Study reveals the 20 most influential people in SEO & Digital Marketing

• The study, conducted by Rock The Rankings analysed the social media profiles of the most iconic people in the SEO and digital marketing industry  
• Dharmesh Shah from Hubspot is the most influential figure overall, with the highest number of followers and engagement rate on average 
• Four influential females make the list including Pam Moore, Aleyda Solis, and Julie Joyce 

As the digital marketing industry continues to evolve, the global market is estimated to be worth $786.2 billion by 2026, with the SEO industry worth currently worth $80 billion alone. 

And, as the industry grows, so does the interest in careers, as Google Trends data shows a 76% increase in global searches for ‘SEO jobs’ in the last 12 months.  

But who are the industry’s most influential figures? And, who should you be following for the latest industry trends and updates?  

To find out, SaaS SEO agency, Rock The Rankings, analysed social media to find the top 20 influencers for 2022.  

Using a list of popular figures who are prominent on social media, the SEO experts tracked the number of Twitter and Linkedin followers, number of tweets, engagement rate, and mentions, to create a weighted rank which scores overall popularity.   

Here’s what the study found… 

• Most influential overall – Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot 
• Most followed on Twitter – John Rampton, Due (1,257,792) 
• The highest number of Tweets – Pam Moore, MarketingNutz 

• The highest engagement rate – Julie Joyce, Link Fish Media  

The 20 most influential SEO experts of 2022 

Rank	SEO Influencer	Twitter followers	Linkedin followers	No. of tweets	Mentions (7 days)	Engagement rate (%) *
1	Dharmesh Shah	296,500	1,036,649	20,803	178	0.16
2	John Rampton	1,257,792	45,454	38,277	141	0
3	Pam Moore	285,548	348,243	134,776	11	0.72
4	Danny Sullivan	533,000	261,623	78,888	442	0.02
5	Rand Fishkin	466,241	128,000	68,857	732	0.3
6	Neil Patel	437,410	453,000	25,517	348	0.14
7	Barry Schwartz	184,452	23,067	128,483	1809	0.01
8	Shama Hyder	45,121	615,959	25,377	45	0.01
9	Aleyda Solis	125,110	36,465	122,052	717	0.57
10	John Mueller	139,233	6,175	40,019	2110	0.01
11	Matt Cutts	508,454	5,757	32,352	20	0.02
12	Dr. Pete Meyers	73,918	3,734	123,872	675	0.1
13	Julie Joyce	23,151	2,850	52,520	1	3.43
14	Ann Smarty	66,016	13,472	81,794	301	0
15	Glenn Gabe	52,610	3,163	76,663	418	0.02
16	Brian Dean	125,445	68,385	7,167	25	0.87
17	Shane Barker	29,956	23,995	82,147	46	0.01
18	Mike Volpe	74,428	1,496	26,295	10	1.26
19	Wil Reynolds	55,641	20,661	41,697	64	0.35
20	Cyrus Shepard	95,977	13,610	26,249	248	0.06

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 12^th 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.  

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

SEO Influencer	Company	Twitter Handle
Dharmesh Shah	Hubspot	dharmesh
John Rampton	Due	JohnRampton
Pam Moore	Marketing Nutz	PamMktgNut
Danny Sullivan	Google	dannysullivan
Rand Fishkin	Moz	randfish
Neil Patel	Kissmetrics	NeilPatel
Barry Schwartz	Rusty Brick	rustybrick
Shama Hyder	Shama Hyder	Shama
Aleyda Solis	Orianti	aleyda
John Mueller	Google	JohnMu
Matt Cutts	US Digital Service	mattcutts
Dr. Pete Meyers	Moz	dr_pete
Julie Joyce	Link Fish Media	JulieJoyce
Ann Smarty	Viral Content Bee	seosmarty
Glenn Gabe	Gsquared Interactive	glenngabe
Brian Dean	Banklink.io	BrianEDean
Shane Barker	Consultant	shane_barker
Mike Volpe	Lola.com	mvolpe
Wil Reynolds	SEER Interactive	wilreynolds
Cyrus Shepard	Fazillion media	CyrusShepard

A spokesperson from Rock The Rankings commented on the findings: “Within the SEO industry, there is a lot of conversation on social media, and for those who are new to the industry, it’s vital to connect with the right people. This study aims to help those who want to stay up to date with the latest trends by taking a close look the industry’s most knowledgeable figures who are sharing content on social media.  

“There is so much talent in the industry, and as it continues to grow, there will no doubt be new influencers cropping up in the near future, however, we are incredibly lucky to get such incredible insights from our current top 20.” 

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

Methodology 

We collected various data points to assess each SEO influencer and provide a final popularity score, the metrics included: Number of Twitter followers, No. of Linkedin followers, No of tweets, Tweets including twitter handle, Engagement rate (%) 

Mentions was calculated via the Twitter API – we were able to search for any tweets including the twitter handle of each SEO 

Engagement rate was calculated for each tweet by adding together retweets, likes and replies and dividing it by the follower count – we then took an average across all tweets for each SEO 

We then converted all of the data points into a relative score (out of 100) – multiplied each metric by the weighting to provide a relative popularity score and give an overall ranking. 

Source:  rocktherankings.com.