The rise of AI-powered search engines and zero-click results is reshaping the online space, forcing marketers and content strategists to rethink how they measure success. You’re not alone if your website traffic is dipping, but your conversions and on-site engagement are increasing. And you’re not doing anything wrong. That’s what you can expect in the era of zero-click search SEO adaptation.
We’ll explore zero-click searches, why they matter, and how to optimize your content for this evolving search environment. We’ll also discuss why traditional metrics like click-through rates (CTR) are becoming less relevant and what marketers should focus on to stay competitive and drive meaningful results.
Zero-Click Searches: Explained
What are zero-click searches? Let’s break it down.
Zero-click searches are queries answered directly on the search engine results page (SERP), so the user doesn’t need to click through to a website. Think of Google’s featured snippets and the AI-generated answers now populating the platform.
These days, a majority of Google searches result in zero clicks. The data above shows that, in 2024, 58.5% of Google searches in the U.S. and 59.7% in Europe did not generate clicks.
In other words, zero-click searches often mean users get their answers instantly, and usually don’t need to go further. It’s convenient for the user, but potentially frustrating for the publisher who invested in that content. Yet here’s the twist: this shift isn’t necessarily bad. It just requires a change in strategy.
The New SEO Strategy: Adaptation Is a Must
Traditional SEO focused heavily on driving clicks. There’s nothing wrong with still wanting to generate traffic. However, with AI-generated summaries and snippets giving users instant answers, we must adopt a new strategy: zero-click search SEO adaptation.
This approach acknowledges that success can’t be measured solely by traffic volume anymore. Instead, it looks at other metrics to determine how your content is performing. This includes:
Time on Page: How much time are they spending on a single page?
Scroll Depth: Are they scrolling to the bottom of the page or stopping halfway?
Conversion Rates: How many people convert by completing a form or purchasing?
On-Site Engagement Metrics: How many people are engaging? How many are returning visitors? How many pages are being viewed per session?
Why would we want to track these metrics? When traffic is low, we want to learn about the behavior of the users visiting your site. Those who click through are often further down the funnel. They’re more informed, curious, and ready to act.
The Reality of Declining Top-of-Funnel Traffic
With AI surfacing top-level queries right on the SERP, fewer users visit your website for basic information. Before you panic, it isn’t all bad news. This means your site may see:
This isn’t a decline, necessarily. You’re reaching people who are further along in their decision-making process. As a result, you may see people exploring your website more or making purchases.
Your Guide to Zero-Click Search SEO Adaptation
How can you adapt your strategy to zero-click search optimization? Let’s break it down.
Step 1: Restructure Your Content Strategy
If most zero-click search results address the top-of-the-funnel questions, you need to invest more in middle and bottom-of-funnel content. The way to pivot is to create content for different search intents.
For example:
Top-level content (e.g., “What is X?”) should still exist but can be shorter, more concise, and optimized for AI or snippet capture.
Middle-funnel content should answer comparative or evaluative questions like, “How does X compare to Y?” or “What features should I look for in X?”
Bottom-funnel content should target purchase-related or decision-making keywords like “Best X for [use case],” “Where to buy X,” or “[Product] reviews.”
It’s also smart to use a pillar-cluster model. Create pillar pages exploring high-level topics, then link to more focused cluster pages with specific keywords and subtopics. This helps AI and search engines understand the depth of your expertise.
Step 2: Focus on Conversion-Ready Users
Remember: not all traffic is created equal. One engaged, ready-to-buy user is worth more than 100 casual browsers. So, you’ll want to use on-page signals to nurture leads.
You can do that by:
Including clear calls-to-action (CTAs) based on visitor intent
Offering downloads, checklists, or calculators to encourage engagement
Embedding videos or interactive content to increase time on page
Rather than focusing on impressions and CTR alone, you should start prioritizing:
Engagement Rate: How many users engage with something on-page?
Dwell Time: How long are they staying?
Lead Conversion Rate: How many take the next step?
These are the accurate indicators of content success in a zero-click world.
Step 3: Make Peace with the AI Layer
AI isn’t going away. It’s becoming the first touchpoint for many users. That means your top-level content isn’t wasted, but it’s being repurposed by AI to answer questions.
That visibility still builds trust, even if you don’t get the click. For example, if your content is used in a featured snippet or quoted in an AI-generated summary, users may recognize your brand and return when ready to engage more deeply.
To optimize for AI, try:
Using clear headers and structured content
Answering questions in the first few lines
Writing with a natural, conversational tone
Providing concise, factual, and trustworthy information
Step 4: Reevaluate Your Keyword Strategy
AI search is increasingly semantic and contextual, meaning it’s not just about matching keywords. It’s about understanding intent and creating your content with that in mind.
Instead of stuffing the page with exact-match keywords repeatedly, try using variations naturally throughout the text so you don’t get penalized. Also, structure content in a way that answers a question, offers an opinion, or presents data. Let’s use this blog post as an example:
Overusing the “zero-click search SEO adaptation” keyword would turn off Google and readers. So, it helps to use similar keywords such as “zero-click search” and “what are zero-click searches.”
This post is also formatted with H2s and H3s, as well as bullet points, offering a better user experience for readers. However, this also helps search engines understand the content.
Remember that while you want to consider the algorithm, it needs to go beyond that. Think like a journalist and focus on creating quality content that offers value and answers questions.
Step 5: Build Deeper Relationships with Content
In a world where top-level leads may never land on your site, make sure the ones who do feel like they belong. Nurturing those relationships is what will secure you long-term customers.
To make them feel welcome and appreciated:
Create gated content for lead capture
Offer newsletters, live chats, or SMS updates
Host webinars or deeper dive content sessions
Leverage first-party data to tailor the experience
Your website should be a destination people want to visit. You want to provide an incredible experience that keeps users returning for more.
Step 6: Educate Stakeholders on the Shift
If you work with clients, executives, or teams that equate SEO success with traffic volume, it’s time to shift the narrative.
Use visuals and reporting to show:
Lower traffic but higher engagement
Shorter journeys from visit to purchase
More qualified leads
This reframe helps align expectations with today’s reality.
Step 7: Leverage Branded and Owned Search Opportunities
As generic search queries become zero-click territory, branded queries and owned assets offer more reliable visibility. To do this, you can:
Encourage users to search for your brand name directly by building trust and reputation through consistent content and social media presence.
Optimize your FAQ pages, product descriptions, and about sections to appear in branded zero-click results.
Owning your brand space in search is more important than ever in a world of AI-driven search.
Step 8: Don’t Neglect Off-Site Channels
Your brand’s digital presence extends beyond your site in a zero-click search environment. Diversify where and how your content lives on the web. Here’s how:
Publish long-form content on platforms like LinkedIn to catch top-funnel attention.
Be a guest on industry podcasts or contribute to niche publications.
Encourage user-generated content and reviews on third-party platforms like Yelp or TrustPilot.
These efforts support your overall visibility and create additional entry points into your brand’s online space, even when users never leave the SERP.
Winning with Zero-Click Search SEO Adaptation
Search is changing, but the goal is still to provide value to your audience.
In the era of AI and zero-click searches, your job is to create content that resonates beyond the click. This means understanding how to optimize for visibility, engagement, and conversions, even if users never make it to your homepage.
Adapt your strategy. Realign your metrics. And lean into deeper, more meaningful content. That’s how you win with zero-click search SEO adaptation.
If you’re ready to adapt your strategy, contact us to schedule a free consultation call.
Good writing starts with a good SEO blog outline, but in the age of search engine optimization, “good” can mean a lot of different things.
Should your outline be optimized for top search engine results placement? For maximum reader engagement? For clarity and economy of language?
In the attention ecosystem, a good SEO blog outline requires all of the above. Your outline should be tailored to the search terms you want to be ranked for, but it also has to support your specific goals and speak to your specific audience. All of this can feel like a juggling act, but don’t worry—in this guide, we make writing a high-performing SEO blog outline achievable in just 3 easy steps.
Step 1: Select High-Quality Keywords
Before you can start writing your perfect SEO blog outline, you have to first identify what you’re writing about.
There are two kinds of keywords you should be aware of: focus keywords and secondary keywords.
Focus Keywords
Focus keywords are the primary words or phrases you target for search engine results placement (SERP). High-quality focus keywords should be specific enough to accurately describe your content, but broad enough that related web searches still return your page.
For example, “SEO” is too broad to be a helpful focus keyword for this blog post. A web search for “SEO” will return too many results on too many overlapping topics. However, a keyword like “SEO blog outline” is more specific to the content of this blog—that means users who search for “SEO blog outline” are more likely to be looking for articles like this one.
A best practice for focus keywords is to include them in the title and at least one major heading within your blog.
Secondary Keywords
As the name suggests, secondary keywords are less central to your SEO blog outline. They may describe the broad ideas and subjects of your blog or highlight niche topics within your content.
While you don’t necessarily have to include secondary keywords in your blog outline itself, they should be present in the content of your blog. Secondary keywords don’t have to be as targeted as your focus keyword—think of them as additional context for your focus keywords. For example, “writing” is too broad for a focus keyword, but in tandem with the focus keyword “SEO blog outline,” “writing” can add additional context that improves SERP for your blog.
Step 2: Know Yourself and Know Your Audience
Think about the way teachers communicate with their students: it’s different from the way they communicate with parents, isn’t it?
It’s likely that the way you communicate with loved ones is different than the way you communicate with colleagues or bosses. The way you might talk to a potential client is different from the way you might talk to a competitor.
Communication is always in service of a goal—whether that be to order your morning coffee, run an efficient meeting, or convert a new lead.
When it comes to SEO blog writing, understanding your goal is pivotal. However, motivation isn’t the only component—you must also consider your audience. Just like you might adjust your communication style based on the situation, you might also adjust your style based on the person you’re talking to.
Blogs are typically audience-oriented. Blogs change minds, break down barriers, and encourage change, but blog posts themselves are not just productive monologues, they’re a kind of secret dialogue between a writer and their audience.
Knowing your own goals and identifying the audience you wish to speak to is the vital first step in writing an SEO blog outline. As easy as that is to say, “knowing” and “identifying” are ambiguous concepts in practice. Here’s what this looks like in action:
Tone
As you write the body of your blog, you’ll quickly realize that there are a thousand and one different creative decisions you can make. Should you take a conversational style? Should you incorporate jokes? What about emojis? It’s helpful to think about tone in several dimensions:
Formal vs Conversational. Factors may include your target audience’s age and the context they’ll be reading your blog in. In a corporate finance blog, a formal tone could convey expertise and certainty. However, a blog geared towards personal finance for beginners might benefit from a more conversational tone that feels engaging and personable—even if the factual content of the blog is exactly the same.
Humorous vs Informational. Humorous writing is engaging and can be enjoyable for readers, but not every topic or audience lends itself to humor. In the wrong context, humor can make a writer appear unserious, especially if the joke obfuscates something more important in your writing. An informational approach can feel more “dry” to readers, which can work against you if you’re trying to create a memorable connection with a reader, but can be a benefit when your goal is purely to convey information.
Enthusiastic vs Factual. Finally, enthusiastic writing can increase the readers’ motivation to take action, while a more reserved presentation of facts has greater educational value. Enthusiasm is contagious and can inspire confidence in your readers, but it takes a balance between enthusiastic presentation and factual grounding to find the right tone for any blog.
Authority
As you think about your target audience, what level of experience do they have with the topic? Are you writing to seasoned experts who already understand the foundational concepts of your writing? Or are you writing to newcomers who need a thorough explanation of the background of your topic?
In practice, the distinction is never that black and white—your audience will most likely be somewhere in between the two extremes. For this blog, for example, I’m assuming most readers are familiar with the concept of search engine optimization.
Your target audience’s level of authority on the topic should guide the way you structure your article, what topics deserve their own headings, and which ones can safely rest on the cutting room floor.
Motivation
Finally, consider the action you’re hoping your readers will take after reading your blog. Some blogs simply want to create a positive experience for readers—perhaps to increase brand loyalty or awareness. Others seek to add value to their readers’ lives through conveying important information. Still others are hoping to convert readers to make a purchase.
Your motivation plays a large role in how you structure your SEO blog outline.
The Problem, Solution, Proof formula works well to efficiently break down barriers and change readers’ minds, while informational blogs like this one benefit from sequential organization.
Vincent Van Gogh frequently painted over his existing paintings, iterating on them to create great works of art. Similarly, Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa over an existing sketch. The greatest works of art weren’t executed in a single stroke of genius—they’re the result of revision and iteration.
In your SEO blog outline, iteration is pivotal. You should plan to iterate on not only the wording of your headings, but also on the content and structure of the blog itself.
Some practical ways you can iterate on your outline are to experiment with adding and removing subheadings, reordering sections of your piece, or simply trying out different wordings. The secret to creative iteration is experimentation, and it’s in the outlining stage of your blog that you have the most agility and freedom to experiment without consequence.
Once you’ve written the body of your blog, major restructuring has an exponentially higher time-cost. This is why revision and iteration are a part of the outlining phase of SEO blog development, because it’s your best opportunity to let your creative juices fly.
Work With the Best
Writing a SEO blog outline is doable, but it isn’t easy. It takes time, experience, and skill. Express Writers writes high-performing blogs for every industry, taking the guesswork and legwork out of your content strategy.
A craveable, delicious, delightful blog post isn’t much different from a pastry.
As long as you follow the recipe, steps included, you will create a post your readers are hungry to devour – and might even return for more.
The good news is you won’t make a special trip to the grocery store to get started on the perfect blog post. Everything you need is in your virtual pantry – you just didn’t realize it.
Writing a blog post, especially in today’s competitive market, is intimidating. Once you break it down and understand the ingredients, however, you can whip up these readable bits on the fly and stay up with the trends for the future of blogging in 2023.
So, What Do You Need to Craft the Perfect Blog Post in 2023?
The future of blogging has certainly changed. What worked last year doesn’t necessarily apply today. Therefore, staying up on the latest blogging and SEO trends is essential so that you know what Google expects – and, more importantly, what today’s reader wants.
The Perfect Blog Recipe
Before you start to type, you want to make sure you have the following essentials ready to add to the mixing bowl:
1 click-worthy title
1 attention-keeping introduction
A pinch of creativity
A few cups of informative, scannable subheaders
A splash of succinct body copy
A handful of authoritative research and your expertise
1 part formatting
1 delectable conclusion
A dusting of enthusiasm for the topic
A garnish of passion for your niche
Putting it Altogether – How the Future of Blogging will Change How You Use These Ingredients
As you can see, the ingredients haven’t changed, but how and when you use them has.
We will break down each portion of this recipe so that you know how to mix it all in and get your readers to come back for more.
Creating Your Title
By far one of the most essential ingredients!
Your title sets the stage for what the reader can expect, even determining if they ever get past the SERPs to read your blog.
Spend time on this stage of your recipe. In fact, whatever you title it as your “working” title, be prepared to come back and rework it until it is just right later.
Don’t hastily toss forth the first title you have in mind. Instead, let it sit and rest, and the flavors meld together. Think of title creation as a slow, steady simmer rather than a rapid boil.
A good title mixes intrigue and information and is not too long.
Yes, Google says there is no limit, and the length of your title will not influence your search engine results. Instead, it affects whether or not someone will click on it. The first 60 characters matter the most – so make those count even if you have a 100-character title.
Whatever you do, don’t over-sprinkle in the keywords for your title – not only will it kill your readability factor and turn off any enthusiastic taster, but it will turn away Google too.
Roll Out Your Introduction
Your introduction supports your title. So perhaps you may not create it until you have solidified your intro – and that’s okay.
An introduction requires time and patience. While you will mix up something short, sweet, and enticing, you will also want it to rest a few hours before you revisit and rework it again. While adding a keyword to the introduction is essential, ensure it is not the highlighting flavor.
An introduction gives readers just a taste of what else is to come, but the full flavor doesn’t explode until the end. Of course, if your introduction isn’t tasty enough to keep reading, the end doesn’t matter much.
So, take your time, rework it after the entire blog is done, and ask yourself, would I eat this up?
Never Forget the Power of Creativity
Too many recipes lack creativity.
Think of those five-star restaurants – are they working with “vanilla” recipes used over and over again?
Of course not.
They are hashing out something unique that stays with their branding but still tantalizes the tastebuds.
Never leave out a pinch of creativity in your content – all of your content. Creativity should be tossed in from the start; if you can’t taste it, add more.
Start Rolling Out Subheaders
Subheaders help your reader scan and understand what they are about to digest. They should go in an even flow, make sense, and inform.
Ideally, subheaders are introduced every 300-500 words max (there’s nothing wrong with adding them in fewer words as long as the words in between pack a powerful punch). Subheaders are a great place for optimizing with secondary keywords but don’t overdo it.
Time to Mix in Your Body’s Copy
You have a working title, and you’ve rolled out the subheaders. Now comes the time to mix together your blog’s body.
But before you add anything, do your research. You may be an expert in your niche, but that doesn’t mean you won’t need resources to back up what you say. Today, using authoritative, high-quality links is still a must-have for any recipe. Search Engine Journal states that every site needs credible, authoritative, and trustworthy content – and a reader can’t take you at your word without some citations.
As you mix up that copy, make sure to spice it up enthusiastically. Nothing turns a reader away more than negativity. So, likewise, be as passionate about your niche as you want your reader to be as you create your blog – if you are not excited about it, why should they be?
A few other things to keep in mind while you mix up your body’s copy:
Optimize Gently. Optimizing your content is like working gluten. Too much, and it’s gotten too chewy, stiff, and undesirable. Yes, keywords matter in 2023, but how and where you use them has changed.
Focus on Your Brand’s Authority. What Google praises more than keywords are brand authority and trustworthiness. Ever heard of E-E-A-T? Nowhere in that acronym is keywords. What is, however, is expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness.
Be Unique. Today, readers are overwhelmed with choices. You won’t stand out in the crowd if you are the garden variety. Personalization is important.
Focus on the Reader and Not on Google. Yes, Google matters, but the person you are talking to in your blog post is not a search engine but a reader. Center your content’s quality, information, and focus around the reader; you’ll win them every time. Focus on keywords and search engines, and your recipe falls flat each time.
Arrange Your Formatting
No matter where the future of blogging goes, one thing is sure: the wall of text is never coming back.
Today’s reader doesn’t have the patience. Today’s reader prefers the amuse-bouche rather than traditional hors d’oeuvres. They want all of the flavors in a quick little nibble rather than having to enjoy it in a few more bites.
UX planet estimates that readers only take in about 20-28% of the body.
To increase the amount read, make it pretty – after all, we all eat with our eyes and not our stomachs.
Ensure you have an excellent mixture of:
H1, H2s, and H3s to break up the chunks of the body
Sprinkle in bulleted or numbered lists to get to the point
Add images to keep the reader’s attention on the page
Top it Off with a Conclusion
Your conclusion is where you drive action. The reader has stuck with you until the end, so this is an essential piece of content to deliver. Just as with your introduction, keep the conclusion short and sweet. Nothing over-the-top, nothing out of character. Just end the blog on a tasty note with a solid CTA that tells your reader where to go for their next meal.
Let it Rest before You Do the Rest
If you are self-editing your blog posts, you’ve mixed, mashed, sprinkled and dashed, but now it is time to let it rest. A good four to six hours is all your blog post needs before it is picked up again.
Come back refreshed and ready to cut out the fluff, trim the fat, remove unnecessary ingredients in your copy, and add a few more splashes of your brand’s unique voice where it seems suitable.
You’ve Followed the Recipe – Now What?
You’ve followed the recipe, but it is not quite time to plate it.
Before you plate your dish and send it out, you want to make sure you have social media posts and your email newsletter ready to fire off the second your blog goes public. Share across your favorite social media platforms with the same enthusiasm as you did in your piece!
Crafting great content is a lot like creating a great recipe. Not all of us are natural-born chefs, but we don’t have to be. While the future of blogging continually changes, one thing that will never change is the power of hiring talented people to craft your delicious content.
Content marketing is recognized as one of the most effective ways to grow a business and attract new customers. To be successful with content marketing, you need to share high-quality content regularly. But it can feel difficult to constantly think of useful and insightful topics that attract the right audience.
This is where online tools like Google Trends come in handy. Learning how to use Google Trends for your content marketing gives you a valuable resource for relevant, trending topics that people want to engage with.
As you read on, we’ll explore how to use Google Trends for SEO and improve your content marketing strategy.
What Is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a search feature offered by Google that shows you the most popular search terms for a specific period. Current trends are from the past 7 days, while past trends date back to 2004. The Google Trends site also allows you to check the frequency of specific search terms. On the results page, you can see the interest over time, interest by subregion, and related topics.
You can also adjust your search based on the industry, category, time frame, location, and type of search (image, shopping, news, web, or YouTube).
Google Trends can be a valuable tool for conducting market research. It gives you insights into the seasonality of search terms or even helps you gauge how much interest your products have in a certain geographic region.
Query vs. Topic in Google Trends
Google Trends gives you information on both search terms and topics. A search term is a specific word or phrase, while a topic is a group of search terms that fit into the same general concept. Google Trends measures and ranks these categories differently, so accurately comparing search terms and topics is difficult. Instead, you should compare search terms to search terms and topics to topics.
How to Use Google Trends: 11 Innovative Ways
With the help of Google Trends, you can create better, more relevant content that your audience will want to read. Try these 11 ways to use Google Trends for content marketing.
1. Conduct Market Research
Google Trends is a valuable tool for conducting market research. It can give you insights into the seasonality of certain search terms or even help you gauge how much interest there is for your products in a geographic region.
For example, let’s say you are a brick-and-mortar business based in Columbus, Ohio. You are considering building a second location in Indianapolis, Indiana. By checking Google Trends, you can find the popularity of terms relevant to your business in specific locations. If the search volume is low, you might need to reconsider your plans.
2. Discover Relevant Trending Topics
If your team struggles to find fresh topics for content each month, Google Trends is a great resource. You can explore the most popular searches nationwide or narrow it down to a specific location or timeframe. Use the charts to help visualize and compare terms.
When choosing your Google Trends topics, make sure the topic:
Is something that would interest your target audience.
3. Improve Your Keyword Research
While creating high-quality, relevant content is the most important part of content marketing, you should also consider your search engine optimization (SEO). SEO strategies help improve your search rankings for specific keywords. And Google Trends can help you do better keyword research.
Use the Explore feature and enter a keyword or phrase you are considering. You will see a breakdown of interest over time, along with the interest by subregion. Then you can try various search terms to see which are the most popular.
More popular search terms will give you better results. This is because more common keywords increase the chances of someone discovering your content and are more likely to be used in regular conversation. When creating content, you’ll want to use these keywords naturally. Keep in mind that other businesses are likely to use similar keywords, so you should narrow down some long-tail or focus keywords that are more specific to your business and content.
The “Related Topics” section on the Explore page is a good place to brainstorm similar topics and keywords. It can even help you discover a topic or angle you hadn’t thought of before.
4. Create Your Content Calendar
A content calendar helps you organize your content strategy around the types of content you create and when you post. Engagement is a huge metric to consider as you plan the release of your content. Knowing how to time your content to trends and what people search for is a great skill to cultivate, and Google Trends can help you plan and schedule your content calendar accordingly.
For example, if you want to write content about cooking, the Google Trends results show significant search peaks in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas. The weeks before these holidays would be the ideal time to share your relevant cooking content so it’s easy to find when someone searches for it.
Another example is the term “wedding invitations.” This term shows a surge between early January and the end of February. That’s because there are likely a lot of couples who get engaged between Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
While some keywords get used more often at certain times, other keywords will show you when to avoid talking about certain topics. This could be because of a lull during one season, like the summer, for certain keywords that are relatively popular the rest of the year.
Utilizing Google Trends data for each topic on your content calendar will help you plan the best times to post your content.
5. Enhance Your Branding
You can also use Google Trends to check the popularity of your brand. While this feature might be more effective for larger brands, even small businesses can use this feature by limiting the search to your local area. When you use this feature, you can even narrow your results by your specific industry.
Another way to improve branding? Google Trends lets you search for popular terms related to events in your area. For example, let’s say there is a large conference held in a nearby city each year. If you’re in the hospitality industry, you can search keywords related to your business. Then capitalize on the popularity of the event and create content that can introduce a new audience to your brand.
6. Focus on Local Shopping Trends
Google Trends gives you the option to isolate your query based on the type of search. If you select Google Shopping, you can find shopping trends in your area. By searching for products related to your business you’ll see when people in your area are searching for and buying them.
For example, within the past year, across the United States, people shopped for makeup most often in the week leading up to Halloween. However, if you narrow it down to a specific state or city, the results may look different. With just Iowa selected, people shopped for makeup most frequently in the first week of August.
With this kind of data, you can focus your content on the right shopping trends at the right time. This may help you sell more product during high-demand times.
7. Use Google Trends for Newsjacking
Newsjacking is a content marketing tactic where you take advantage of a recent, well-known news event and find a way to play off its popularity. You can use Google Trends to track the latest news events that might be relevant to your brand. The best way to do this is to sign up for a Google Trends subscription. With this, you choose how often and how many noteworthy events and trending searches you want to see.
A great example of newsjacking is Calm, a meditation app. In 2020, the brand paid to sponsor much of CNN’s election coverage. It ran frequent 30-second ads during and leading up to election night–a time when many people feel anxious. The ads focused on the brand’s mission to “make the world happier and healthier” without any political messaging. The goal was to give viewers a brief break from the stress and anxiety of the election season. The campaign paid off, and Calm saw a boost in its growth.
Newsjacking does not have to be complicated or even a major campaign. Sometimes a simple tweet or social media post that connects the news event to your brand can be a fun way to engage with your audience.
8. Consider New Product Innovations
If you are considering developing new products or adding new options to your existing products, Google Trends can help you capitalize on the latest search trends. You can use this to guide your product innovations and content marketing.
Start by searching for a general topic in Explore. Then, check the “related topics” and “related queries” sections to find rising trends. Anything marked with “Breakout” indicates growth that’s over 5000% over the previous period.
These trending topics can help you gauge interest in innovations for your products. Consider creating content around these new ideas to see how your audience reacts.
9. Explore Broad Categories
If you want to explore general categories, Google Trends lets you do this without entering a search term. In the category drop-down, choose your preferred category and the region, time frame, and search type you want to see.
From here, you can explore similar search topics and queries. This may give you inspiration for new content that you haven’t explored yet.
10. Use Google Trends for Topic Clustering
Topic clustering is an effective content marketing strategy that helps teams shift their focus from highly specific keywords to core topics. With topic clustering, you organize your website around pillar pages. These pillar pages focus on the core principles of your business. From there, you create cluster pages that link to the pillar page.
Google Trends can make topic clustering easier. Search for your pillar keywords and then explore the related topics and queries. These lists can give you ideas for your related cluster pages. You can further refine your search criteria by specifying a Category.
11. Capitalize on Stable or Emerging Trends
Before beginning your Google Trends search, start with an outline of topics or terms you would like to target. Perhaps you have an overabundance of some products, and you would like to create content to highlight these products.
You can use the long-term data in Google Trends to see the stability or growth of certain terms over time. For the time range, you can select 2004-present to see the full range of Google data.
For example, if you choose the broad category of “Home & Garden,” there is a gradual decline in the earlier years and then steadier growth more recently. If your business sells home and garden products, like outdoor pavers, you can search for this term and see that it is a stable, seasonal product. Whereas the term “xeriscaping” has seen a gradual increase over the past few years.
Data like this can help guide your content marketing and even the products you choose to sell.
Trust Your Content Marketing to the Experts at Express Writers
Managing content marketing and SEO on your own can sometimes feel overwhelming. If you ever feel like you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re not getting the results you want, it might be time to consider outsourcing to a content writing agency. At Express Writers, we only hire the best writers with expertise in a wide range of areas.
Our team can help you take advantage of the latest Google Trends, build a content plan, and create content customized to your business. Whether you need one-time assistance with a difficult topic or want to create a long-term partnership, we are here to help.
Are you ready to get strong results from your content marketing? Contact Express Writers today and we can help you decide which services would be the best fit for your brand.
SEO trends and content marketing strategies that worked six months ago might not produce the same results today.
So, what can you do as a marketer, entrepreneur, or website owner? How can you keep up with the latest marketing strategies, the algorithms, and analytics?
The answer? Follow the right people on Twitter.
There’s no better way to stay up-to-date than to follow the right people on Twitter and scroll through their feeds filled with great advice.
Twitter is one of our favorite social media platforms, but we all know there are over 500 million tweets sent out each day. No one has the time to check each account and verify the real pros from the self-proclaimed “experts.”
So, to help you sift through the non-relevant stuff and get straight to the information that really matters, we’ve compiled this list of the leading digital marketing experts and publications to follow on Twitter.
Each of these experts seems to have cracked the code with not only understanding the complexities of digital marketing but also putting them into practice. They are moving the industry forward with their innovative strategies.
The best part? They’re constantly sharing their knowledge — all for free.
What are you waiting for? Scroll down to see the list, add the experts you’d love to follow, add value to your Twitter feed, and keep your content marketing skills in top shape.
Read, learn, share, and enjoy! Did we miss anyone? Let us know in the comments!
[bctt tweet=”NEW: Our top 40+ recommended #marketing experts to follow on Twitter, a list curated by @daninofuente and @JuliaEMcCoy ✨ Is your digital marketing hero on the list?” username=”ExpWriters”]
How We Hand-Curated Our List of 40+ Digital Marketing Experts
There were a number of factors that helped us decide on which experts to recommend for following.
Our CEO, Julia McCoy, was heavily involved in the creation of this roundup. She reviewed and approved each of the people we recommend below. Secondly, two of us writers were included in the formulation: one of our copywriters, and me, Danielle, Express Writer’s Content Specialist (and everything else behind the scenes).
Next, here’s what we looked at when determining who to recommend to our Write Blog readers.
First, we looked at experts in content marketing, social media, and SEO.
Then, we considered digital marketing experts who are regularly invited to share their knowledge by speaking at leading conferences all around the world, and writing for consistent columns or their own blog.
Instead of tenure (years in the field), we looked at recent accomplishments and studied to find people that are the most current in the marketing space. We believe that matters more than tenure. If you’ve been a marketer for 30 years and you haven’t written a single blog on marketing trends for the past six or even three months, are you even current?
We also researched the pioneers and thought-leaders. What did they share on Twitter that was noteworthy, original, and outstanding?
Finally, experts who’ve mastered current industry trends and are influencing future trends were also considered.
[bctt tweet=”See our top 40+ recommended #marketing experts to follow on Twitter! Is your digital marketing hero on the list? ” username=”ExpWriters”]
40+ Digital Marketing Experts to Follow on Twitter
After taking into consideration the above points, we decided on the following names that every digital marketer needs to follow. These are the people who are moving the industry forward with their innovation and following them will allow you to stay on top of your digital marketing.
1. Ai Addyson-Zhang, Ph.D
Ai Addyson-Zhang, Ph.D. is a long-time college professor who is now an entrepreneur changing the space, taking the stage and teaching authentic, real practices for social media. Her passion for social media pedagogy only started in 2015 after the surprise that one of her students didn’t know what Pinterest is! She realized that not all her students were familiar with all social media platforms, and as an educator, she needed to level up and practice what she preached.
These realizations inspired her to create Classroom Without Walls, a weekly Facebook Live show where she interviews experts in modern marketing to provide real, authentic insights on the industry. Julia has been a guest 3x! Catch a recap of Ai and Julia on Ai’s Medium page. Ai also built the Social Media Pedagogy Online Training course and helps her fellow educators and professors transform traditional learning by applying social media practices. This fearless and industry-changing woman has grown into a consultant and speaker, keynoting on stages and training academic and industry leaders how to apply storytelling in digital marketing.
When you check out Chris Strub’s YouTube channel, you’ll notice his impressive accomplishment: He’s the first (and only) man to live stream and Snapchat in all 50 US States. This accomplishment is documented in one of his books, 50 States, 100 Days.
His roadtrip-slash-social media success is only a part of his bigger achievement: helping nonprofit organizations around the US.
Besides being an author and famous mobile storyteller, he’s going around the world as a millennial keynote speaker in social media conferences, and an educator offering online courses on using social media to build relationships — whether you’re a nonprofit or not.
If you’re wondering how to use the most out of your social media platforms — especially Twitter — in your marketing strategy, Madalyn Sklar is your go-to person. She’s had already figured out how to live tweet in 2008 before everyone else, and now, she offers her own #TwitterSmarter Masterclass online.
Madalyn also offers coaching, consulting, and speaking services for those who want “rockstar results” with their social media. She’s pretty much very active on Twitter as she’s hosting two Twitter chats #TwitterSmarter and #SocialROI every Tuesday and Thursday.
Brian Fanzo describes himself as a “pager-wearing millennial keynote speaker.” What is a digital marketing expert doing with a pager? What is a pager? (I still know what it is – no worries.) With or without a pager, Brian is far from being outdated, and you’ll find it through his unique keynote programs about “Digital Empathy” and “Think Like a Fan.”
Believe it or not, Brian had worked in the US Department of Defense in cybersecurity for 9 years. After that, he founded iSocialFanz, which helped many Fortune 50 companies through his #ThinkLikeAFan philosophy. He also worked with brands like Dell, Adobe, IBM, and even Applebees and UFC launch their digital and influencer strategies.
Natalie Franke describes herself as an educator, entrepreneur, and community builder. She is the co-founder of Rising Tide Society, a platform that empowers the creative community by providing them with valuable resources such as free educational webinars.
Through Rising Tide Society, Natalie aims to achieve her mission to transform the way creative entrepreneurs see each other, from competition to collaborators. The platform has established in-person meet-ups done on the second Tuesday of every month, which started small through local coffee meetups and now all over the world.
Sue Zimmerman is known as “The Instagram Expert.” She empowers both entrepreneurs and marketers to know how to leverage Instagram and get the most out of it for their marketing strategies. She’s also a social media educator, consultant, and a keynote and breakout speaker.
If you want to know the ins and outs of social media, with an emphasis on Instagram marketing, Sue is the digital marketing expert you need to follow. Get to learn more from her through her online classes and online workbooks on Instagram marketing.
Mari Smith has over 1.7 million followers on different social platforms. She’s been mentioned in Forbes as one of the top women social media influencers; labeled as the “social media diva” and the “Pied Piper of the online world” in her interviews in Fast Company; and, the expert BBC and NBC interviewed during Facebook’s data breach and privacy controversy. She’s pretty much the “queen” of it all.
Mari is also an internationally renowned, seasoned public speaker. Besides that, she offers social media training services for small to big businesses and brands — all customized to match their needs.
Kim Garst is a thought-leader in the social media space. She’s been recognized as a Forbes Top 10 Social Media Influencer and one of the world’s most retweeted people among digital marketers. She’s the author of the international bestseller, Will the Real You Please Stand Up, and a speaker sharing her views on social media and brand strategy.
As an online marketing guru, she helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses through social and digital marketing like how she did with leading brands like Microsoft, IBM, and Mastercard.
Amy Porterfield has two best-selling marketing courses: the List Builders Lab where she teaches how to build a profitable email list of engaged, ready-to-buy subscribers, and the Digital Course Academy created for those who want to build their own online course or webinar.
Amy is also the host of her own podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy, where she shares her own tips and tricks, expert interviews, and answers to the online marketing questions sent by her followers.
Mark Schaefer has authored The Content Code, Return on Influence, and The Tao of Twitter, which is currently the best-selling book on Twitter. Moreover, his blog {grow} continues to provide up-to-date stories, updates, and advice on marketing, technology and humanity. It’s known as one of the top five business blogs in the world.
His credentials don’t only stop on his publications. He has worked with top companies including Cisco, AT&T, Adidas, Microsoft, and more from different industries. He continues to help and share his insights to content marketers and entrepreneurs through his workshops, webinars, conference talks and consulting services.
[bctt tweet=”See our top 40+ recommended #marketing experts to follow on Twitter, feat. @kimgarst, @AmyPorterfield, @markwschaefer, @MariSmith, @aiaddysonzhang and more ” username=”ExpWriters”]
11. Ann Handley
Ann Handley is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content and Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business. These bestsellers were all translated into 19 languages — a certified international hit.
She’s the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, a marketing training and education company offering online and in-person programs. It’s where content marketers can get their high-quality dose of marketing trends, tools, and research.
Aaron Orrendorf is “saving the world from bad content,” and he does it pretty well as proven by his articles on big names like Mashable, Inc., Entrepreneur, CMI, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. He’s the founder of iconiContent where clients can get in touch with him and get his excellent B2B content marketing services.
Henneke Duistermaat is an inspiration for those who are clueless about content creation. She started as a copywriter for clients based in the US and UK — even if she’s not a native English speaker — and continued until she left her freelancing job to focus more on teaching beginners and expert writers on better persuasive writing.
Henneke has been interviewed by Inc. and Forbes, and featured in top digital marketing sites like Search Engine Journal. She’s the author of Blog to Win Business, a handy guide for writing engaging blogs, and the teacher of her online course on persuasive writing.
If you’re a regular Copyblogger reader, you might have come across Brian Clark’s name a few times. As the founder of the platform, he’s at the forefront of providing all the current content marketing tips and tricks.
He’s also the founder of Unemployment, a resource that provides freelancers and entrepreneurs smart strategies. Brian has been featured in several business books such as Killing Marketing by Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi, Linchpin and Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin, The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.
Kieran Flanagan has worked with SaaS companies such as Marketo and Salesforce and helped them grow their traffic, users, and revenue. He’s also currently the VP of Marketing at HubSpot, a platform that provides inbound marketing and sales software, tools, tips and tricks to entrepreneurs and marketers.
As a thought leader in growth marketing, Kieran further shares his knowledge through his podcast The GrowthTLDR with Scott Tousley, and event talks.
For everything related to content marketing, you’ll gain invaluable insight by following Joe Pulizzi. He’s the founder of the Content Marketing Institute, the leading educational organization for content marketing, after all. (If you know the Content Marketing World, then you should know CMI is behind this largest content marketing event in the world.)
He’s also a public speaker and has authored a number of books in the industry, including Killing Marketing, Content Inc, and Epic Content Marketing. If you’re serious about upping your content marketing game, better follow Joe now.
Joanna Wiebe is a web copywriter and conversion rate optimization consultant more known as the founder of Copy Hackers.
If you don’t know what Copy Hackers is, it’s an all-packed source of tips, stories, and lessons for copywriters, freelancers, growth hackers, and startups. For clients, it’s a reliable place to find Copy Hacker-certified conversion copywriters for their business.
Joanna shares her knowledge of conversion copywriting with communities around the world through her speaking engagements. Follow her on Twitter to gain a front-row seat.
A writer, part-time entrepreneur, and content marketing consultant, Ryan Robinson is the man behind ryrob.com and its blog loaded with informative content that teaches readers how to create a profitable blog and business. He also teaches how to build a blog in 7 days through his free online course.
Besides writing for his blog, he also hosts a podcast where he interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and other professionals in different fields to share their stories and tips in building their businesses.
Joanna Penn surely got the “pen” in her name for the right reason. She’s the woman behind The Creative Penn, a place where you can check out her guides on writing, publishing, book marketing, and creative entrepreneurship. She also hosts a podcast where she interviews the pros in the book writing and publishing industry.
Joanna is certainly the real deal in these topics as she herself is an author. She’s an award-nominated New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers under J.F.Penn. She continues to share her knowledge through her online courses including How to Write Non-Fiction: Turn your Knowledge into Words and Productivity for Authors.
Joe Lazauskas is the head of marketing at Contently, a place where strategic services, a talent marketplace, and a technology platform are all in one place. He’s also the editor-in-chief of The Content Strategist, Contently’s blog.
Besides working for Contently, Joe has also written for Mashable, Digiday, and Fast Company. He is a regular speaker at Web Summit, Collision and Content Marketing World, and the author of the #1 Amazon New Release book, The Storytelling Edge.
[bctt tweet=”See our top 40+ recommended #marketing experts to follow on Twitter, feat. @TheRyanRobinson, @thecreativepenn, @annhandley, @AaronOrendorff, @HennekeD and more ” username=”ExpWriters”]
21. Jay Baer
Jay Baer is the founder of Convince & Convert, a digital strategy consulting firm providing strategic plans, training, and guidance for companies that need help in social media, content marketing, online reputation, email, and word of mouth. They’ve worked with mid-size and large North American companies such as Cisco, 3M, Oracle, CVS, Comcast, and Hilton.
He’s also the author of the New York Times and Amazon best-seller, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype, plus other books on customer service, customer conversations, and online ratings and reviews. He has his podcast network too. He’s definitely someone you shouldn’t miss in your feed.
Mandy McEwen is a marketing consultant, digital agency growth coach, and agency owner of Mod Girl Marketing, providing DIY inbound marketing solutions and consultation for those who need help in their content marketing strategy.
Mandy is also included in the LinkedIn’s latest list of the 24 B2B Marketing Experts You Need to Know.
Sarah Kennedy is the Chief Marketing Officer at Marketo, an Adobe company offering a digital marketing software for clients and marketers who want to improve their essential marketing areas like account-based marketing, mobile marketing, social media, automation, and more.
Michael Brenner has been recognized as a Top Business Speaker by The Huffington Post and a top CMO Influencer by Forbes. His talks center around content marketing techniques, and he shares further on its ROI through his book, The Content Formula.
As the CEO of Marketing Insider Group, Michael has helped companies reach and connect to their audiences worldwide. They’ve worked with popular brands like Adidas, SAP, and The Guardian.
SEO is one of those constantly changing and evolving factors in digital marketing. Understanding the complexities of it will help you to really begin to master your digital marketing efforts. If you’re looking to learn from the best in SEO, you’ll want to add Rand Fishkin to your list.
Rand is the former co-founder and CEO of Moz, a platform that launched the Beginner’s Guide to SEO and offers a handy SEO toolset that checks everything you need to know from keyword research to page optimization insights. Now, he’s the founder of SparkToro, a product that aims to help people do better marketing (launching soon). He’s also the co-author of Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World.
Brian Dean is the founder of Backlinko, one of the most popular online marketing blogs where he shares his tried and tested SEO and traffic tips. One of his latest and most interesting case studies is about how he increased his site’s traffic by 110% in 14 days — something worth checking for sure.
Another digital marketing expert you can learn a lot from is Michael. He’s the founder of iPullRank, a digital marketing agency based in New York that does SEO, UX/UI, and market research services — to name a few. They also have a page for comprehensive guides on topics like machine learning and using Google’s tag manager.
Michael works as a consultant for different businesses — from small to big names like SAP, American Express, HSBC, SanDisk, General Mills, and FTD.
Recognized as one of this year’s “B2B Marketers You Need to Know” and “Top Voice” on LinkedIn in both 2017 and 2018, plus nominated for Forbes Asia “30 under 30,” Suzanne Nguyen leveraged her content in LinkedIn through video and print.
She grew her LinkedIn community through her channel. It all started with her one viral video and her following just grew from 900 to 19,000 in 7 months. Impressive, isn’t it?
Suzanne is also the woman behind StringStory, a place where content creators can find guides on branding, content strategy, and influencer marketing.
Search Engine Journal is your credible source when it comes to the latest trends on SEO, PPC, SMM, and content marketing. (Don’t you know Express Writer’s CEO, Julia, is SEJ’s regular contributor?)
If you fully want to grasp the strategies from the best, you’ll want to follow Danny Goodwin. He’s the Executive Editor at Search Engine Journal where he not only writes but also oversees the platform’s editorial strategy and managing contributions from a team of 60+ industry experts.
Britney Muller’s goal is to help drive product initiatives through data-driven research and industry knowledge, and she does it as a Moz’s Senior SEO Scientist — no wonder their tools and resources are always helpful when it comes to inbound marketing and SEO!
Britney is also the founder of Pryde Marketing, serving businesses looking for a one-stop shop for SEO, content marketing, design, and content creation services. As a keynote speaker, she has spoken in different digital marketing events around the world.
[bctt tweet=”See our top 40+ recommended #marketing experts to follow on Twitter, feat. @BritneyMuller, @MandyModGirl, @Backlinko, @MrDannyGoodwin, @iPullRank and more ” username=”ExpWriters”]
31. Michelle Robbins
Michelle Robbins is the Head of Digital at Milestone, a company offering a combination of software solutions and digital agency services for location-based businesses in hospitality, retail, financial services, and automotive industries.
However, you’ll most likely recognize her as the former SVP Content & Marketing Technology of Third Door Media, the company behind conferences like Search Marketing Expo (SMX). She was also the Editor in Chief of popular digital marketing publications, Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today.
Joost de Valk is the founder and chief product officer at Yoast, a search-optimization company that developed the popular SEO Wordpress plugin. He’s also WordPress.org’s current Marketing & Communications Lead.
There’s nothing more to say here to convince everyone why he deserves to be mentioned, especially if he’s working on the two important tools most content marketers use every day!
Besides Yoast and Wordpress, he has invested in several companies and serves as an advisor to Mapfit and Student.com.
Joost regularly speaks at industry workshops and conferences like YoastCon and WordCamp US.
Tim Soulo is the Chief Marketing officer and product advisor at Ahrefs, a company offering SEO tools and online courses for businesses. He’s also authored a number of marketing guides and data-driven SEO research studies.
Tim has been in the digital marketing space for almost 10 years. He regularly shares his knowledge and experience through live talks around the world, podcast interviews, and his Twitter account.
Olga Andrienko is the head of global marketing at SEMRush (our favorite content strategy tool!). Her key specialization is conversion and relationship marketing. She’s done it so well that, together with her team, she managed to increase SEMRush’s social engagement by 400% in one year.
If you want to learn more about connecting with your audience, Olga has all the insights.
Barry Schwartz is the editor for Search Engine Land and CEO of RustyBrick. You can also catch him on Search Engine Roundtable, a blog that discusses advanced SEO topics.
Barry has been an advisor for startups and top companies like Google, Yahoo! Search, and Bing. Also, he’s been a speaker at several industry events including Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing Expo, and PubCon.
He received the “US Search Personality Of The Year,” award in the 2018 US Search Awards. With over 15 years of experience, you’ll definitely learn all things search-related from Barry.
John Mueller is the Senior Webmaster trends analyst at Google. That title alone is enough to get anyone who’s serious about online marketing to sit up and pay attention. We all want our marketing efforts to get noticed by Google, after all.
John is also the usual go-to guy for Google Webmasters’ Q&A live stream in Youtube where audiences can ask about anything webmaster-related like crawling, indexing, mobile sites, duplicate content, Sitemaps, Search Console, etc.
Colan Nielsen is the VP of Local Search at Sterling Sky, a position he’s held since 2010, helping businesses and marketers know the how-tos of Local SEO. He’s also currently the Google Product Expert for Google My Business.
Local search is one of the most interesting aspects of digital marketing — and he’s passionate about it. That’s why he regularly shares his insights and case studies on his current Local SEO projects. He also shares the lessons he learned in his experience in business operations through his interviews in different online publications.
He’s also a writer for Moz’s Local Search Ranking Factors, and a speaker at industry events such as State of Search and Pubcon.
James Finlayson has been in the digital marketing space since 2008. He has worked as an SEO executive and technical lead for different marketing agencies. Now, he’s the Head of Innovation at Verve Search, an SEO and content marketing agency based in the UK. He regularly enjoys experimenting with SEO — a hobby that brought him to where he is now after working as a lawyer!
James is now active in going around the world to speak in different conferences including the TEDx, BrightonSEO, Online Business Makeover, Fresh Business Thinking Live, the Digital Marketing Show, Search London, and Digitalization of Marketing.
Julie Joyce started working in search marketing in 2002 and then founded an all-female blog called SEO Chicks in 2007. Now, she is the owner and Director of Operations in Link Fish Media, a link building and SEO company. She also writes monthly link building articles on Search Engine Land.
With over 19 years of experience in SEO, link building, site auditing, and social media, Casey Markee is definitely the expert you’re looking for when it comes to experience and knowledge in the ins and outs of the industry.
Casey runs the SEO consultancy company, Media Wyse, and also works as the lead SEO consultant at Search Engine News. He further shares his knowledge as an author (with over 400+ digital marketing articles to his credit), instructor for SEO teams, and speaker at several events, including Pubcon, State of Search, and SMX Advanced.
[bctt tweet=”See our top 40+ recommended #marketing experts to follow on Twitter, feat. @JamesFinlayson, @olgandrienko, @jdevalk, @MichelleRobbins, @ColanNielsen and more ” username=”ExpWriters”]
41. Marie Haynes
Marie Haynes has been helping businesses rank on Google, making sure that every step complies with Google’s Guidelines through her Canada-based company, Marie Haynes Consulting Inc.
Before 2008, she was a full-time veterinarian who became interested in SEO when she’s trying to rank her vet website in Google. Now, she’s a top online marketing consultant businesses will go to for guidance and solving penalty issues.
She’s also a regular writer for Moz and Search Engine Watch, and a contributor in SEO Chat forums and Google Help forums, answering questions about Google’s penalties and algorithm.
Bill Slawski has been doing SEO for more than 20 years when search engines weren’t a big thing in the world of marketing. Known as the patent master and expert on technical SEO topics, he has worked for Fortune 500 brands and nonprofits, helping them in website optimization and increase their traffic and leads.
Bill is the founder of Go Fish Digital, a company providing content marketing, web design, and SEO services. For SEO updates and insights on search engine patents and white papers, you can check out Bill’s blog, SEO by the Sea.
Danny Sullivan is a digital marketing expert who has covered digital and search marketing topics since the 90s. He’s the co-founder of Third Door Media, the company behind popular online publications like Marketing Land, MarTech Today, and Search Engine Land. It’s also the company behind MarTech and SMX conferences.
In 2017, he left his position in Third Door Media as chief content officer and his job as a search journalist. He, later on, started working with Google to continue educating the public about search and find out how to solve certain issues around it.
Joshua Hardwick is the founder of The SEO Project, an SEO blog that aims to clear all the misinformation regarding SEO and educate readers in a way that everyone can understand. He’s also the Head of Content at Ahrefs, where he shares more of his strategies and techniques in applying SEO.
Cyrus Shepard started in 2010 as Moz’s Lead SEO, which later on gave him the opportunity to do his first speaking event in MozCon and lead its Audience Development Team.
After working at Moz, Cyrus opened his own SEO company, Zyppy, where they educate readers about SEO trends and best practices and guide them about the top ranking factors that help improve site traffic and ranking. He’s also working with startups and Fortune 500 companies as an SEO consultant.
Russ Jones is the Principal Search Scientist at Moz. He regularly engages with his over 9K Twitter followers about all things digital marketing. He’s also the SEO Advisor at Hive Digital and regularly speaks at top industry events and conferences like PubCon, SMX, SearchExchange, LinkLove, and IBM’s Netezza Conference.
His most notable accomplishment was leading the development of SEO technologies such as LinkSleeve, a link spam prevention tool; OpenCaptcha, a free distributed anti-spam solution: and Remove’em, a link removal service.
Dr. Pete Meyers is a marketing scientist and subject matter expert. He describes himself as “the keeper of the Algo History, the architect of the MozCast Project, and the watcher of all things Google.” If these titles sound like you’re dealing with “the wise one” in a medieval role-playing video game, that’s what he really is in real life.
Dr. Pete works on product research and data-driven content, acting as the medium between marketing and data science. He also built research tools to monitor Google, with MozCast–a weather report showing the changes in Google’s algorithm–as one of his best projects.
Will Critchlow is the co-founder and CEO of Distilled, an online marketing services company with offices in London, New York, and Seattle. His company also produces the online training platform, DistilledU and DistilledODN, an SEO split-testing platform.
He had spoken for top digital marketing events like SearchLove, MozCon, and Inbound, and continues to share his insights through Distilled and Moz blogs.
We may be biased, but our own CEO is a great resource in the industry of content marketing to follow.
Named an industry thought leader by Forbes, Julia McCoy has been on the roll providing top online content for clients in different industries through Express Writers. She’s also consistently publishing every week everything content marketing-related on Express Writer’s Write Blog.
Besides being the head of Express Writers, Julia is a serial content marketer devoted to staying at the forefront and leadership of our beautiful industry of content marketing. She is the author of two Amazon bestsellers, Practical Content Strategy & Marketing and So You Think You Can Write?. She has even developed two industry-leading courses guiding beginner and professional content marketers on how they can create content that converts. She’s been doing a few workshops and webinars lately too!
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You Can’t Go Wrong When Learning From the Best
And there you have it! Our list of the movers and shakers of the digital marketing space.
Of course, there are plenty more digital marketing experts who are doing great things, but we wanted to highlight these guys as their presence in the industry can’t be denied.
Before you hop on over to Twitter to follow, can you think of any other digital marketing experts?
