but you want to know what the prospect is searching for when they need your offer right now.
If you’re getting asked for something a lot and the software tool is showing it as low search volume, but you know that you’re getting asked for it, build content to match a search query that addresses it, and you could get a steady stream of inquiries from it,” he advises.
Talking about future SEO trends, Sam points out that “AI is probably one of the main things that’s up and coming in terms of an SEO standpoint.” 
He thinks that AI is going to be a huge trend, and he’s excited to see how it will impact search results and certain websites that have been too blog-focused.
“It will also be interesting to see how Google changes its ads because a big money spinner for Google is that, right now, ads show at the top and bottom of every search result. We will see how they keep that flowing when the AI instant search results come,” he adds.

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Industry: Advertising & Marketing
SEO National launches a website for beloved Molokai Burger, boosting the local gem’s online presence.
Salt Lake City, UT (PRUnderground) October 28th, 2024
SEO National has launched a new website for Molokai Burger, a beloved community burger joint on the tiny island of Molokaʻi, Hawaii. This initiative aims to bolster the online presence of the local small business, making it easier for residents and visitors alike to access information while respecting Molokaʻi’s tight-knit island community. The new website underscores the importance of supporting homegrown enterprises that contribute to the unique character and economic vitality of this cherished Hawaiian haven.
SEO National is a search engine optimization (SEO) agency and digital marketing company. They specialize in helping small businesses improve their online presence and reach more customers through organic search engine optimization services and web design services.
Molokai Burger is an admired local eatery that has been serving up delicious burgers, fries, and other classic American fare to residents and visitors on the small Hawaiian island of Molokai for over a decade. With its laidback island vibe and commitment to using fresh, locally sourced ingredients, this unassuming burger joint has become a cherished gathering spot for residents and visitors alike.
By creating a new website for this mom-and-pop burger joint, the SEO National website optimization agency aims to boost the restaurant’s visibility online and attract more patrons from both the local community and tourists exploring the island’s charms. “Our goal is to help small businesses like Molokai Burger succeed online. A restaurant like this that stays true to its local roots while offering world-class flavors is something special. We’re excited to make it part of the Molokai experience for residents and visitors,” said Damon Burton, President of SEO National.
The launch of Molokai Burger’s new website, crafted by expert web designers at SEO National, represents a strategic move to bolster the online visibility and accessibility of this beloved island institution while honoring the island’s tight-knit community spirit. For residents craving their favorite burger fix or visitors eager to experience an authentic taste of Molokai, head over to www.MolokaiBurger.com. Entrepreneurs looking to increase their organic reach can contact SEO National by visiting their site, www.SEONational.com.
About SEO National
SEO National is a search engine optimization company north of Salt Lake City, Utah. This SEO company offers affordable, effective search engine optimization with a refreshingly personal approach to communicating with their online marketing customers.
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You are here: Influencer Marketing Hub » Influencer Marketing » Top SEO Influencers for 2024
In a world where 81.8% of the global internet user population has used a search engine at least once in the past 30 days, it’s no surprise that search engine optimization (SEO) is such a talked-about subject in the digital marketing space. Marketers not only want to learn about SEO but also how they can implement new techniques to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Unless you’re specialized in the field or have been keeping up with the SEO industry for years, it can be hard to keep track of the latest trends and techniques. Recently, TikTok’s SEO Creator incentives program has made waves, offering monetization for content aligned with popular search terms, which is reshaping how influencers and agencies approach SEO strategies on the platform. But you know who always seems to be up-to-date with the dynamic landscape of SEO? SEO Influencers. 
These influencers may be SEO specialists, digital marketing experts, content creators, or even business owners. They are present across a range of platforms from X to LinkedIn. Some run their own blogs, where they share their SEO knowledge extensively. We’ve found some of the best SEO influencers that you can learn from, so let’s dive in.

Like any influencer, an SEO influencer is someone who influences your understanding of a particular field. They are the go-to people for tips, tricks, and insider knowledge about SEO.
These influencers not only provide education on best practices, but some are also well-connected with individuals who shape the algorithms that drive search engines, giving them an edge in predicting and understanding upcoming changes. 
Businesses or SEO specialists get the most benefit from SEO influencers since these individuals are walking and talking libraries of SEO knowledge. For example, a business owner can learn how to update their website in accordance with a recent Google update through an SEO influencer’s blog post or podcast. Similarly, SEO specialists can take insights and tips from these experts to incorporate into their clients’ strategies for the best results.
Usually, if you had to find an influencer, you’d use influencer marketplaces to identify the right fit based on their niche and audience demographics. With SEO influencers, the discovery process is a bit different. These influencers usually have their own websites or blogs where you can find them most active.
One of the first places to look for SEO influencers is LinkedIn. If you regularly engage with SEO-related content, LinkedIn will automatically suggest relevant profiles for you to connect with. You can also join related groups or follow hashtags like #SEO to find thought leaders in the space.
The same goes for X, which is another platform where SEO influencers have a presence. Again, search for relevant hashtags to find posts from experts or follow them directly to see their content on your timeline.
It was such a pleasure to have this little #SEO chat with @g33konaut and ask a lot of the questions about content that my clients have asked me over the years.
Thanks for having me, Martin and @googlewmc!
Hope you enjoy the video 😍 https://t.co/1jeWf5VVEa
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) September 9, 2020

However, if you’re looking for SEO influencers in a specific niche or for a particular audience group, Semrush’s Influencer Analytics tool is the perfect choice. With 30+ smart search filters and data breakdowns, the tool lets you search for influencers across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok & Twitch.
Semrush Influencer Discovery
Let’s say you’ve developed a new SEO tool that you want an influencer to promote. You can get detailed analytics for the influencer’s audience, including follower demographics, to understand if they’re a good fit for your brand.
The Campaign Management feature helps you create a media plan for your influencer campaign. It also provides detailed campaign reports, helping you analyze the influencer’s content and performance in a centralized dashboard. 
With automated calculations and data visualization, you can easily spot the best-performing influencers and optimize your future campaigns accordingly.
The SEO influencers we discuss below are well-established in their fields and have created a plethora of resources and tools for SEO professionals and business owners alike. It’s important to note that this list is not exhaustive, and there are many other influential SEO experts out there.
However, we’ve selected these individuals based on their contributions to the SEO community and overall impact on the industry.
Top SEO Influencers for 2024
Platform/s: YouTube, X, Medium, Website
Brian Dean is an SEO expert known for being the founder of Backlinko and Exploding Topics, two highly popular SEO resources now acquired by Semrush. Reaching over 5 million readers, Brian’s SEO insights have established him as an “SEO genius,” as Entrepreneur.com puts it.
His content is straightforward, engaging, and backed by data-driven research, making him an authoritative source in the SEO world. Over the years, his work has been featured in Fast Company, Entrepreneur, U.S. News & World Report, Vox, Fox News, The Next Web, and Forbes. He also creates courses, such as Content-Led SEO with Brian Dean for the Semrush Academy.
Dean’s Backlinko blogs are an excellent source of information due to their data-backed nature. For example, the insights he revealed about the click-through rate (CTR) after analyzing 4 million Google search results helped marketers understand how to increase their CTR.
For bite-sized information, you can head over to his X account, where he shares informational videos. Here’s one in which he explains why people aren’t reading your content and what to do about it.
Wondering why people aren’t reading your content? 👀
Here’s a simple approach that might help solve that problem.#contentmarketing #SEO pic.twitter.com/HwHXuaatYv
— Brian Dean (@BrianEDean) December 22, 2023

Exploding Topics also has a Google Trends-like tool where you can see the latest trending subjects in a wide range of categories, from AI to sports, filtered by timeframe. Interestingly, it can also provide future trend forecasts for up to a year.
Exploding Topics trends tool
Platform/s: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Website
Neil Patel is a well-known digital marketing expert and entrepreneur who has founded multiple successful companies, including Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics. He also runs his global ad agency, NP Digital, which has made it to Inc’s 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies.
Here are some helpful resources Patel has created:
Patel also stays on top of industry news and shares insights on his social media channels. For example, when OpenAI announced their AI-based search experience called SearchGPT, he created a webinar to discuss what this means for SEO.

 He also has extensive video content on his YouTube channel, where he has created playlists to cover different topics in detail. For example, here’s one with over 200 videos explaining how to do SEO and marketing for small websites. 
So, his teachings are not just surface-level. You can learn all the tricks of the trade from him, and that too, for free.
Platform/s: Website, X, LinkedIn
Danny Sullivan is a former search journalist who now works for Google to educate people about the search experience and take their feedback to improve it. Back in 2006, Sullivan co-founded Third Door Media with a colleague. The company created an online publication called Search Engine Land, which focused on search engines and search engine marketing. Search Engine Land also had an accompanying conference series, SMX: Search Marketing Expo, in which Sullivan was actively involved.
He was approached by Google to work with them after stepping down from the role of chief content officer at his company. Today, you can find the news of pretty much every new thing happening at the largest search engine in the world posted on his X account.
Since he is Google’s Search Liaison, the main person who gives insights on how Google Search works, you can also find him active on the @searchliaison X account. For example, after Google launched the 2024 core update, he posted a series of X threads and LinkedIn posts to help people understand what to expect from the update and how it will affect their website’s rankings.
He also regularly co-creates content with other SEO influencers. For example, he discussed the impact of the new update on creators with Barry Schwartz, another influencer we’ll discuss below.
I talked with @rustybrick this week about our latest search update, especially about creators. Not everything from the interview made it into the story (it was a long interview!), so I wanted to share a bit more and highlight some things that I thought were especially important…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) September 6, 2024

Similarly, he hopped on to podcasts to talk about the impact of the new update in detail. Basically, he’s your go-to for all things Google-related.
I’m also happy if SEOs read our guidance and take advantage of it to rank better in Google Search. Because our guidance is meant to make search better for everyone. More in the podcast, which has a transcript: https://t.co/Lnhk7kV02D
And our guidance! https://t.co/NaRQqb1SQx pic.twitter.com/Z0TByX2hcU
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 23, 2023

Platform/s: Website, LinkedIn, YouTube, X
Barry Schwartz, the CEO of RustyBrick, a web service firm, and a contributing editor to Search Engine Land, an online publication that focuses on search engines, is a huge name in the world of SEO. He has won several awards, such as the 2019 Outstanding Community Service Award from the Search Engine Land Awards and the 2018 US Search Personality Of The Year from the US Search Awards.
Plus, he is a member of several internet marketing organizations, such as SEMPO and SEO Consultants. He’s also on the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization’s Education Committee.
Schwartz’s content centers on SEO news, with a focus on Google. He is particularly active when it comes to covering Google algorithm updates and new features. For example, when Google tested the AI Overview, he talked about it on LinkedIn and wrote a detailed post on Search Engine Roundtable, an SEO-related website.
Barry Schwartz LinkedIn post
He also created a YouTube video recap to cover Google ranking volatility in the wake of the update and recent Google Ads news.
ICYMI: SEO Video recap covering ongoing Google ranking volatility, Apple Intelligence, Navboost lies, Google Ads news, Bing and local search https://t.co/hUcVy7kjaX
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) September 13, 2024

Platform/s: LinkedIn, Website
Ann Smarty has been in the SEO space for over 20 years, and she has mentored thousands of professionals and spearheaded many successful SEO campaigns. She’s also a regular contributor to industry publications like Buzzsumo, BrightLocal, Moz, and Search Engine Journal.
One of her recent resources is Smarty’s Digest, a weekly newsletter that covers the latest marketing tools and AI news. She has also co-founded Smarty Marketing, a boutique marketing agency that offers SEO consulting as one of its services.
If you want to learn from her, we recommend checking her LinkedIn page for live streams, which she often hosts with other marketing experts to share their insights and advice. For example, with Google pushing “helpful content,” she went live to explain what it actually means for SEO and how you can satisfy this condition set by the search engine. 
Ann Smarty LinkedIn live
Platform/s: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram, X
Loren Baker, mainly known for being the founder of Search Engine Journal, a popular SEO website, also runs his own digital marketing agency, Foundation Digital. Like most other SEO influencers on this list, he shares tips, techniques, strategies, and tools you can use for SEO.
On his X account, he mainly reposts helpful resources from fellow influencers and industry news updates.
Excellent watch. https://t.co/swCyiLZlfC
— lorenbaker (@lorenbaker) July 23, 2024

His website, Search Engine Journal, covers a wide range of topics related to digital marketing and SEO, including content marketing, social media, PPC advertising, and more. Plus, he often appears on the podcast associated with the website Search Engine Journal Show.
Platform/s: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Website
The co-founder and former CEO of Moz, Rand Fishkin, is now known for starting SparkToro, an audience research tool. He is also the author of Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World, a guide for entrepreneurs and startups.
On his Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts, he shares insights on digital marketing, entrepreneurship, leadership, and SEO. He also explains how to use SparkToro and creates 5-minute Whiteboards, which are essentially short videos of him explaining SEO concepts.
NEW 5-Minute Whiteboard: https://t.co/N0JnzoCo2X
Because content marketing should be more than just a pseudonym for keyword-targeted articles. pic.twitter.com/ndqPcEdtrm
— Rand Fishkin (follow @randderuiter on Threads) (@randfish) August 29, 2024

Platform/s: LinkedIn, X, Growth Memo, YouTube
Kevin Indig is a well-respected growth strategist and SEO expert, known for his roles at companies like Shopify, G2, and Atlassian, where he led SEO and growth strategies. He now works as a Growth Advisor for fast-growing companies like Reddit, Toast, and Hims. Kevin also runs Growth Memo, a popular newsletter that provides in-depth analysis on SEO, growth marketing, and emerging tech trends.
His insights stand out due to his focus on the intersection of SEO, user experience, and AI. Kevin is particularly active on LinkedIn, where he frequently shares updates on SEO challenges, algorithm changes, and the impact of AI on organic search. For instance, his recent posts dive into how AI Overviews (AIOs) are reshaping search engine results and how businesses can adapt to these shifts.

On X, he’s known for thought-provoking commentary on industry developments, such as his analysis of Google’s monopoly ruling and its potential impact on the search landscape. 
3 possible futures for Google the monopoly ruling
Each future could reshape the search landscape.
Scenario 1: Google may need to end exclusivity deals, forcing Apple to let users choose default search engines.
— Kevin_Indig (@Kevin_Indig) August 14, 2024

His YouTube videos are packed with actionable advice on using AI and SEO frameworks for scaling organic traffic, making his content indispensable for SEO professionals looking to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving field.
For more in-depth growth strategies and trends, Kevin’s Growth Memo provides readers with a strategic lens on the latest in SEO and digital marketing.
Platform/s: Website, X, LinkedIn, Threads
Cyrus Shepard is the creator of Zyppy SEO, an SEO software and consulting service that helps companies monitor and improve their website’s Google ranking. He has previously led Moz and is an expert in technical SEO, analytics, mobile optimization, and local search results.
His expertise has led him to speak at multiple events, including but not limited to SMX – Search Marketing Expo, Marketing Festival, MozCon, and MnSearch Summit. He also writes for The Moz Blog, Above the Fold, and Marketing Pilgrim.
Head over to his LinkedIn page to get SEO tips from him. He shares everything from insights into Google rankings to tips on how to use new features.
Cyrus Shepard LinkedIn post
On X, you’ll find him reposting excellent content from industry experts and explaining complex concepts. For example, he simplified THCapper’s data on the impact of Google’s Helpful Content system on site rankings in an X thread.
Excellent data via @THCapper showing sites hit by Google’s Helpful Content system tend to have lower ratios of “Brand Authority” to “Domain Authority”
Over-simplified layman’s terms:
When your *brand* is weaker than your overall link profile, you may be at risk to Google’s HCU pic.twitter.com/mHjIqu2DFd
— Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) September 5, 2024

Platform/s: LinkedIn, Website, Instagram
Known for being an SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive (GSQi), Glenn Gabe has over 27 years of SEO experience, which he uses to create content for his blog,  Internet Marketing Driver. He covers a range of topics, from algorithm updates and case studies to new SERP features and technical SEO.
You can also find his recent writings on Search Engine Land and former ones on Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Watch. If you want to learn from him more closely, you can get SEO training through his boot camp course.
What we find really engaging about Gabe’s content is that he brings together insights from his extensive network. For example, when The Washington Post tweaked its homepage to adjust for new SEO guidelines, Gabe talked about it on LinkedIn to show other businesses that optimizing for search is more than just keywords and backlinks.

Platform/s: Website, LinkedIn, X
Vanessa Fox gets her SEO credit from working at Google as an engineer, where she worked on Webmaster Central and Google Search. She played a central role in the sitemaps.org alliance of Bing, Yahoo, and Google. Her most recent venture is Keylime Toolbox, a software that provides online, user-focused SEO metrics.
Due to her vast experience, she has been a keynote speaker for many conferences. She has also been named as one of the “Top 100 Seattle Women in Seattle Tech.” Her book, Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy, is a remarkable resource for businesses that want to improve their online presence.
Her website has a blog section where you can find articles on SEO and digital marketing. You can also find her work on the Google Search Central Blog. 
There’s a lot about SEO that you can’t simply learn with a Google search. SEO influencers provide these missing pieces of information through their own channels. Here’s why you should follow them.
It’s one thing to know of a concept and another to fully understand it. With their years of knowledge, SEO influencers can spell out the intricacies of SEO to their followers. This can range from advanced techniques to insider tips and tricks that only experts know about.
Even better, these experts conduct extensive research to unearth new insights that you wouldn’t be able to do yourself due to time and resource constraints. For example, Cyrus Shepard looked at thousands of data points across 50 websites to create a 50-Site Case Study, in which he revealed how Google’s Helpful Content update impacts good SEO.

 Similarly, Rand Fishkin’s Spark Toro conducted a study to see how Google searches correlate with clicks. He shared the 2024 Zero-Click Search Study on his X account, providing a hoard of statistics that can help SEO experts understand their search ranking better.
The 2024 Zero-Click Search Study is here.
Highlights:
• 59% of Google searches end without a click.
• Almost 30% of clicks go to a Google-owned property.
• Google is sending less traffic to the open web.
Read more:https://t.co/omrsg5Uy4i
— SparkToro (@sparktoro) July 3, 2024

Since SEO influencers are always in the thick of things, they’re usually the first to spot changes in SEO trends or algorithm updates. By following them, you can stay updated on these major shifts.
They don’t just inform about trends but also educate their followers on how to adapt to these changes and make the most of them. For example, when Google rolled out its 2024 update, Neil Patel took to X to explain the gist of the update and his predictions for what could happen next.
What Google’s new algorithm update tells us about the future of AI content.
So, Google just released a new algorithm update.
According to Elizabeth Tucker from Google, their goal was 2 fold…
1. Surface the most helpful content and reduce unoriginal content in search.
2. Keep… pic.twitter.com/H9ClQzZD5U
— Neil Patel (@neilpatel) March 5, 2024

Similarly, SEO influencers make appearances on podcasts and YouTube channels to share their expert knowledge. The Google Search Central channel channel is a good example, where SEO experts discuss and answer questions posed by SEO consultants, particularly regarding new algorithm updates or platform changes. They have also created playlists dedicated to different SEO topics, such as SEO mythbusting and SEO fairytales. 
SEO influencers are always experimenting and testing out new methods. When they see positive results, they’re usually quick to share their findings with their followers.
The best part is that they keep updating their techniques as trends and algorithms evolve. For example, Brian Dean has a comprehensive guide on advanced SEO techniques, which he updates every few months to include the latest insights.
SEO influencers also gather information from their network and combine it to form reports or guides that you can go through to see which advanced techniques other SEO professionals are using. For example, Loren Baker shared a free report, State of SEO 2024: Disruptions, AI & Content Strategies, on his LinkedIn, which includes insights from 3,890 SEO professionals. That’s not something you can curate on your own.

SEO tools, whether it’s a simple keyword planner or a comprehensive site audit tool, are vital for any SEO professional. But there are so many tools out there. How do you know which ones to use?
SEO professionals try out new tools all the time and are often the first to discover new ones. They then share their findings, giving you insight into which tools are worth investing in and how to use them effectively.
Some of them have created their own tools, which they teach their followers how to use. That’s what Neil Patel does with Ubersuggest and Rand Fishkin with Sparktoro. 
My favorite tool to generating more website sales.
From our Ubersuggest data, of the sites with conversion tracking in place, a website’s average conversion rate is .938%.
That’s less than 1%.
That means 99% of your traffic is just window shopping and not buying.
But if you… pic.twitter.com/EpLaLlKbb4
— Neil Patel (@neilpatel) July 28, 2024

As we’ve established, SEO influencers are gold mines for SEO-related knowledge and expertise. They are first to know about changes in the SEO space and can also introduce you to new concepts and strategies.
Many of them have also created SEO tools, written books, created reports, and given talks, all of which you can access to improve your SEO skills. The best way to learn from these influencers is to follow them on social media, read their blogs, attend conferences where they are speaking, and join online communities where they are active. You won’t miss a thing this way! 
An SEO influencer is someone who is an expert in search engine optimization and shares their knowledge with others through social media or their own website. These influencers keep their followers updated on search engine algorithm updates, SEO strategies, SEM trends, new tools, and more.
Some of the best SEO experts in the world are Neil Patel, Rand Fishkin, Barry Schwartz, and Brian Dean. However, they’re not the only ones. There are many talented and knowledgeable SEO experts out there who you can follow for SEO updates and tips.
An SEO influencer typically shares their insights, knowledge, and experience related to search engine optimization with their followers through social media platforms or blogs. They may also offer consulting services, workshops, courses, tools, and training sessions to help businesses improve their SEO strategies.
Following SEO influencers on social media and reading their blogs is an effective way to stay updated on SEO trends. You can also listen to SEO-related podcasts and sign up for newsletters from reliable sources to get the latest updates and insights.
Many SEO influencers, including Neil Patel, Barry Schwartz, and Brian Dean, have their own YouTube channels where you can learn SEO directly from them. You can also listen to the podcast Search Off the Record to get direct information from Google’s Search Relations Team. Some other helpful podcasts are The SEO Mindset, Search Engine Journal Show, and Ahrefs Podcast. 
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Google’s Search Relations team reveals that high-quality, user-centric content is the key to increasing crawl demand, debunking crawl budget myths.
SEO professionals have long discussed the concept of a “crawl budget,” which refers to the limited number of pages search engines can crawl daily.
The assumption is that sites must stay within this allotted budget to get pages indexed.
However, in a recent podcast, Google’s Search Relations team debunks misconceptions about crawl budgets and explains how Google prioritizes crawling.
Dave Smart, an SEO consultant and Google Product Expert, acknowledges the confusion surrounding crawl budget:
“I think there’s a lot of myths out there about crawling, about what it is and what it isn’t. And things like crawl budgets and phrases you hear thrown around that may be quite confusing to people.”
Gary Illyes answered Dave with a question:
“All right. I will turn this around and I will ask you, if you operated a crawler, how would you decide what to fetch?”
David Smart, the SEO consultant, responded:
“You need to do it by looking at what’s known, finding somewhere to start, a starting point. And from that, you get the links and stuff, and then you would try and determine what’s important to go and fetch now, and maybe what can wait until later and maybe what’s not important at all.”
Gary Illyes expanded on how Google decides how much to crawl by explaining the role of search demand.
This is what Gary said:
“One is the scheduler, which basically says that I want to crawl this …But that’s also kind of controlled by some feedback from search. …if search demand goes down, then that also correlates to the crawl limit going down.”
Gary does not explain what the phrase “search demand” means. But the context of his entire statement is from Google’s perspective.  So from Google’s perspective “search demand” probably means search query demand. Search query demand makes sense because if nobody’s searching for Cabbage Patch Kids then Google doesn’t really have a reason to crawl websites about Cabbage Patch Kids.  But again, Gary did not explain what “search demand” means so we have to look at it from the context in which that phrase was spoken.
Gary finishes  his thought on that topic with this sentence:
“So if you want to increase how much we crawl, then you somehow have to convince search that your stuff is worth fetching, which is basically what the scheduler is listening to.”
Gary does not elaborate what he means by “convince search that your stuff is worth fetching” but one interpretation could be to make sure it’s relevant to user trends, which means keeping up to date.
Related: How To Manage Crawl Budget For Large Sites
So, what can websites do to ensure their pages get crawled and indexed efficiently? The answer lies in focusing on site quality.
As Illyes puts it:
“Scheduling is very dynamic. As soon as we get the signals back from search indexing that the quality of the content has increased across this many URLs, we would just start turning up demand.”
By consistently improving page quality and the usefulness of your content to searchers, you can overcome any assumed limitations on crawling.
The key is to analyze your site’s performance, identify areas for improvement, and focus on delivering the best possible experience to your target audience.
Google’s recent insights clarify that a fixed “crawl budget” is largely a myth. Instead, the search engine’s crawling decisions are dynamic and driven by content quality and search demand.
By prioritizing quality, relevance, and user experience, site owners can ensure that their valuable pages get discovered, crawled, and indexed by Google – without worrying about hitting an arbitrary limit.
Hear the full discussion in the podcast episode linked below:

SEO professionals have discussed the concept of a crawl budget, believing that staying within a certain limit of pages crawled daily is essential. However, Google’s search engineers have clarified that there is no set crawl budget that websites must adhere to.
Instead, Google prioritizes crawling based on content quality and user interaction signals. Therefore, SEO strategies should shift focus from managing a crawl budget to optimizing for high-quality, user-centric content to increase the chances of being crawled and indexed effectively.
A dynamic set of factors influences Googlebot’s prioritization for crawling web pages, predominantly content quality although Gary Illyes mentioned search demand plays a role (which could be a reference to search query demand).
Marketers looking to improve their website’s crawlability should concentrate on the following:
Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock
Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, …
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