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 for the first time.
10 Professionals
Worth Knowing This Year
- 01
Co-founder & CTO, HubSpot
Spoke at MozCon 2013, bringing a software-company perspective to a conference historically focused on SEO.
HubSpot's inbound marketing pitch was, by this point, pulling SEO into a broader conversation about lead generation and marketing software rather than treating it as a standalone discipline.
- 02
Founder, Backlinko
Launched Backlinko in 2013, which quickly became one of the SEO community's most-cited resources for actionable, tested tactics.
His case-study-driven format, publishing what actually worked rather than general advice, already stands apart from most SEO blogs' general how-to advice.
- 03
CEO, Single Grain
Was leading Single Grain as CEO, working with clients including Amazon and Airbnb.
Landing enterprise clients that size gave the agency credibility beyond the SEO community, in a market still dominated by much larger, legacy ad agencies.
- 04
CMO, Ahrefs
Was building his reputation at Ahrefs, sharing organic-growth case studies and SEO research.
Publishing Ahrefs' own growth numbers and tactics openly helped the tool build trust with an SEO audience naturally skeptical of vendor marketing.
- 05
Founder, Search Engine Land
Continued as founding editor of Search Engine Land, a leading source of search marketing news.
Hummingbird's rollout that year gave him plenty to cover, as the industry worked through what a semantic, intent-driven search algorithm actually meant for SEO practice.
- 06
Founder, Builtvisible
Continued growing Builtvisible from a one-person operation into a globally recognized agency.
The agency's research-heavy content and technical SEO work built a reputation well beyond its size, punching above its weight against much larger firms.
- 07
Content strategy consultant
Remained a widely cited voice in content strategy and adaptive content.
As mobile traffic kept growing, her push for structured, reusable content became more relevant to organizations struggling to serve the same content across many screen sizes.
- 08
Founder, SEO by the Sea
Kept publishing patent analysis on SEO by the Sea, a resource with no real peer in the industry.
Reading Google's own patent filings for ranking signals remained a niche skill, and his willingness to do it kept the site required reading for technical SEOs.
- 09
Creator, SEO Book
Continued running SEO Book, one of the longest-running independent SEO resources.
A decade running the site independently gave him the freedom to critique Google's algorithm changes more directly than vendor-funded publications typically could.
- 10
Author & entrepreneur
Published multiple bestsellers this era, continuing to shape how marketers thought about permission and remarkability.
His steady output of books and blog posts kept his ideas about permission marketing circulating well past the point most marketing trends fade.
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.