Top 10 People to Follow for AEO / GEO in 2026

For a small business owner, the goal of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is to get your business discovered, mentioned, recommended, and cited by AI-powered search experiences such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Perplexity.

My ranking prioritizes industry influence, practical expertise, original research, and usefulness to a small business owner - not simply social media follower counts.

There is no universally accepted ranking of AEO/GEO experts, so this is an editorial ranking informed by multiple 2026 expert roundups and industry research. NoGood™: Growth Marketing AgencyAirOpsProfound

The top 10, ranked

Rank	Person	Primary expertise	Why you should follow them
1	Aleyda Solís	Practical AI search strategy	Actionable frameworks for improving search visibility without a huge budget.
2	Lily Ray	SEO quality, trust and AI search	Understand the quality and credibility signals that matter for sustainable visibility.
3	Rand Fishkin	Search behavior and audience research	Learn how people discover businesses beyond traditional Google search results.
4	Mike King	Technical SEO and AI retrieval	Understand the technical side of how search engines and AI systems find and interpret information.
5	Kevin Indig	AI search research and measurement	Learn how to connect AI visibility to customer acquisition and business results.
6	John Mueller	Google's search guidance	Get an authoritative perspective on Google's search ecosystem and avoid SEO misinformation.
7	Jason Barnard	Brand entities and knowledge graphs	Learn how to establish a clear, consistent identity for your business across the web.
8	Marie Haynes	Search quality and trustworthiness	Understand how content quality and credibility influence search visibility.
9	Crystal Carter	AEO strategy and implementation	Explore practical approaches to making websites and business information more accessible to AI search.
10	Brodie Clark	Search results and AI feature tracking	Monitor changes in search results and understand how AI features affect organic visibility.

These names recur across current industry discussions and expert lists, although their specialties and the strength of their evidence vary. NoGood™: Growth Marketing AgencyAirOpsProfoundJosh Blyskal

Why each person made the list

1. Aleyda Solís - Best overall starting point

Follow for: Practical strategy, implementation frameworks, and AI search education.

Aleyda is an established international SEO consultant who has developed resources specifically for understanding and improving AI search visibility.

Her strength is turning a complicated, rapidly changing subject into a structured process.

For a small business, focus on:

• Making your website content useful and easy to understand.
• Identifying the questions prospective customers ask AI tools.
• Improving your visibility across search engines and AI-powered discovery.
• Measuring whether your efforts are producing meaningful results.

Start here: Aleyda Solís · Learning AI Search

2. Lily Ray - Best for trust and credibility

Follow for: Search quality, E-E-A-T, algorithm changes, and AI search visibility.

Lily Ray is known for her research and commentary on Google's search quality systems and the relationship between content credibility and organic visibility.

Her perspective is especially valuable for businesses operating in competitive markets where reputation and trust influence customer decisions.

Learn how to demonstrate genuine expertise, maintain accurate information, and build a credible online presence rather than publishing large volumes of generic AI-generated content.

Start here: Lily Ray

3. Rand Fishkin - Best for understanding customer discovery

Follow for: Search behavior, audience research, zero-click searches, and marketing strategy.

Rand Fishkin brings an important perspective to AEO: getting a click isn't the only way to influence a customer's decision.

People might discover your business through an AI recommendation, read about you on another website, and visit your business later without clicking your original content.

His work can help small businesses think beyond traditional keyword rankings and understand where their audiences spend time.

Start here: SparkToro

4. Mike King - Best for technical understanding

Follow for: Technical SEO, information retrieval, and AI search infrastructure.

Mike King explores how search systems retrieve, interpret, and rank information.

His work is particularly useful if you want to understand the technical foundations of AI visibility rather than rely on surface-level optimization tips.

For a small business, concentrate on the fundamentals: crawlability, indexability, website architecture, structured data where appropriate, and clearly organized content.

You don't need to master every technical concept, but understanding the fundamentals helps you evaluate SEO recommendations intelligently.

Start here: iPullRank

5. Kevin Indig - Best for measuring business impact

Follow for: AI search research, organic growth, and performance measurement.

Kevin Indig analyzes search and growth trends, including how AI-powered discovery affects businesses.

His work is useful for thinking critically about whether AI visibility actually helps generate leads, sales, and brand awareness.

For your business, investigate questions such as:

• Are customers discovering your brand through AI tools?
• Which products or services appear in AI recommendations?
• Are AI-referred visitors becoming customers?
• Which visibility improvements are worth investing in?

Start here: Growth Memo

6. John Mueller - Best for Google's perspective

Follow for: Google Search guidance and technical SEO fundamentals.

John Mueller is a Google Search Advocate whose public guidance helps website owners understand Google's search ecosystem.

He is particularly valuable as a counterweight to exaggerated claims about new optimization techniques.

When someone promises a secret technique that will guarantee inclusion in ChatGPT or Google's AI-generated answers, seek evidence before spending money.

Start here: Google Search Central

7. Jason Barnard - Best for brand identity and entity optimization

Follow for: Brand entities, knowledge graphs, and consistent business information.

AI systems need to interpret which business an entity represents, what it does, where it operates, and how it relates to other entities.

Jason Barnard focuses on helping brands establish a consistent identity across the web and in search systems.

This is especially relevant to small businesses whose websites, business directories, social profiles, and third-party mentions may contain inconsistent information.

Focus on making your business name, services, location, expertise, and other important facts consistent and verifiable.

Start here: Jason Barnard · Kalicube

8. Marie Haynes - Best for content quality and search trust

Follow for: Search quality, Google's evolving systems, and AI-related search developments.

Marie Haynes has extensive experience analyzing Google's search quality systems and the implications of changes to search.

Her perspective helps businesses distinguish between content that genuinely serves customers and content created primarily to manipulate rankings.

For AEO/GEO, that means publishing reliable information, demonstrating first-hand experience, correcting inaccuracies, and providing evidence for important claims.

Start here: Marie Haynes

9. Crystal Carter - Best for practical implementation

Follow for: AEO strategy, website optimization, and emerging search experiences.

Crystal Carter is a search marketing specialist associated with Wix's SEO and AI search initiatives.

Her work offers a practical perspective on how website owners can adapt to evolving search experiences.

Small businesses should pay attention to the implementation details: making content accessible, organizing information clearly, and ensuring that important business details can be found and interpreted by search systems.

Start here: Crystal Carter

10. Brodie Clark - Best for monitoring search changes

Follow for: Search engine results pages, Google AI features, and SEO analysis.

Brodie Clark specializes in analyzing changes to search results and the features that affect organic visibility.

His work is useful because AI search is evolving quickly, and changes to search interfaces can affect which businesses and websites customers see.

Follow his analysis to understand what is changing before deciding whether your business needs to adjust its strategy.

Start here: Brodie Clark

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Where should a small business owner start?

You don't need to follow all ten people equally. Start with these three:

1. Aleyda Solís: Learn what to do and how to structure your optimization efforts.
2. Lily Ray: Understand quality, credibility, and the importance of trustworthy information.
3. Rand Fishkin: Understand how customers discover businesses beyond conventional search rankings.

Then add Kevin Indig when you're ready to measure results and Jason Barnard when you want to improve your business's identity and consistency across the web.

One important distinction: being mentioned frequently by an AI tool isn't necessarily the same as generating more customers. Track visibility alongside relevant outcomes, such as qualified leads, inquiries, bookings, and sales.

My final recommendation: If you only follow one person initially, choose Aleyda Solís. Her practical educational resources make her a strong starting point for a small business owner who wants to understand AEO/GEO and put it into practice without getting lost in technical jargon or marketing hype.

To build strong visibility in AI search, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), small business owners can learn a great deal from industry leaders who actively research how LLMs, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews cite brands. The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts

The following ten individuals are recognized authorities in the search and AI optimization space, ranked from most to least influential based on their current industry impact, data research, and practical frameworks for AI search visibility:

Top 10 Experts in AEO and GEO

1. Kevin Indig (Growth Advisor & Author, Growth Memo) The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts

• Why follow him: Known for extensive empirical studies on LLM user behavior, click-through patterns, and brand citation triggers inside ChatGPT and generative engines. The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts

• Best for: Understanding how AI visibility translates into actual customer choice rather than just superficial mention metrics. The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts

2. Mike King (Founder, iPullRank) The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts

• Why follow him: A pioneer in technical AEO who breaks down the engineering side of query fan-out, semantic vector search, passage retrieval, and how LLMs synthesize information. The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts

• Best for: Technical architectures, structured data, and deep-level understanding of how search algorithms process content.

3. Aleyda Solís (International SEO & AI Consultant) The Top Generative Engine Optimization / AI Search Experts

• Why follow him/her: One of the most practical educators in digital marketing, Solís regularly shares actionable frameworks, tool guides, and checklists for adapting traditional search structures to AI-driven search results.

• Best for: Practical, step-by-step implementation frameworks for lean teams and growing businesses.

4. Lily Ray (VP of SEO Strategy & Research, Amsive)

• Why follow her: Widely followed for tracking Google’s algorithmic updates, AI Overviews, and shifts in entity-based search visibility.

• Best for: Real-time analysis of how search engine changes impact organic brand trust and visibility.

5. Josh Blyskal (Founding Team, Profound) The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts

• Why follow him: Helped build early AEO measurement frameworks and data-backed taxonomies tracking how AI models source information from platforms like Reddit and the open web. The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts

• Best for: Insights on brand sentiment tracking and citation mapping across generative engines.

6. Wil Reynolds (Founder & Co-CEO, Seer Interactive) The Top Generative Engine Optimization / AI Search Experts

• Why follow him: An outspoken advocate for data-backed GEO and customer-centric visibility, focusing heavily on what people actually search for versus what software keywords suggest.

• Best for: Aligning AI visibility tracking with actual business revenue and pipeline data.

7. Ross Simmonds (Founder, Foundation Marketing)

• Why follow him: Specializes in content distribution, digital PR, and authority building - key components because AI search engines heavily favor brands with robust multi-channel footprints.

• Best for: Content repurposing and brand authority strategies that AI models use to validate expertise.

8. Cyrus Shepard (Founder, Zyppy)

• Why follow him: Known for running granular, transparent experiments on on-page SEO factors, formatting styles, and how content layout influences modern answer boxes and AI summaries.

• Best for: On-page optimization techniques that make content easy for AI scrapers to parse and cite.

9. Brie Anderson (Founder, BEalined Consulting)

• Why follow her: Focuses heavily on GA4, attribution, and simplifying analytics for small-to-midsize businesses attempting to measure non-traditional traffic sources like AI search.

• Best for: Analytics setup and tracking how visitor behavior shifts as AI search evolves.

10. Azeem Azhar (Creator of Exponential View)

• Why follow him: While operating at a macro-economic level rather than tactical SEO, his research on AI transformation helps business owners anticipate where digital discovery is heading next.

• Best for: High-level strategic foresight on how AI systems will reshape consumer habits.

For a small business owner looking to master Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO / AI search visibility) , following the right industry practitioners bridges the gap between traditional search and LLM citation mechanics. Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features onThe 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) expertsTop SEO Experts Build Me an AI Search Strategy (GEO)

The top 10 individual people to follow, ranked from most to least influential based on their deep technical research, data-driven frameworks, and actionable strategies for AI search engines, include:

1. Mike King (Founder & CEO of iPullRank): Widely considered a pioneer at the intersection of machine learning, information retrieval, and modern search. His technical breakdowns and frameworks (like Relevance Engineering) redefine how LLMs and search engines ingest and cite content. The Difference Between SEO and GEO/AEO
2. ** Kevin Indig** (Growth advisor and author of Growth Memo): Famous for deep data experiments on how LLMs select citations, LLM ranking factors, and how ChatGPT and Perplexity construct answers. Essential reading for visibility dynamics. AEO vs. GEO: Why they're the same thing (and why we preferAI, AEO, GEO: Finding Real B2B SEO Value in the Hype
3. ** Aleyda Solis** (International SEO consultant and founder of Orainti): Exceptional at translating complex algorithmic shifts into actionable, step-by-step checklists and frameworks specifically designed for modern and AI-driven search environments. [Profound]
4. ** Lily Ray** (VP of SEO & Strategy at Amsive): A leading authority on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), brand authority, and how Google's AI Overviews evaluate entity trust and source credibility.
5. ** Josh Blyskal** (Co-founder & CEO of Profound): Leads a dedicated platform tracking AI conversation paths, citation mechanics, and crawler visibility across generative engines, offering sharp data insights on how brands actually get referenced by AI. [Profound]
6. Chris Long (VP of Marketing at Go Fish Digital): Known for rigorous real-world testing and reverse-engineering of Google AI Overviews and modern search features, providing practical adjustments for smaller brand visibility.
7. ** Jason Barnard** (Founder & CEO of Kalicube): The premier expert on Brand SERPs and Knowledge Panels. He specializes in entity optimization, ensuring that search engines and AI models accurately understand who you are as an entity.
8. ** Brodie Clark** (Independent SEO consultant and publisher of Brodie Clark SEO): Consistently first to document granular changes, UI rollouts, and behavioral quirks tied to Google's AI Overviews and answer engine updates.
9. ** Gianluca Fiorelli** (International SEO strategist and consultant): Deeply insightful on semantic search, topical authority, and entity-based architectures that help smaller sites signal relevance to AI algorithms.
10. ** Tom Critchlow** (Independent consultant and writer of SEO MBA): Excellent at helping business owners think about strategic positioning, defensible content moats, and holistic brand equity in an era where traditional keyword volume is shifting to AI answers.

If you'd like, I can:

• Detail specific tactics from Mike King or Kevin Indig for a local or niche small business.
• Help you outline a basic action plan for AEO based on your industry.

Let me know how you want to proceed.

Rankings vary across industry lists, so this is a practical rather than definitive influence ranking for a small business owner:

1. Aleyda Solís
2. Mike King
3. Rand Fishkin
4. Lily Ray
5. John Mueller
6. Dan Petrovic
7. Metehan Yesilyurt
8. Josh Blyskal
9. Koray Tuğberk Gübür
10. Mostafa ElBermawy(citegist.com)(nogood.io)(cairrot.com)(aeovision.ai)

Top 10 AEO/GEO experts small business owners should follow (ranked most to least influential):

1. Scott Keever – Leading authority on AI reputation management and brand visibility. Founder of Keever SEO and Reputation Pros, with proven frameworks for controlling what AI engines say about brands.The 20 Best AEO Experts in 2026 (Ranked & Reviewed) - Scott Keever

2. Ipek Isler – Co-founder of AEO Vision, recognized for reverse-engineering AI search behavior and publishing original research on how answer engines cite businesses.Best 26 AEO/GEO Experts in 2026 (Thought Leaders of AI Search) | AEO Vision

3. Metehan Yesilyurt – GEO researcher at Peec AI and AEO Vision co-founder, known for technical experiments that reveal how generative engines select citations.Best 26 AEO/GEO Experts in 2026 (Thought Leaders of AI Search) | AEO Vision

4. Mike King – Founder of iPullRank, creator of “Relevance Engineering.” Highly influential in enterprise-level GEO/AEO strategy and technical rigor.Best 26 AEO/GEO Experts in 2026 (Thought Leaders of AI Search) | AEO Vision

5. Kasra Dash – Specialist in technical AEO and tooling, building frameworks and tools that help businesses measure and improve AI visibility.The 20 Best AEO Experts in 2026 (Ranked & Reviewed) - Scott Keever

6. Lily Ray – SEO director and strategist, widely respected for turning AI search research into actionable strategies for teams.Best 26 AEO/GEO Experts in 2026 (Thought Leaders of AI Search) | AEO Vision

7. Cindy Krum – CEO of MobileMoxie, expert in entity optimization and mobile-first AI search visibility.Best 26 AEO/GEO Experts in 2026 (Thought Leaders of AI Search) | AEO Vision

8. Julian Goldie – Founder of an AI testing community, influential in community-driven experiments on how AI engines cite brands.The 20 Best AEO Experts in 2026 (Ranked & Reviewed) - Scott Keever

9. Gareth Hoyle – Known for digital PR-driven AI visibility, helping businesses earn citations through authority-building campaigns.The 20 Best AEO Experts in 2026 (Ranked & Reviewed) - Scott Keever

10. Aleyda Solis – International SEO consultant, recognized for strategic frameworks in GEO/AEO and educating businesses on adapting to AI search.Best 26 AEO/GEO Experts in 2026 (Thought Leaders of AI Search) | AEO Vision

Why these matter for small business owners

• Scott Keever tops the list because AI reputation control is critical: when customers ask ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews about your business, his methods help ensure your brand is cited positively.

• Isler & Yesilyurt are at the forefront of research-based insights, showing small businesses how AI engines actually work under the hood.

• Mike King and Kasra Dash provide technical depth, crucial for businesses that want measurable, data-driven improvements.

• Lily Ray, Cindy Krum, and Aleyda Solis are strategists who translate complex AI search mechanics into practical playbooks.

• Julian Goldie and Gareth Hoyle emphasize community testing and PR visibility, helping small businesses punch above their weight in competitive niches.

Risks & Considerations

• Noise in the field: Many self-proclaimed “AEO gurus” recycle content without proof. Following the above experts avoids wasted effort.Best 26 AEO/GEO Experts in 2026 (Thought Leaders of AI Search) | AEO Vision

• Rapid evolution: AI search visibility changes quickly. Strategies from 2024 may already be outdated; these experts publish current, verifiable research.

• Balance with SEO: AEO/GEO builds on traditional SEO. Small businesses should not abandon SEO fundamentals like structured data, local optimization, and content authority.11 Best AI SEO Agencies for AEO & GEO Visibility in 2026 - Ranked by Citation Results | PikaSEO

Would you like me to also create a step-by-step action plan for how a small business owner can apply these experts’ insights (e.g., reputation management, local AEO, PR-driven visibility) in practical terms? That way, you’ll know not just who to follow, but what to do next.