James Dooley: The best SEO experts to follow in 2025. He has ranked successfully 46 different times with online casinos.
James Dooley: Obviously he has over a million subscribers on YouTube and he does a very good job when it comes down to testing the algorithms of what is working and what is not.
James Dooley: When I listen to Kyle’s talks it is always like a bit of a story. They just grab your attention. Cory is unbelievable at the semantics and digging deep into topical maps and I just see every one of the sites going boom.
James Dooley: You are going to start encountering some problems with the culture of the business.
James Dooley: Probably one of the best devs you can have for automations.

Carl Hudson: Hi guys, it is Carl from Searcher and I am joined today with James Dooley. In today’s video we are going to chat about the best SEO experts to follow in 2025. Obviously it is mid-2024, we are very active in masterminds and at various networking events across the world, so it is quite a relevant time to mention SEO experts that we should be looking to follow, or are currently following, into 2025. With the whole AI boom and all the new algorithm updates we want to find experts who we know are working day to day within SEO, ranking websites and testing the search engines and algorithms. So Dooley, off the top of your head, let us rhyme off some different guys then dig deeper later.

James Dooley: Best SEO experts to follow for 2025. First and foremost, if I did not do this you would shout at me, so I am going to throw your name in the mix straight away. So, Carl Hudson at Seero. I would strongly recommend people connect with you on Twitter, LinkedIn and now YouTube. You have started to become a bit more of an influencer. Previously you were always building brands and not doing too much for your own personal branding. I would mainly say, if anyone is looking to follow Carl, he has ranked successfully 46 different times with online casinos. Sometimes you could fluke ranking in the online casino space with a one off site. I am not saying you can really fluke it, but you might get some decent backlinks that you did not realise were as powerful as they were and follow a solid content outline. Carl has done it 46 different times. So he definitely needs to be someone I would follow into 2025 as an SEO expert. Over to you, you can name the next one. I will name you but I am not going to name you just now, because otherwise it gets a bit soppy.

Carl Hudson: Obviously for black hat SEO you have got people like Charles Floydd, still very active in the whole black hat scene, as well as Craig Campbell. He has done quite a few suspect talks and a few devious little tactics, so I would definitely be hitting those guys up. They are very active on social media. I know Charles has a very active Twitter account and YouTube channel, and so does Craig, who recently hit one million subscribers on YouTube and just got his trophy.

James Dooley: He has over a million subscribers on YouTube now. He is scaling. He actually tests a lot more than people think. He is continuously on calls with people like Randy Rohde, who does a lot of press releases. He is always speaking to people like Holly Starks, who is always looking to break the algorithms and see what you can do not just with web pages but also ranking within Amazon, ranking images and ranking videos. He is continuously, week by week, on with Chris Palmer. Chris Palmer is another one to throw out there for local SEO and black hat that people should be following. He is very advanced and does a very good job testing the algorithms for what is working and what is not.

James Dooley: Away from black hat, there are some people who always get named on lists like “SEO experts to follow in 2025”. Names like Rand Fishkin, Neil Patel, Aleyda Solis, Lily Ray. These are all good SEOs and the OGs like Joost de Valk, who set up Yoast SEO, which is an amazing WordPress plugin. But for 2025 SEO experts you also want people who are doing well in affiliate, rank and rent, lead generation and e-commerce SEO. There are a few who do not get enough mention. I will throw one out there who has a massive following on YouTube but is mainly followed in the affiliate market, and that is Matt Diggity. Matt Diggity needs a bit more praise. He is the founder of the Chiang Mai SEO conference, The Affiliate Lab and Leadspring. He produces content every week on his YouTube channel that is cutting edge. He is definitely someone I would say is an expert to follow in 2025. He is a very good dancer as well.

Carl Hudson: From an on page SEO perspective you have the likes of Kyle Roof. I love listening to Kyle’s talks. They are always like a bit of a story, they always grab your attention. Then you have Cory Tucholski. Those two could not be more opposite when it comes to talks. Cory goes into such a level of detail that it is quite hard to stay fully focused for the whole session, but the detail has been confirmed from algorithms and testing. It is very high level and definitely worth it. He is a nice guy, well, sort of a nice guy. These two guys are, in my opinion, the big names for on page SEO. Kyle has the Page Optimizer Pro tool. He is always testing algorithms. I tend to see Kyle more as a local SEO, very active in local and testing the algorithm that way, whereas Cory is more of a national or even international SEO, and he works in different languages as well.

James Dooley: On that point, Page Optimizer Pro is a great tool for edge analysis. Some people think it is just content correlation, but it is not. It is edge analysis, which is what needs to be done to win in the SERPs. It has features like Watchdog, so if you drop in rankings it can alert you that there has been an intent shift and you need to change part of your content. Kyle is a tester. He is good. I would actually say Kyle is good internationally as well. He is a very good all-round SEO. He can do local lead gen, affiliate and e-commerce. Cory is unbelievable at semantics and digging deep in topical maps and topical authority. He builds proper semantic content networks, looks at source context, macro and micro semantics and all that good stuff. I will be honest, a lot of it goes over my head and in many niches I am in it is not needed, because I am in a lot of local sectors. But I have been in his Google Search Console and I just see every one of the sites going up and to the right. I have never seen a Search Console like it. It is so impressive. He gets a bit of grief in the industry because people say he overcomplicates things, but he does not. He is just very intelligent and uses the correct terminology. He does not add fluff. He just tells you, this is where the meaning comes from and this is the linguistics and semantics of how you should be doing it. If no one has done his course, go and do that course if you want to learn on page. It is by far the best course out there.

Carl Hudson: From a business growth perspective I would definitely say follow James. For the last two years he has been on a bit of a crusade working on his personal branding and stepping into the limelight. We both had a similar opinion of staying in the trenches, but James is great at business and business coaching. He is more like a brother to me, but I would also say a business mentor. If I have anything business wise I need to run by someone, I run it by him. I know he has done a lot for people in the industry, where people come up to him randomly and ask for business advice. He is very quick to give it and never expects anything in return, which is great. Maybe not always great for James, but he is a great guy to have on your side.

James Dooley: I appreciate it. I feel a bit sick now. I think another one to follow for business, if you are looking to scale, is Mads Singers. Mads is great if you have more staff. If you have only four or five staff you do not need Mads, but once you get above ten or twelve, especially fifteen, you are going to start encountering problems with culture and hierarchy. You cannot deal with more than about ten staff yourself. You need to put middle management in place. Mads helps you scale that. He is brilliant at management systems and structure.

Carl Hudson: We used Mads when I was involved in a gambling business and it was great. He had a team in the Philippines at the time. I think he mainly works with South Africa now, which is probably even better again. We never had any issues with the Filipinos. He helped us align a good working strategy with them. We had middle tier managers keeping an eye on holidays and all the mundane HR stuff you have to offload. You can spend all day focusing on that and not on growth. It is vital when you chat with him. A lot of SEOs are entrepreneurial and do not like outsourcing or sharing things. There is often a trust issue. He helps coach you through that so you start to understand that even if you outsource and it gets done 60 to 80 percent correctly, it is still not on your shoulders any more, and that 60 percent compounds when it is done many times, instead of sitting on your to-do list.

James Dooley: You mentioned the domain aftermarket. Where to buy expired or aged domains. For me the two people that stand out are Kalin and Alex Drew. In my opinion Alex Drew just has it sewn up. His quality control measures are on another level. Over at Odys, if anyone is looking for an aged or expired domain, check out Odys. Alex has done an amazing job. What is interesting is the amount of people who share a private mastermind with Alex then come to me and say, “Wow, Alex is so much more than just a domain guy.” I used to think years ago he was just the domain guy, but he is super intelligent in business as well. He understands lifetime value, average transactional value, sales funnels, aftercare, all the basics that so many people still do not understand. He does them to perfection. He is definitely an SEO expert I would recommend following in 2025. If you are looking to build a new site or get an aged domain, it is like running a 100 metre sprint with a 60 metre head start. It gives you a better chance to win that race and get to number one. Aged and expired domains still work great, as long as the backlink profile is clean and relevant to what you are building. Forget what the Google leak tells you. They are still working very well.

Carl Hudson: One other guy we should mention, then maybe we can reel off a list. For website recovery, big shout out to Kasra Dash. He often goes on stage and talks about website recoveries. We know he has recovered quite a few sites on brands we work together on. Kasra is a top guy. He has just started his own mentorship group, where you can pay monthly and get knowledge from him, weekly webinars and various experts. Top guy for website recovery.

James Dooley: Website recovery is so important nowadays. The amount of penalties people are getting, manual actions for thin content, pure spam, unnatural links. The big one for us is unnatural link penalties, which is where we excel because we own Backlink Doctor. We can do the disavow, get people out of the unnatural links penalty and then follow up with a link rejuvenation pack. If anyone gets an unnatural links penalty, the most important part after lifting it in Search Console is getting that link rejuvenation pack. If you do not do that, it is like having a heart attack and your first meal back is a massive double cheeseburger. You need to go and get some salad and eat healthy. Make sure you get that rejuvenation. If you do not know how to handle an unnatural links penalty, leave it to the experts. There are a lot of moving parts beyond just disavowing. You need to be outreaching to your existing backlink profile. This is why using someone like Kasra, who does it day in day out and uses our team to implement what is needed, makes sense.

James Dooley: The next big hit has been the HCU, the Helpful Content Update. There are not many, if any, who have fully recovered from it. One thing I would say about any of the experts we have mentioned is if you asked them what number one piece of advice they would give their 16 year old self, they would say, start networking earlier. Get into the inner circles of people who are testing and doing well in Google, Bing or YouTube algorithms. They can tell you what is working now, not the myths and recycled information from five or ten years ago. Networking with the SEO experts we have listed for 2025 is very important.

Carl Hudson: On that front, actually run some of the tests yourself as well, so you can contribute in these groups. We do a lot of networking and often you see people coming in who are only there to take knowledge. You get more respect in these groups, and better connections, if you can give knowledge as well.

James Dooley: It is expensive to run your own tests, but if you can enter a room and share value, you will get invited back. If you sit there and do not say anything and do not share knowledge, you will not be invited back to that mastermind. You will get booted out. A mastermind is there for everyone to level up. You need to bring knowledge. If you are not at that stage yet, go and do everyone’s courses, learn from their blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Then, once you start earning money, you can run some test websites and push the boundaries of what can and cannot work.

James Dooley: I would like to throw your name in again, Carl, for website recovery. You have recovered a lot of sites. As an SEO expert to follow in 2025 for website recovery, I would definitely say you.

James Dooley: Some more names: I have a list here. Steve Toth from SEO Notebook. If anyone is not subscribed to SEO Notebook, where have you been hiding? Steve puts out a note every week, packed full of knowledge bombs. Head over there and subscribe. It is completely free. Steve is another great guy who tests and is definitely an SEO expert to follow in 2025.

Carl Hudson: I would say Kevin Indig as well. Especially from an e-commerce SEO perspective, he is someone you want to follow. He goes in depth and is very active on LinkedIn more than anything else. He talks about top level e-commerce knowledge, how things run efficiently and what they could do better.

James Dooley: Others include Barry Schwartz, more of a reporter and journalist on SEO blogs. Cyrus Shepard, who used to be a Google quality rater and was the SEO strategist at Moz when he worked alongside Rand Fishkin. You have Gael Breton from Authority Hacker. They do a lot of testing and have a lively community where people are always trying things out.

James Dooley: I would also say Fery Kaszoni for digital PR. Probably one of the best in the industry. He has put digital PR in the limelight and made it easier if you wanted to try to do it yourself. He explains the tools you need and answers your questions. He is very open and honest. People have probably seen his funny sketch videos online.

James Dooley: If you mention digital PR you have to mention Carrie Rose at Rise at Seven. Fery always says Carrie made digital PR sexy for SEOs and he industrialised it, meaning he made it cheaper. Carrie is more premium, doing bespoke campaigns. Fery is very good at expert commentary, almost like link inserts into existing articles at scale, especially in iGaming. He is the most creative entrepreneur I have ever met. Definitely someone to follow specifically into 2025.

James Dooley: A couple more: Spencer Haws. He has Link Whisper and Niche Pursuits. Great guy and Link Whisper is a great tool. Another is Jason Barnard, the Brand SERP guy. He focuses on knowledge panels. Kalicube is an amazing tool that can help you get knowledge panels, as long as you connect the dots for your entity with schema and consistent signals. It can tell you what you are missing, such as doing a podcast on a specific show or getting an author profile on key sites. He is very good at branding and controlling your brand SERP.

Carl Hudson: A few more. Julian Goldie, an awesome guy, a bit of an OG. He has been doing a lot with brand since the AI wave. He was pretty much the ChatGPT guy when it came to SEO, one of the first in there. If you ever meet him, he is an awesome guy. His processes are slick and everything is systemised. Another who does not get many mentions is Leo “Fery” Suau. Anyone who has met him in the top end circles absolutely loves him. He has a very pragmatic mind. Probably one of the best devs you can have for automations. He just does not like the limelight. He has the typical dev mindset, prefers to be at the computer programming, but he is a top guy. Terrible at massages though.

James Dooley: On those two: Julian is very good at automation and leveraging AI. For anyone going into 2025 you need to look at automation and AI. Julian is definitely someone to follow. Leo, who many call Fery, I pretend I hate him but I have several businesses with him. He is a cool guy, very good at automation, very good Python developer. He wants to automate everything. Sometimes I say you cannot automate that and he just does it. Making tea, brushing teeth, anything. He can automate it. He goes under the radar but if you want systems setting up, Leo is your guy. He has helped me no end in scaling back ends for brands we have set up.

James Dooley: The video is going long because, as you can see, we know a lot of people and we know what they do and how they can benefit you. We will very quickly name some we have not mentioned. Cyrus Shepard again, top guy, I have met him at a few conferences. Tim Soulo at Ahrefs, another nice guy and worth knowing. Brian Dean, although a bit more removed since the Semrush buyout, still has Exploding Topics, which is a great tool for new trending keywords. So Brian Dean is definitely someone to look at for trending topics.

James Dooley: There are others like Nathan Gotch, another great guy. Jason Hennessey, very specific to law firm SEO. He only does SEO for lawyers. There are plenty of others we could name, but we would end up listing hundreds.

James Dooley: Anyway, that is our list for who we think are the best SEO experts to follow in 2025. I am sure we have missed some, so let us know in the comments who you think we have missed, who we might not even know about, who is absolutely crushing it in search engine optimisation. It could be someone we need to be following for SEO specifically in 2025 and beyond.