14 SEO’s I want to thank for 2012 (and…

The 2012 is almost at its end and many blogs are already publishing “advices” for the next year. Rather than adding another post to the accelerating 2013 carousel, I just want to share a list of SEO’s I want to thank for what they’ve given me during this year.
In most cases motivations will be personal, so I guess many of you will be not interested that much in them, but if you look at my Twitter followings you’ll see they are less than 200. Not so much, I’d say. And I was already following these people before I had any occasion to chat or talk with them. This should tell you that, although reasons I’m citing them might be personal, you should still consider looking at them as noticeable personalities in the SEO industry and follow them in 2013.
And after this short introduction, let me start (following the order of my Twitter scraping Excel).

Anthony Pensabene

Long time ago, I tweeted something like this: “When it comes to content, Anthony is *the* man” so you can understand how much it’s been a pleasure for me to host him on my blog. Anthony’s one of the guys I’ve learnt the most from, during last months, regarding building relations and putting real value in your content. Don’t miss the opportunity to get in touch with him.
Website – Twitter

Eric Ward

If I should name only one professional as a link building master, I’d say Eric Ward. I haven’t had many occasions to talk with him but his Link Moses Private newsletter (at a ridicolous low cost) is a great learning tool, besides being a mine of link opportunities. Eric doesn’t tweet so much and the newsletter is probably full, but try to stay update with what he writes (on SearchEngineLand, for example), you will not regret it.
Website – Twitter

Bill Slawski

Bill Slaswki doesn’t need any introduction, I guess, but if you don’t know why you should follow him, he’s the greatest patents expert in the SEO industry. His posts are always worth to be read and the entire community should thank him for time he spends trying to clarify dangerous misinformation (I can still remember this crazy post on Zdnet…). Bill also provided interesting concepts in my survey about anchor text future, but it’s only a plus. Must follow.
Website – Twitter

James Agate

In my opinion James is one of the (not so much) new names among the industry professionals to keep an eye on. He’s built a reputation on a stream of excellent and concrete articles and every time I’ve read one of them I’ve found a solid takeaway. I really hope that having been the first one to accept to write a guest post on my blog will not affect his image a link builder! Check out his posts, you’ll see he knows what he talks about.
Website – Twitter

Simone Rinzivillo

Being my technical manager, Simone surely is one of the SEO people I owe more since working everyday with him has brought me to a deeper understanding of clients, projects and team management, not citing technical stuff. Unfortunately, he doesn’t tweet very much, but really I couldn’t make this list without him.
Website – Twitter

Annie Cushing

Sometimes data are hard to get and to understand, but surely Annie’s tips will make them sexier. Her column on SearchEngineLand is among my favourite ones and I’ve become an Excel fan also thanks to her. If this is not enough for you, check her phenomenal list of SEO tools. I do think she deserves your attention, besides my humble thanking.
Website – Twitter

Shelli Walsh

Shelli is one of the first non Italian people I’ve started interacting with, and she has been more than once a virtual travel companion on Twitter while I was covering 300km back to my parents home from Rome. Shelli is also the first name I think everytime I try to do some data visualization and invariably the result suck. How wonderful it would be, if I had a bit of her touch! If you’re interested in content marketing (you should), add her sharings to your stream.
Website – Twitter

Jon Cooper

Jon’s blog has been among my favourite ones in 2012, a continuous source of inspiration and knowledge in the link building sphere, and having been invited to contribute to The Most Creative Link Building Post Ever has been an honor for me. You’ll find him in an huge number of must follow lists, and each of them is right. I’m just adding another one to the count. How many more do you need to accept the advice?
Website – Twitter

Jo Turnbull

I’ve met Jo last July, when she’s been in Rome during her State of Search Euro 2012 Roadshow. Besides the thrill of an interview, it’s been a pleasure to spend a few hours with her talking of SEO (and not only) in Italy and in UK (mixing Italian, English and Spanish to communicate). Jo is often travelling, meeting and interviewing professionals in Europe and USA. Follow her and you’ll get lots of interesting point of views on our job around the world.
Website – Twitter

Gianluca Fiorelli

Gianluca and I met last summer in Rome and it’s been a pleasure for me to know the most internationally active Italian SEO. I want to thank Gianluca as a testimonial of our country that shows the world that also Italy can play a role in the SEO scene. Since he writes on a number of well known sites, you won’t have any difficulty to recognize his contribute to our industry.
Website – Twitter

Justin Briggs

Justin is someone I admire a lot, not only for being a genius but also for his hustle in building his way as an SEO leader after personal hard experiences. Although my story is different I can find between them some similarities and for me Justin remains an extraordinary example of the results one can get by following his passions. Chapeau!
Website – Twitter

Annalisa Hilliard

When Annalisa invited me to write on PolePositionMarketing blog, it’s been a nice unattended event as it was the first time someone asked me for a guest post. The result it’s been a case study that helped me to start building a little trust and to connect with a few other people. I surely I’ve to thank her for this, but I also suggest following her since I can’t count the times I’ve found interesting link building posts in her tweets.
Website – Twitter

Simone Chiaromonte

Simone has been sitting next to me during this year and he’s been a great colleague. I’m not a coder while he is a pretty good one, so his skills have been a perfect match to mine. He’s now backing to his hometown and I wish him every luck. If you like having cool WordPress and Magento tweets in your stream, consider following him, I’ve found gems among his sharings.
Website – Twitter

Julie Joyce

>No way to end this list without naming Julie, because she is awesome (having defined me fantastic doesn’t influence my opinion) and because she has given so many insights with her posts during this year I can’t count them. You could just look at her columns on SearchEngineLand or SearchEngineWatch and remain overwhelmed by the mass of informations she has shared with us. I highly suggest you don’t miss her pieces!
Website – Twitter

Conclusion

This post was intented to thank the people that mostly have accompanied my SEO 2012, but there are others that have played a role as well (Peter Attia, Andrea Pernici, Irish Wonder, Sean Revell, Ian Howells and I’m surely forgetting someone – please forgive me in advance) but I also don’t want to forget those ones who are following me, that don’t know me in person and hopefully added me because they think I can give them something valuable. This list is still short but maybe next year it will be a little longer.
I’ll try to do my best to deserve your attention.
Thanks again,
Giuseppe