The 20 most influential people in SEO & Digital Marketing

With a staggering 1,036,649 Linkedin followers, and over 296,000 Twitter followers, Dharmesh Shah, co-founder of Hubspot, is the most influential person in SEO from the study. Prior to HubSpot, he was founder and chief executive officer of Pyramid Digital Solutions, a software company, and has published a number of books including Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google. 

In second place comes John Rampton, who is an entrepreneur, investor, and online marketing guru He is also founder of the online payments company Due and productivity company Calendar. 

He was recently named #2 on Top 50 Online Influencers in the World by Entrepreneur Magazine and blogging Expert by Time, so it’s no surprise to see he has the highest number of Twitter followers from our study, with a staggering 1,257,792. 

With the highest number of Tweets in the study, third place goes to Pam Moore, founder of digital marketing agency, Marketing Nutz. Sharing her 25+ years’ experience with the world, Pam has composed 134,776 tweets, giving advice and industry views to her 285,548 followers. 

Two more influential females in SEO appear in the top 10, including founder of Zen Media Shama Hyder who comes in ninth place, and International SEO Consultant and founder of Orainti, Aleya Solis. Shama Hyder is most popular on Linkedin with an incredible 615,959 followers, while Aleyda Solis has a higher number of Twitter followers (125,110).  

Google’s very own Public Liason Officer, Danny Sullivan, is also in the top five, thanks to his impressive number of tweets (78,888) and Twitter followers (533,000). It’s probably no surprise to also see Google’s John Mueller further down the list, known in the SEO industry for sharing tips and dropping hints about what to expect next from Google. With the most Twitter mentions in our study, it’s clear his followers are keen to get his advice and opinions on the latest industry trends. 

Next up are two popular figures, Rand Fishkin and Neil Patel. Rand Fishkin is famously the founder of Moz while Neil Patel is the founder of Kissmetrics. Both figures are extremely popular on social media, especially Twitter, where they both have over 400,000 followers. When it comes to Linkedin Neil Patel has a substantially higher number of followers (453,000) while Rand Fishkin has 128,000.  

And, while Rand Fishkin is the most influential figure from Moz overall, Marketing Scientist, Dr Pete Myers is 12th on the list, followed by Julie Joyce from Linked Fish Media and Anne Smarty from Viral Bee Content.  

Further down, we see Gsquared Interactive’s Glenn Gabe, followed by Brian Dean from Banklink.io, a service which offers SEO and Link Building strategies to businesses and marketing professionals.  

With the lowest number of Tweets in the study (7,167) it’s possible that Brian Dean gives more advice via his subscription service, rather than social media.  

Marketing consultant, Shane Barker, and Former Hubspot CMO Mike Volpe are also among the most influential, and although Volpe has over 40,000 more Twitter followers than Barker, Barker tweets a lot more advice, with 82,147 posts overall.   

Last but not least, Will Reynolds from SEER Interactive makes the top 20, followed by Cyrus Shepard from Fazillion Media, both of whom are definitely worth a follow.  

The study was conducted by Rock The Rankings, which is dedicated to helping grow SaaS and B2B Tech companies with SEO-focused content marketing. 

To help you get connected, here are the Twitter Handles for each influencer in the top 20.