Written by David Roberts
Reviewed by Lucas Walter
Updated
The top SEO influencers in 2026 are Edward Sturm, Alex Groberman, Matt Diamante, Caleb Ulku, and Cyrus Shepard. This list ranks 18 SEO influencers by median views across their recent posts, not by follower count. Each one was found by searching across hundreds of thousands of top-performing posts in the SEO niche.
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All 18 are listed in rank order. Select a row to jump to the write-up.
| Rank | Creator | Followers | Median views | Engagement | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edward Sturm @edward.builds | 349K | 47.9K | 1.6% | SEO and AI search finds |
| 2 | Alex Groberman @alexgroberman | 22.9K | 20.9K | 0.5% | AI search case studies |
| 3 | Matt Diamante @heytony.agency | 404K | 18K | 1.4% | Local SEO tests |
| 4 | Caleb Ulku @calebulku | 50.4K | 7.8K | 1.6% | Local SEO teardowns |
| 5 | Cyrus Shepard @CyrusShepard | 130K | 7.5K | 1.4% | Ranking signals and AI crawlers |
| 6 | Neil Patel @neilpatel | 680K | 7.1K | 1.5% | Keywords and AI visibility |
| 7 | Jake Ward @jakezward | 33.9K | 7K | 1.3% | B2B SaaS SEO |
| 8 | Charles Floate @Charles_SEO | 98.1K | 5.6K | 0.9% | AI SEO and link building |
| 9 | Sarvesh Shrivastava @bloggersarvesh | 62.7K | 5.1K | 0.6% | Local SEO with AI agents |
| 10 | Glen Allsopp @ViperChill | 42K | 4.9K | 0.7% | AI search research |
| 11 | Lily Ray @lilyraynyc | 124K | 4.7K | 1.1% | Reactions to Google and AI news |
| 12 | Brodie Clark @brodieseo | 68K | 4.3K | 1.1% | Search Console and SERP changes |
| 13 | Barry Schwartz @rustybrick | 255K | 3.9K | 0.5% | Search industry news |
| 14 | Jesse Witham @jessewithamseo | 697 | 3.8K | 3.4% | Search Console and GEO fixes |
| 15 | Ian @keywordian | 14.3K | 3.8K | 0.9% | Niche site teardowns |
| 16 | Brian Dean @BrianEDean | 125K | 3.6K | 1% | Brand and entity SEO |
| 17 | Aleyda Solis @aleyda | 182K | 3.2K | 1.4% | SEO news and checklists |
| 18 | Borja Obeso @borja.obeso | 12.7K | 3.2K | 3.4% | SEO with Claude and ChatGPT |
The best SEO influencers aren’t simply the accounts with the most followers. X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok all show posts to people based on how the post performs individually, not just based on who follows the creator. As a result, a small or midsized account can reach more people than one several times its size.
That’s why we rank SEO influencers by median views of their posts (the average number of people a typical post reaches). As of November 2026, the five most watched are Edward Sturm, Alex Groberman, Matt Diamante, Caleb Ulku, and Cyrus Shepard.
Sorted by the kind of SEO each creator teaches and the audience it reaches. The number beside each name is the creator’s overall rank.
They report and test what Google changed, and working SEOs read them for it.
Evidence on Google ranking signals: link attributes, help documents, opt-out experiments, and AI crawlers. Short takes sit beside surveys run through Zyppy.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Infrequent, data-heavy research on AI answers and search traffic, plus prompts and workflow tips. Bio says the account’s owner works at Ahrefs.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Several posts a day, often one or two quotable lines over someone else’s news about Google and AI Overviews. Audits of sites hit by spam updates appear often.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Annotated screenshots and short walk-throughs of changes in Google’s results and Search Console. News on SerpLens, the writer’s own SEO agent tool, appears now and then.
2 sponsored posts in the last 90 days, in SEO software.
A one-person news desk: Google and Bing updates, Search Console changes, and AI Overviews data, around ten posts a day. Most link to Search Engine Roundtable.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Curated SEO and AI-search news plus frameworks and checklists, numbered and full of links. SEOFOMO, Orainti, and Finchling, all the writer’s own, appear often.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Playbooks on how ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers pick their sources, for marketers at companies.
Case studies on how ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity choose sources, each with a study number or quoted guidance. Nearly every post links to one article.
1 sponsored post in the last 90 days, in AI video software.
Numbered SEO and AI-search playbooks for B2B software, built from the writer’s own tests and screenshots. LinkedIn and business stories fill the gaps.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Short talking-head videos arguing that AI answers reward clear brands over keyword pages, from the founder of Backlinko. Newsletter and founder stories make up the rest.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
All three teach on Instagram, usually one tactic or one Google finding in each short video.
One finding per Reel: a Google filter, a backlink story, or a way to see what ChatGPT searches. Many point to an SEO course sold from the bio.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Twice-daily explainers on low-volume keywords and being named by AI, mixed with general business advice. The agency NP Digital, co-founded by the account’s owner, comes up in passing.
3 sponsored posts in the last 90 days, in marketing software.
Voice-over Reels on running SEO jobs through Claude and ChatGPT: audits, backlinks, parasite SEO, and internal links. Several plug Distribb, the AI SEO software in the bio.
1 sponsored post in the last 90 days, in AI video tools.
Map rankings and Google Business Profile, taught to service businesses and to the agencies that serve them.
Fast talking-head Reels that test a Google tactic or report another business’s SEO numbers. Most end by asking viewers to comment a keyword for a direct message.
1 sponsored post in the last 90 days, in local SEO tools.
Long teardowns of real map packs and replies to other marketers’ SEO claims, usually ending on a fix a business can copy. A paid community and a live class are in every description.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
Many posts a day: one-line claims over a meme clip, each sending readers to one article on running SEO with Grok Bot. Agency case studies and a free course come between them.
86 sponsored posts in the last 90 days, in AI assistants.
Screen-recorded walk-throughs of Search Console, Google Business Profile, and AI-search fixes, each promising one fast, free tactic. A new account from a consultant who sells audits.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Traffic and income screenshots from their own sites, or teardowns of other people’s sites.
Loud, numbers-first posts: AI SEO tactics, tool tier lists, and income screenshots. Launches for a paid community and courses run alongside them.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
Teardowns of young, low-authority sites that pull large organic traffic, with keyword lists and how each site earns. Builds of the writer’s own keyword tools appear between them.
No sponsored posts found in the last 90 days.
We analyzed the 963 posts these 18 creators published on X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok in the last 30 days. Of those, 109 beat their creator’s usual views by 3× or more.
Here is how this month’s breakouts open, read from what each post says in its first seconds, or from its caption or first line when nobody speaks.
“Google is now literally telling businesses specifically how to get traffic from AI Search.”
102 of this month’s 109 breakouts have nobody speaking, because SEO on X is mostly written. 47 of them come from one account that repeats a pitch for an AI agent, so read that number with care.
Alex Groberman 120K views · 5.7× their usualThe rest tend to put something Google did or said in the first line: a changed help document, a delayed report, a new rule. “ChatGPT links aren’t passing UTM parameters and tracking anymore” reached 12 times its writer’s usual views.
This audience acts on news that affects its own reports, so a sponsored post can open on the finding and bring in the product after it.
“I’m going to remind you one more time, ChatGPT gets its answers from search engines.”
Among the breakouts with speech, three open on a claim the viewer can test, and none of the usual posts in the sample do. Those usual posts name a topic or a method first.
Edward Sturm 252K views · 5.3× their usualOne creator supplies two of the three, and those two are about AI agents and ad creative, not SEO. Edward Sturm’s Reel is the one that teaches search: it says the claim, then shows how to see the searches ChatGPT runs.
“How much does X cost?”
This Reel opens by reading out the questions customers type into Google, and its caption says most websites cover only a few of them. The opening shows the lesson before the creator explains it.
Neil Patel 29.8K views · 4.2× their usualIt is one post from one creator, so treat it as a format to test. It suits an SEO tool well, because keyword data is full of questions like these.
Sarvesh Shrivastava: “If the algorithm showed you this, don’t bookmark it” reached 463K views, 90.5× their usual.
Jake Ward: “I’m begging you: - Pick ONE Google AI Overview” reached 141K views, 20.1× their usual.
Cyrus Shepard: “Incredible: Not only is Google working to block AI crawlers, but @nozzleio uncovered evidence that Google is deliberately serving FAKE search results to scrapers” reached 150K views, 20× their usual.
This table shows what the SEO influencers on this list do at each size on X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Use it to judge whether a creator’s numbers are strong for their tier.
| Tier | Followers | Median views | Engagement | Posts a week | Sponsored posts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | Under 100K | 5K | 1% | 3.6 | 11% |
| Mid | Over 100K | 5.9K | 1.4% | 7 | 0% |
The figures are medians across these 18 accounts, from each account’s recent posts. “Sponsored posts” is the share of posts in the 90 days to Nov 2, 2026, that carry a paid-partnership or paid-promotion label or a stated sponsor, or are part of a brand campaign.
If you market an SEO tool, an agency, or a software product, you want a creator whose followers would buy it and whose advice you can stand behind.
A rank tracker needs people who do SEO for a living, and they read the news writers on X. A local service or a simple website tool needs owners, and they watch short lessons on Google Maps. Follower counts won’t show you the difference, but the comments will: look for job titles or for owners asking about their own shop.
Agencies, tools, and courses fill these feeds. Your sponsored post could sit right beside a pitch for a rival product that the creator owns, so read the bio and the links first. Someone employed by a software company may not be able to promote yours at all.
Some popular SEO content teaches methods that Google’s spam policies name, such as link spam and expired domain abuse. A brand beside that advice takes on its risk. Read the creator’s last 20 posts before you decide, and ask your own SEO lead to read them too.
Advice on AI search changes quickly and is hard to test. Google’s guidance on AI features says there are no additional requirements to appear in them, so a creator who sells a special method should be able to show the data behind it. Prefer creators who show their sample, their dates, and what failed.
A view on X and a view on a Reel are not the same attention. Compare an X writer with other X writers, and a Reels account with other Reels accounts, then ask for clicks from past posts if you sell through a link.
We identified and ranked these creators by searching hundreds of thousands of top-performing SEO posts across X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok with Klint.
We rank by median views across each creator’s recent posts, so one viral post can’t lift an account up the list. Creators from any country qualify if they post in English on their own account and at least half of their recent posts teach SEO or AI search.
To get this list or a similar one for yourself, describe the creators you’re looking for in the Klint web app, or paste this prompt into any AI agent connected to Klint:
Find the top 18 SEO influencers on X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok who teach SEO or AI search. Rank by median views across their last 30 posts or last 90 days, whichever is lower. Show followers, engagement, and best post.
Klint is trusted by 1,000+ marketers for AI-native influencer marketing.
As of November 2026 the top five SEO influencers by median views are Edward Sturm, Alex Groberman, Matt Diamante, Caleb Ulku, and Cyrus Shepard.
On this list it is Neil Patel, with 679,565 followers on Instagram. Its Reels usually get 7.1K views.
X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, with most of the list on X. Each person appears once, under the platform where their posts get the most views. LinkedIn, where many SEOs also post, is not part of this list.
The list needs at least half of a creator’s recent posts to teach SEO or AI search, and a steady flow of their own posts. Marie Haynes’s recent posts cover general AI news as often as search, and Rand Fishkin’s are mostly about audience research and marketing. John Mueller’s posts are almost all replies, which this list does not count.
Start with the people your own SEO team already reads, then look at who gets quoted in the replies to Google news on X. Klint can shorten that step: ask it for “SEO creators on TikTok who teach local businesses” and compare the results by median views.
Prices depend on the platform, the post format, and how closely your product competes with what the creator sells. Most SEO deals are a paid post, a newsletter slot, or a podcast mention, and many creators also take affiliate deals on tools. Few publish a rate, so ask for one along with clicks from past posts.
Yes. Any creator can ask to be taken off Klint’s lists, and the request applies to every page they would otherwise appear on.
Are you on this list and would you rather not be? Write to privacy@tryklint.ai and Klint will take you off.
