Search engine optimization in Southeast Asia has matured fast. What used to be a small circle of freelancers and in-house specialists is now a genuine ecosystem, with agency founders, enterprise leads, tool builders, and independent consultants who speak at the same conferences, train the same practitioners, and shape how brands across the region approach organic growth.
This list highlights the key opinion leaders driving that conversation, from Singapore and Indonesia to Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan, alongside a few global voices who regularly show up at Southeast Asian SEO events. Each of these individuals has built a body of work, whether through an agency, a tool, a training program, or years of conference speaking, that has genuinely moved the needle for how SEO and its newer cousin, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), are practiced in the region.
Also read: How to Get High-Quality Backlinks with Zero Investment
List of Top SEO Key Opinion Leaders
1. Tim Soulo: Tim Soulo is the Chief Marketing Officer and product advisor at Ahrefs, one of the most widely used SEO platforms in the world, headquartered in Singapore. He joined Ahrefs in 2015 as employee number 16 and helped grow the company into a market leader in keyword research and backlink analysis. Tim is known for a content marketing approach that treats every blog post as a demonstration of how Ahrefs solves real SEO problems, rather than generic advice. He has authored SEO research studies, spoken at conferences internationally, and built one of the most followed voices on X (formerly Twitter) in the SEO space, where he shares Ahrefs’ bootstrapped growth story and marketing philosophy. Topics: SEO Tools, Content Marketing, SaaS Growth
2. Mark McDowell: Mark McDowell is the CEO and co-founder of Primal, one of Thailand’s leading SEO agencies based in Bangkok, and co-founder of Reachly, a B2B lead generation agency launched in 2024 serving businesses across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Australia. With over a decade in digital marketing, Mark has built his reputation on aggressive organic growth strategies for APAC brands and now writes extensively on AEO, GEO, and how AI search platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini are reshaping how businesses need to think about visibility. Topics: Agency Leadership, B2B Lead Generation, AI Search
3. Fabian Seow: Fabian Seow is the SEO Director at First Page Digital, Singapore’s top-ranked SEO agency on Clutch’s Leaders Matrix and a certified Google Partner of over a decade. Over the past six years, Fabian has led more than 900 SEO campaigns for SMEs and large brands across Singapore and the wider region, developing particular expertise in aggressive traffic growth, content E-E-A-T implementation, Google penalty recovery, and website migrations. He now oversees a team of 30 SEO specialists at First Page Digital, each with a minimum of four years of experience, and has spoken publicly on SEO at industry events including Ahrefs Evolve. Fabian is also known for his hands-on, no-hype approach to explaining technical SEO and GEO concepts on short-form video, favoring specificity over generic tips. Topics: SEO Agency Leadership, Technical SEO, GEO Strategy
4. Ilman Akbar: Ilman Akbar is one of Indonesia’s most recognized SEO practitioners, with over 13 years of experience spanning agencies, in-house teams at Traveloka and Glints, and independent consulting. He founded DailySEO ID, a daily SEO education platform, and DLYS Consulting, and has taught thousands of practitioners through his SEO Fundamental Course and his role as an instructor for RevoU’s Advanced SEO program. Ilman is a regular keynote speaker at regional marketing conferences including SEOCon, and has more recently been building out an “SEO+GEO Results” framework to help businesses understand what Generative Engine Optimization can realistically deliver. Topics: Enterprise SEO, SEO Education, GEO Strategy
5. Naohiro Yamaura: Naohiro Yamaura is the Chief Operating Officer of Ayudante, a leading Japan-based digital marketing and analytics consulting firm, and now serves as Chairman of the Board at Sparkline, a Singapore-based Google Marketing Platform partner that Ayudante acquired in 2024 to expand its presence across Southeast Asia. He is one of the most established figures in the Google Marketing Platform business in Japan, having authored eleven books on Google Analytics and digital marketing, and has trained over 900 qualification holders through Google’s Analytics IQ Course, for which he serves as lecturer. Naohiro regularly speaks at regional marketing events, including Digital Marketing Asia in Bangkok, on multilingual SEO, data foundations, and AI-powered marketing measurement. Topics: Multilingual SEO, Digital Analytics, Data Strategy
6. Kyle Roof: Kyle Roof is the inventor of PageOptimizer Pro, a widely used on-page SEO tool, and co-founder of High Voltage SEO and Internet Marketing Gold, a global training community for SEO professionals. Kyle is best known for developing a scientific testing methodology to determine which factors genuinely influence Google’s rankings, a method that earned him a US patent in January 2020. He famously ranked a page filled with gibberish text at the top of Google using only precise on-page term placement, a demonstration that reshaped how many practitioners think about on-page optimization. Based in Thailand, Kyle is a frequent speaker at SEO conferences worldwide, including Chiang Mai SEO, SEO Spring Training, and Sydney SEO Conference. Topics: On-Page SEO, SEO Testing, SEO Tools
7. Jabez Reuben: Jabez Reuben is the founder of Linkvalidator.io, TheBlueprints.co, and LinkBuildingMastery.com, and is based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He built his reputation on creative, cost-effective link building strategies, particularly image outreach and brand mention link building, that move away from traditional, expensive backlink acquisition. Jabez shares his methods widely through podcasts, webinars, and speaking appearances at regional SEO conferences, including the Chiang Mai SEO Conference and the SEO Mastery Summit in Saigon, Vietnam, and is known for making link building accessible to smaller businesses and solo SEOs without large budgets. Topics: Link Building, SEO Tools, Content Distribution
8. Anna Moragli: Anna Moragli is the founder and CEO of Search Magic, a boutique ecommerce SEO agency based in London that serves clients across more than a dozen countries, including in Southeast Asia. She previously led SEO at GrowthRocks, an international growth marketing agency, and has worked with major brands such as IKEA and Nestlé. Anna was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2022 and co-founded SEO Academy, a training program that has taught more than 500 practitioners. She is a regular speaker at the SEO Mastery Summit in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the largest SEO gatherings in Southeast Asia, where she presents on ecommerce SEO and cross-channel integration strategies. Topics: Ecommerce SEO, SEO Training, Cross-Channel Strategy
9. Chi Khanh: Chi Khanh is the CEO and co-founder of Authoritysitemaster LLC, where she focuses on building and scaling digital assets through SEO and paid traffic for long-term affiliate revenue. She is a recognized speaker at the SEO Mastery Summit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, one of the region’s largest SEO gatherings, where she has shared her approach to buying, developing, and monetizing websites at scale. Her work sits at the intersection of SEO and affiliate marketing, an area that has become increasingly important as Southeast Asian markets mature and more operators look to build owned digital assets rather than relying solely on client services. Topics: Affiliate SEO, Digital Asset Building, Site Monetization
Conclusion
Southeast Asia’s SEO scene no longer takes its cues only from the US and UK. The practitioners above represent agency leaders, tool builders, in-house specialists, and educators who are actively shaping how SEO and GEO are practiced across the region, from Singapore’s enterprise campaigns to Vietnam’s fast-growing conference circuit. Whether a business is looking for an agency partner, a training resource, or simply a better understanding of where SEO is heading in Southeast Asia, following these voices is a good place to start.
