Google's Hummingbird update, released in August 2013, was a ground-up rewrite of the core search algorithm built to understand full queries and conversational language rather than matching individual keywords — an early step toward the semantic, intent-driven search marketers now take for granted.
10 Professionals
Worth Knowing This Year
- 01
Dharmesh Shah
Visit →Co-founder & CTO, HubSpot
Spoke at MozCon 2013, bringing a software-company perspective to a conference historically focused on SEO.
- 02
Brian Dean
Visit →Founder, Backlinko
Launched Backlinko in 2013, which quickly became one of the SEO community's most-cited resources for actionable, tested tactics.
- 03
Eric Siu
Visit →CEO, Single Grain
Was leading Single Grain as CEO, working with clients including Amazon and Airbnb.
- 04
Tim Soulo
Visit →CMO, Ahrefs
Was building his reputation at Ahrefs, sharing organic-growth case studies and SEO research.
- 05
Danny Sullivan
Visit →Founder, Search Engine Land
Continued as founding editor of Search Engine Land, a leading source of search marketing news.
- 06
Richard Baxter
Visit →Founder, Builtvisible
Continued growing Builtvisible from a one-person operation into a globally recognized agency.
- 07
Karen McGrane
Content strategy consultant
Remained a widely cited voice in content strategy and adaptive content.
- 08
Bill Slawski
Visit →Founder, SEO by the Sea
Kept publishing patent analysis on SEO by the Sea, a resource with no real peer in the industry.
- 09
Aaron Wall
Visit →Creator, SEO Book
Continued running SEO Book, one of the longest-running independent SEO resources.
- 10
Seth Godin
Visit →Author & entrepreneur
Published multiple bestsellers this era, continuing to shape how marketers thought about permission and remarkability.
This page is an independent editorial mention published by Digital Business Marketing. The numbering above is a browsing order, not a formal award, contest, vote, or ranking, and inclusion does not imply any named person endorses Digital Business Marketing.