Author: Ryan Walsh
Date: 06/03/2025

 

Introduction

The SEO world is ever-changing and constantly evolving, and therefore, you can’t stand still and let the grass grow beneath your feet.

If a business uses outdated SEO methods, Google’s algorithm will quickly react and move the company down the search engine results.

Therefore, to have your finger on the pulse, you need to listen to the help and advice of various experts.

In this guide, we discuss “Who is considered the best SEO expert in the world?”.

All have dedicated themselves to learning a discipline, “organic SEO”, that requires countless hours to learn how Google’s algorithms work.

As these experts are all established and respected names, we highly recommend checking their websites for the best SEO tips and advice.

 

Here are our top 5 SEO consultants and experts globally:

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick and the founder of Search Engine Roundtable.

John Mueller and Danny Sullivan’s thoughts are cited on Search Engine Roundtable and they are some of the leading names within Google’s search team.

In our humble opinion, Barry is one of the best SEO experts globally, so why do we say this?

Barry reports on Google updates in record time. We have been in the SEO game for over 10 years; Search Engine Roundtable has always been our go-to resource for Google algorithm updates.

Therefore, whenever “ranking flux” is caused by Google’s numerous updates, Barry quickly releases helpful and informative news updates explaining how the algorithm changes.

Google Panda, Hummingbird or Penguin, Barry has reported on all the core algorithm updates, helping to keep SEO agencies in the loop.

This helps not only SEO companies but also business owners to implement SEO themselves.

It can be disheartening when you implement quality work, yet your business keywords move down and not up. Yet this can sometimes be temporary, occasionally because of ranking flux caused by a Google update.

Yet, thanks to Barry, you can often see that a Google algorithm update may be underway at that time.

This means all businesses may be experiencing some “ranking flux” and keyword adjustments.

Therefore, Barry and his reporting allow you to decipher what could be causing ranking volatility so that you don’t start making quick changes to your website’s SEO. Instead, it will enable you and your team to understand what could be causing ranking volatility and to sit tight as the algorithm is rolled out.

This means he has created a very reliable source of SEO news at the Search Engine Roundtable.

So, we think Barry is the bee’s knees, yet he is in good company here, too, with the rest of the SEO experts on this page, so do read on to discover the rest of the cream of the crop.

Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a superstar in the SEO world. He features in countless informative YouTube videos and an excellent website offering SEO tips that everyone, from SEO experts to beginners, would find his website very helpful.

Neil also owns Crazy Egg, which is a handy heatmapping tool. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author. He has advised and helped some of the world’s biggest brands to improve their marketing.

We recommend following his marketing blog, which explains everything clearly and in depth.
https://neilpatel.com draws in millions of visitors per month, which shows how reliable and respected he is as an SEO expert.

 

Rand Fishkin

Rand Fishkin is one of the best-known names in the industry. He now runs SparkToro.

Rand was also formerly CEO of Moz.

For those who do not know, Moz is a fantastic resource for SEO consultants at all levels.

If you are starting out learning about search engine optimisation, there is a “Learn SEO” section at Moz, which we highly recommend checking out.

When working over at Moz, he was thought of as the “The Wizard of Moz”,

I read countless articles on this website when I started running an agency over 10 years ago.

Rand has also published many “White Board Fridays,” where it was apparent that he had a passion for SEO and explaining complex SEO areas in a way which made it all enjoyable.

 

Brian Dean

If you want to learn a particular area of SEO, a business on the first page consistently on Google will often be BackLinko.

The company offers a vast range of helpful articles at BackLinko, and everything is explained in a way that makes the subject crystal clear and straightforward to follow.

We think this business long-form content marketing is one of the best in the business. Brian Dean started Backlinko over a decade ago and is a well-known name in the SEO business.

What’s great is that you don’t need to jump from article to article trying to understand an area of SEO. The reason is that the articles on Backlinko are so in-depth. This means everything is covered in one single article.

 

Joost de Valk

Joost founded a company called Yoast.

We have used Yoast plugins on our client’s WordPress sites for over a decade.

Yoast also has an excellent website, offering helpful WordPress CMS and SEO advice.

The company has now expanded into a large business.

We highly recommend their blog posts if you want to learn about SEO. Their SEO plugin still has a free version, making it a piece of cake to create an XML sitemap or improve your meta descriptions.