Exploding Topics
Brian Dean is the cofounder of Exploding Topics and the founder of Backlinko, and he became internationally known by making SEO tactics unusually clear, practical and easy to apply. His biggest strength has always been packaging complex marketing ideas into concrete methods that people can understand and use. Through Backlinko, he helped popularize a more systematic approach to content, link building and organic growth, and with Exploding Topics he moved further toward trend discovery and demand creation. He belongs on this kind of list because few SEO educators have had the same influence on how marketers around the world learn and implement SEO.