SEO is not all about keywords and Google anymore. Generative content from AI tools like ChatGPT and AI-based search engines like Perplexity are changing the game, and Google is moving toward an AI experience as well. These SEO professionals are at the top of the industry when it comes to generative engine optimization (GEO).
- Mike King
Founder & CEO of iPullRank; Author of The Science of SEO; Speaker & Rapper
Mike King is a multi‑talented SEO leader based in New York City. He founded iPullRank, where he blends deep technical SEO, content strategy, and generative‑AI “relevance engineering,” helping clients collectively generate over $4 billion in revenue. He’s also a noted speaker, recently discussing the “End of SEO as We Know It” at major conferences and founded SEO Week in NYC.
Mike is arguably the most advanced SEO practitioner in AI and LLMs. He’s coined the term “relevance engineering”, published work on vector embeddings, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and even trains marketers on how to make content that ranks in LLM-powered engines. His technical chops and creative approach are shaping the next era of SEO.
“If your content isn’t structured for machines, it’s invisible to AI.” – Mike King
Founder of Diggity Marketing, Affiliate Lab, and Chiang Mai SEO Conference
Matt explores AI heavily through testing frameworks, focusing on prompt engineering for content generation, A/B testing AI-assisted articles, and monitoring how AI-generated content affects rankings post-algorithm updates. His Affiliate Lab now includes modules on AI-enhanced publishing workflows.
Senior Director of SEO & Head of Organic Research at Amsive Digital
Lily leads the industry in analyzing Google core updates and SGE volatility. She publishes detailed breakdowns of how AI-generated SERPs change CTRs and how brands can optimize for trust and authority signals in a world where snippets may replace links.
“AI-generated results aren’t just about keywords — they’re about experience, trust, and credibility.” – Lily Ray
- Duane Forrester
Fractional Chief Visibility Officer/Subject Matter Expert, COO at LynxPulse
Duane Forrester began his SEO journey in 1997, rising through roles across sports media, Caesars Palace, and Microsoft’s MSN and Bing teams—where he famously helped launch and shape Bing Webmaster Tools in 2011.
“If you’re not tracking: • Chunk Retrieval Frequency • Embedding Relevance • AI Attribution Rate… SEO dashboards are stuck in the past.” – Duane Forrester
- Everett Sizemore
SEO, GEO and Content Strategy Consultant, eSizemore Consulting
Everett is at the forefront of semantic SEO and schema markup, both critical in LLM contexts. He’s developed frameworks for content structuring, entity linking, and embedding-aware internal linking — all of which enhance visibility in generative experiences and search APIs.
“SEO in the LLM era is about preparing your content to be understood, linked, and cited by machines.” – Everett Sizemore
- Ross Hudgens
Founder & CEO of Siege Media
Ross’s agency Siege Media has shifted toward AI-guided content strategies, including LLM-informed topic ideation, SERP gap analysis, and data-driven topical clustering. His team explores how vector similarity can drive scalable content generation without sacrificing quality.
- Gus Pelogia
Senior SEO Product Manager – Indeed
Gus Pelogia exemplifies how SEO professionals can lead in the AI transform, blending tool-making, embeddings, product processes, and content signals to thrive in generative search ecosystems. Gus actively builds lightweight SEO tools using LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini) and vector embeddings—mapping related pages, automating internal linking, and surfacing peak-performance content via Colab‑based workflows.
“Use LLMs to build little SEO tools that help you with analysis and boring work so you can spend your time looking at outcomes.” – Gus Pelogia
- Ann Smarty
Brand Manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas, Founder of Viral Content Bee
Ann has tested and written extensively about AI content tools, especially for content amplification and link outreach in a generative search world. She explores ways to combine GPT outputs with human editing, improving contextual relevance and reducing AI hallucinations.
“Running on Google’s index does make AI Mode more helpful and faster…. Also AI Mode + AI Overviews rely on keywords a lot!” – Ann Smarty
- Britney Muller
AI Consultant, Educator & Entrepreneur
Vector embeddings & semantic search: Britney’s popular Actionable AI for Marketers course empowers marketers to cluster content using embeddings—mapping SERP queries to page-level vectors to guide strategy and improve internal linking. While she may not technically consider herself an “SEO” these days, Britney Muller was researching AI and its inevitable impact on search back when most SEOs were still learning about keyword density.
“To leverage AI, all most people need are; some practical skills, hands‑on experience and the confidence to create” – Britney Muller
- Eli Schwartz
Author of “Product-Led SEO” and Growth Advisor
Eli’s “Product-Led SEO” aligns naturally with AI-first UX. He advocates for structuring platforms and products around user problems, which is exactly how LLMs prioritize source relevance. He frequently speaks about how search is shifting from queries to conversational journeys.
This list is based on the Best SEOs of All Time article on List.ly by Gregory Donaldson.
