Top 15 SEO Experts to follow on Twitter

Being new to something sucks anywhere and anytime. Being a young specialist in SEO can make your head explode as this industry is for the one who has the guts to keep a finger on the pulse of any minor change in a vagarious SEO world.

That’s when you need to turn to the best SEO experts for wisdom and guidance. 

This is why we've prepared this list of SEO pros to follow on Twitter. These folks are fast, have relevant experience, personal opinions and can also have a decent chat with you.

But before we dive into the list of top SEO experts, let’s talk about influencer discovery. How do you find top SEO experts or any other kind of influencers? We use a social listening tool called Awario.

How to find the best SEO experts on Twitter?

Of course, you can always just go to Twitter and type “SEO” into the search bar but it might bring unsatisfying results. Let me show you a way to get a list of true SEO experts on Twitter with Awario.

Awario is a social listening tool and it looks for Twitter SEO experts by analyzing their tweets and the meta-data around them.  To put it simply, Awario finds people who talk a lot about SEO online and then chooses those who get the highest number of impressions.

All you need to do is to create a monitoring alert containing words related to SEO and choose Twitter as the source of data. 

Give Awario a couple of minutes, and then go to the Influencers tab. Here you’ll get a list of influencers ranked by their popularity and how many times they mentioned your keywords. 

Here’s the best SEO experts list that I created in a couple of minutes.

A screenshot of Awario's Influencers dashboard

Now let’s get back to our list of top SEO experts. The choice isn't based on followers' count like the majority of resembling posts but rather on:

1. Matt Cutts, the ex-representative of Google-the-almighty. - @mattcutts

Everyone knows Matt Cutts and his official Twitter account can be especially helpful when it comes to certain announcements. In the past, Matt was usually the first one to announce Google search engine updates, algorithm changes, and things of that kind.

While he’s no longer working at Google, his insights are still valuable for anyone in SEO or interested in tech.

Moreover, Matt often talks about other aspects of working in tech: management, burnout, and so on. He’s very active on Twitter and readily engages in conversations with his followers. Even users with pretty poor or mediocre profiles have a chance to get an answer.

2. Barry Schwartz, SEO specialist with an authentic opinion. - @rustybrick

Barry is the Founder of Search Engine Roundtable, a very powerful and influential SEO blog that's frequently updated. Barry is pretty famous for his bold views and if you ever want to know the opinion that resonates with the popular one (the opinion that most SEOs support) – see what Barry writes. His posts are brief and to-the-case so you won't need too much time.

Barry is a must-follow person because he is probably one of the few SEOs who searches forums, listens to other folks' complaints and then systematizes them all in one picture. Normally he is the one who questions everything Matt Cutts says and is not afraid to share his ''don't bullshit a bullshitter'' opinion.

3. Bill Slawski, the only SEO tech guru out there. - @bill_slawski

Bill is one of these next-door guys who are always nice to you and will never forget your name. Besides being an open-hearted person he is also one of the most influential SEOs in the industry who specializes in Google patents. Bill spends quite a lot of time on reading these patents and interprets them in a way we all could understand.

If you have any questions concerning patents or his posts, Bill is the last person who will ignore your tweets. No matter who you are, what you are or what your skillset is he will respond and help. Plus Bill is a very experienced technical website audit specialist and is keen on nature.

4. Danny Sullivan, news guru. - @dannysullivan

If SEO is the industry where not keeping an eye on news is a suicide, then not keeping an eye on what Danny says, i.e. tweets, is a sign that you don't get the essence at all. Danny is the major personality in SEO news industry and he's been sharing his wisdom, best posts on the web and writing outstanding content since 1995.

Danny is normally capable of reacting very fast to any industry changes, scandals and news as he has very good connections with Google quality team and comes up with unprejudiced conclusions and visions.

5. Aleyda Solis, the guru of International SEO best practices expert and the first lady on our list. - @aleyda

Aleyda Solis is probably one of the most remarkable women in SEO who managed to find her place in the industry that was traditionally viewed as men's. Her specialty is International SEO and she shares her experience very eagerly: blog posts, guest posting for backlinks, slideshare presentations, conferences, etc.

One should not also forget that Aleyda is very active on Twitter and struggles to respond to almost any tweet addressed to her no matter whether it's on SEO or whether you want to discuss if Ben Affleck is inappropriate for Batman role.

6. Dan Petrovic a.k.a. Dejan SEO, Australian SEO with a thirst for SEO experiments. - @dejanseo

Dan Petrovic is an interesting personality in SEO who writes brief but very practice-oriented posts and analyzes SERPs fluctuations with help of Algoroo, free service developed by his company Dejan SEO.

Dan is really to be better contacted on Google+ where he also responds more often, but his twitter is just an ideal place to keep track of his recent SEO experiments and plunging into a meaningful conversation as Dan seems to be always open for a fruitful discussion.

7. Jon Cooper, young, ambitious SEO with a focus on link building. - @joncooperatx

The best part in SEO is that anyone can become successful in this industry in spite of his age, gender, education or physical abilities. Jon Cooper was 18 years old when we first heard of him and he is still an undergrad student at the University of Florida.

Jon is extremely good at creative link-building and even has online courses for those who are not so confident in this sphere. You can learn some of his wisdom too if you follow him on Twitter.

8. Mark Traphagen, your guide to the world of Google Authorship. - @marktraphagen

Mark is a Social Media expert with an established reputation of a man who always does his best to engage, help and interact. His tweets can be mainly interesting for those who want to understand Google Authorship and everything related. He never misses a chance to visit SEO conferences and share the knowledge he gets there with the world.

Even though Mark is a bigger fan of Google+ and has a huge audience there he still cares to answer on Twitter or any other social network. You will hardly ever find a person as educated in Google Authorship as Mark.

9. Julie Joyce, one of the first female specialists in SEO. - @JulieJoyce

Julie has been working in the industry since 2002 and unlike many SEO specialists has a very solid technical background. She fights for women rights in SEO and equal pay.

The main reason for following this person is Julie's outstanding posts and the way she talks to her followers. Be sure she will not ignore any tweet you send her if there's no good reason for that.

10. Darren Rowse, a full time blogger with the experience you’d die for. - @problogger

You can rarely meet a blogger who truly makes his living by blogging. Darren is one of the few and his advice is really helpful and inspirational.

For 15 years he managed to make blogging a career worth exploring and also proved it can be profitable. Almost anyone can learn from his posts, tweets and ask for expert advice.

11. Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and Sparktoro - @randfish

Rand is the founder of the SEO tool Moz and an active blogger. 

He is a prominent voice in the SEO and marketing community, especially due to his critical approach to current tech development. He discusses the challenges that big tech companies in California such as Google pose to honest marketers and criticizes monopolies.

Rand’s profile is a perfect mixture of deeply insightful industry comments and personal accomplishments in cooking and life.

12. Marissa Mayer, former Google executive and the CEO of Yahoo. - @marissamayer

Marissa has a prominent career in the search engine industry - she joined Google as one of the early employers, then went on to become the CEO of Yahoo and later founded a startup called Sunshine focused on artificial intelligence. 

On her Twitter, she shares the latest updates about her company and the development of the combination of search and artificial intelligence.

13. Mike Blumenthal, local SEO guru. - @mblumenthal

I thought that number 13 should belong to someone special and even somewhat unique. Mike Blumenthal runs an advanced blog devoted to Google Places and Local Search. While most SEOs don't make a distinction between SEO and local SEO Mike clearly understands that even minor differences can be either your key success or key failure factor. Make sure to read this local SEO guide to learn more.

You can hardly find anyone who's able to provide you with deeper insights in local search.

14. Tadeusz Szewczyk, the man who banned Google. - @onreact

Tad Chef is an SEO who believes in direct traffic, traffic from Social Media and other referral traffic. That's why he banned Google to see how well his blog can perform without the Big G and never regretted it.

Tadeusz's Twitter profile and blog are extremely interesting because any SEO specialist comes to a conclusion that he needs to be less dependent on Search Engines but very few dare to change something so radically.

15. Robert Scoble, your guide into tech world. - @Scobleizer

Sometimes being an expert in SEO requires knowledge in more spheres than just SEO. Robert Scoble is already almost a legendary persona in tech news. Even if you don't know his name, you still know his avatar.

Following Robert's profile is the best way to keep track of recent news, changes, sensations, and development in tech world. He's got lots of connections, visits lots of conferences, and lets the whole world see innovation in real time.

Here is our list of top Twitter users who any SEO should follow. Do you think there's anyone who also deserves to be on the list?