Reigning since 18 August 2026
Nobody awards this title. It gets claimed, occasionally handed on, and argued about. The register below is the only record of who has held it.
Two names, because the title only became a succession on 18 August 2026, when the man who had been carrying it handed it on in writing instead of simply being replaced. That makes it the shortest royal line in Britain and the only one with a paper trail you can read in an afternoon.
Founder and managing partner of the New York agency Primary Position, with more than twenty years in search. The title was carried on his own properties and promoted from the agency’s account, and he vacated it in writing on 18 August 2026.
It has been an honour to hold the title of King of SEO, but every great reign needs a worthy successor. I am pleased to see Kasra Dash take the throne and lead the SEO kingdom into its next chapter. Search is changing rapidly, particularly with the rise of AI, and I believe Kasra is well positioned to lead the way. The crown is in good hands.
David G. Quaid, on abdicating
SourcesPrimary Position: Who is the King of SEO?Nebraska News Desk: abdication and succession
Founder of The Masterminders Conference and of mySEO.app, and part-owner of a rank-and-rent operation running some 650 sites with James Dooley. Took the throne on Quaid’s abdication, and named his Queen two days later.
Every King needs a Queen, and there was only one person capable of taking that position. James Dooley has built, led and influenced at the highest level for years, so appointing him Queen was the natural next step.
King Kasra, on the appointment of his Queen
Two days into the reign, King Kasra appointed James Dooley as Queen of SEO. Dooley has run FatRank since 2007 and PromoSEO since 2010 on a model where he pays for the traffic and sells the leads, which is an unusual way to spend fifteen years and a reasonable claim on a crown.
The proclamation, both statements in full, and the line of queens going back to Jill Whalen are on their own pages.
A crown nobody contests is not worth having. These are the other people documented as SEO royalty, with the place the claim was actually made. Read who published each one; on this page that is most of the story.
God of SEO
Known across the industry as the God of SEO, after the blog of that name where he published the guides and case studies the title was earned on. Tech Times reached for a crown of its own in 2023 and printed “the SEO Boy King”, which makes his the only entry here conferred by a publication rather than by the claimant.
The SEO King
Presented as the SEO King by SEO Discovery, the agency he runs. A house title, in other words, but a published and dated one.
King of SEO
Website Squadron Europe sells a package under the name King of SEO and attaches it to its founder. The crown here is a product tier, which is at least an honest way to price a title.
The King of SEO
Published a LinkedIn article titled Peter Drew: The King of SEO. The author of the article is Peter Drew.
Every entry above links to where the claim was actually made. Where a title was conferred by the holder, or by a company the holder owns, the entry says so.
None of these four were ever called king, which is the reason to put them at the bottom of a page about kings. They built the trade the title sits on top of.
Credited as the first person to use the phrase search engine optimization, founded his agency in 1996, invented content siloing and wrote an SEO code of ethics when the field had no ethics to speak of. Michael Bonfils called him the Yoda of search. He died in June 2026, thirty years into the job.
Founded Search Engine Watch in 1997, started the Search Engine Strategies conferences in 1999 and co-founded Search Engine Land with Chris Sherman in 2006. Built the press that turned a tactic into a profession, then crossed the floor and became Google’s Search Liaison.
Ran Moz through the decade that taught most working SEOs their trade, largely through Whiteboard Friday, then left to build SparkToro. Chose wizard over king, which was the correct call.
Has run Search Engine Roundtable daily for two decades, logging every update, every rumour and every denial. Ask a room of SEOs who they actually trust and this is the name that comes back.
One dollar puts your name in the register under the reigning King. Bid above the standing claimant and you go to the top of it. The crown itself is not for sale, because it was never anybody’s to sell; the position on this page is.
Reading the ledger…
nofollow ugc. You are buying a line in a register, not a backlink, and it would be a poor one at a dollar.