Who to Follow: Your Guide to the Best SEO Influencers

Let’s be honest: The world of SEO is noisy. For every genuine insight about Google's latest algorithm update, there are ten pieces of outdated or outright incorrect advice floating around. If you’re a founder, a growth director, or a content lead, you need reliable sources to cut through the confusion.

At Too Much Noise, we believe the fastest way to build an authoritative website vector is by following the best, most consistent thought leaders. They offer the necessary external validation and strategic direction to guide your internal efforts.

This guide shares our favourite SEO voices, the strategists, the data scientists, and the content experts that should be in your feed right now.

1. The Strategists

These influencers are essential for those focused on the long-term health and authority of their entire website. They provide the high-level perspective needed to weather algorithm volatility and build a strong SEO vector.

A. The Big Picture Thinkers

These are the voices that focus on how search engines are evolving, often addressing topics like E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) and brand building. They rarely talk about minor tactical hacks; they talk about systemic competitive advantage.

• What they offer: A grounded understanding of Google's long-term vision.
• Best for: Founders, CEOs, and C-level marketing executives who set the 3-5 year strategy.

B. Focus: Competitive Strategy and Domain Authority

If your focus is on making your website the single definitive source in your knowledge domain (the core of the Google patent principle), these experts teach you how to organize content, structure your internal linking, and demonstrate comprehensive authority to the search engines. They transform technical jargon into actionable business strategy.

2. The Data Scientists

The backbone of modern SEO is data, how sites are crawled, how pages render, and how efficiently Google can index your content. These influencers are masters of the technical details that keep your site fast and accessible.

A. Mastering the Machine

These experts often focus on the complexities of the Google ecosystem: Core Web Vitals, log file analysis, schema markup, and site architecture. They bridge the gap between development teams and marketing outcomes.

• What they offer: Deep, technical tutorials and immediate insights into the real-world impact of Google's algorithm changes.
• Best for: Technical SEO managers and development teams.

B. Focus: Scalability and Site Health

They provide the frameworks for testing complex technical changes without breaking your site. If you're running a massive e-commerce store or a vast B2B content library, these are the voices that teach you how to maintain health at scale, ensuring your entire site vector remains fast and efficient, which is a massive quality signal for Google.

3. The Content & AEO Experts

As search moves towards AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the focus shifts to user intent and creating content that is easy to consume and cite. These influencers are focused on the quality and structure of the words themselves.

A. Intent Mapping and Content Clusters

They teach you how to structure content to capture maximum long-tail keyword volume and how to organize that content into tight, authoritative topic clusters (like the one we are building). They are obsessed with matching content structure to user needs.

• What they offer: Templates, actionable workflows for content production, and deep dives into understanding user intent.
• Best for: Content marketers, copywriters, and performance marketers running content campaigns.

B. Focus: Generative Search Readability

Crucially, these experts understand that content must be optimized for machine synthesis. They advocate for using clear headings, definitions, lists, and structured data (which we used in our previous articles) so that when a Generative AI tool answers a question, your site is the authoritative source cited. They are teaching you to win the conversation with both the user and the AI.

4. How to Apply Their Advice 

Following influencers isn't enough; you must integrate their advice into your own testing matrix.

A. Move from Consumption to Implementation

Don't just save their tweets or articles. Categorize their best advice under your own content pillars:

• If a Strategist says, "Build an authoritative topic cluster around your main service.
• Action: Outline your next three pillar articles (like our B2B Playbook).
• If a Data Scientist says, "Improve Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
• Action: Schedule a ticket with the dev team for implementation and measurement.

B. Validation Through Testing

Your website is unique. Always validate advice through your own Incrementality Testing Framework. Did a change recommended by an influencer actually cause a lift in your organic traffic, or was it just correlation? Trust the data from your own unique environment above all else.

Curate Your Feed, Optimize Your Future

The performance marketing game is played with data, but it starts with strategy. By curating your feed to follow the most credible voices in strategy, technical SEO, and content optimization, you minimize noise and ensure your own website's vector is always aligned with the direction of the search engine giants.

Bonus: Key SEO Influencers and Resources

To cut through the noise and build your authoritative website vector, follow these experts based on their primary domain focus.

• Rand Fishkin
• Primary Focus: High-level Strategic SEO, Audience Research, Brand Building.
• Best Resource: SparkToro Blog
• Lily Ray
• Primary Focus: Algorithm Updates, E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), Technical SEO, Site Health.
• Best Resource: Amsive Digital Resources (also very active on LinkedIn/X)
• Aleyda Solis
• Primary Focus: Global SEO, Technical Audits, Practical Frameworks.
• Best Resource: SEO-Aleyda Solis Website
• Barry Schwartz
• Primary Focus: Real-time SEO News, Algorithm Tracking, Google SERP Changes.
• Best Resource: Search Engine Roundtable
• Glenn Gabe
• Primary Focus: Deep Dive Algorithm Analysis, Case Studies on Recovery from Updates.
• Best Resource: G-Squared Interactive Blog
• Marie Haynes
• Primary Focus: Google Quality Raters' Guidelines, E-E-A-T, Site Penalty Analysis.
• Best Resource: Marie Haynes Consulting Blog
• Cyrus Shepard
• Primary Focus: Advanced SEO Strategies, Whiteboard Tutorials, Data Analysis.
• Best Resource: Zyppy SEO
• Kristina Azarenko
• Primary Focus: E-commerce SEO, Technical SEO, Site Structure.
• Best Resource: Marketing Syrup Blog