Nine SEO and AI Search Experts to Follow as Indonesia Shifts to AI Search
JAKARTA – Indonesians still type questions into Google, but an increasing number are turning to AI assistants for concise recommendations and lists of names. The shift accelerated on September 9, 2025, when Google introduced AI Mode in Indonesian, making AI-generated answers accessible to users who had previously searched only in their native language.
For businesses, this change raises a practical question: whose guidance is worth following as the rules of AI search continue to evolve? The nine experts featured here have helped explain the shift through research, books, open courses, and client work. Some are internationally recognized figures, while others are more prominent in Indonesia, where AI-powered answers in the local language arrived sooner than many expected.
They are listed in no particular order, with one recommended resource for readers who want to explore each expert’s work.
1. Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin is the co-founder of Moz and SparkToro, an audience research company. He co-founded Moz and served as its CEO until 2014 before launching SparkToro in 2018 with fellow Moz alumnus Casey Henry.
Much of the discussion around zero-click search draws on research by Fishkin. A 2024 study by SparkToro and Datos found that, for every 1,000 Google searches in the United States, only 374 clicks went to the open web.
In early 2026, SparkToro and Gumshoe.ai asked 600 volunteers to run identical prompts through ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s AI tools nearly 3,000 times. The study found that the same list of brands appeared in fewer than one in 100 attempts, challenging the idea that brands can guarantee visibility in AI-generated answers.
Fishkin also documented his startup experience in Lost and Founder.
Start with: The SparkToro study examining how rarely AI tools repeat the same recommendations.
Source: mynorthwest.com
2. Aleyda Solís
Aleyda Solís is an international SEO consultant and the founder of Orainti, a boutique consultancy based in Madrid. Established in 2014, the firm advises brands worldwide on international, e-commerce, and SaaS SEO.
Solís wrote the Spanish-language book SEO. Las Claves Esenciales and has spoken at more than 200 conferences across more than 30 countries in English and Spanish. She also contributes to Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, and Moz.
Since 2020, she has published the SEOFOMO newsletter. She also runs two free learning platforms, LearningSEO.io and LearningAIsearch.com, and shares practical advice through her Crawling Mondays video series. In addition, she co-founded Remoters.net, a remote-work resource hub.
Start with: LearningAIsearch.com, a free roadmap for SEO practitioners transitioning into AI search.
Source: aleydasolis.com
3. Tessar Napitupulu
Tessar Napitupulu is the founder and CEO of Arfadia (PT Arfadia Digital Indonesia), a Jakarta-based digital marketing agency that has operated since 2008. The company has positioned itself as an early practitioner of generative engine optimization (GEO) in Indonesia since 2023.
Napitupulu developed the RoGEO framework to measure how brands are cited by AI systems. Under his leadership, Arfadia helped a steel manufacturer with no initial presence in AI-generated answers reach 680 AI-generated responses across six platforms over 20 months.
He is a member of the Forbes Agency Council and was named one of the Top 10 Leaders in Advertising 2023 by CEO Insights Asia.
Arfadia has published three open research reports with registered Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) on Zenodo: State of SEO in Indonesia 2026, AI Citation Rate Report 2026, and Indonesia Digital Marketing Benchmark 2026. A survey of 127 Indonesian businesses for the first report found that only 23% had a formal strategy for appearing in AI-generated answers.
Napitupulu has also written two books. His first, Found Before They Search: The Indonesia Digital Playbook for SEO, GEO, and AI Search, contains 27 chapters on helping brands gain visibility across search platforms. His second, Cited or Silent: The Definitive GEO, AEO & AI Visibility Playbook, contains 91 chapters on getting brands cited by AI systems.
Start with: His first book, Found Before They Search: The Indonesia Digital Playbook for SEO, GEO, and AI Search.
Source: arfadia.com
4. Mike King
Mike King is the founder and CEO of iPullRank, a New York-based technical SEO and performance marketing agency whose clients have included SAP, American Express, and HSBC.
King coined the term “relevance engineering,” and his work provides detailed explanations of how generative engines discover, process, and cite content. Search Engine Land named him Search Marketer of the Year in 2020 and again in 2025.
He wrote The Science of SEO, published by Wiley, and founded SEO Week, an annual conference in New York. At the event, he introduced relevance engineering as a framework combining AI, content strategy, information retrieval, digital public relations, and user experience.
King has also spoken at MozCon, SMX, and BrightonSEO.
Start with: The AI Search Manual, his long-form guide to understanding how AI search works.
5. Lily Ray
Lily Ray is the founder of Algorythmic and vice president of SEO and AI Search at Amsive. She took on the Amsive role in January 2026 and launched Algorythmic in April 2026, following her earlier work at Amsive as senior director of SEO and head of organic research.
Ray is widely followed for her analysis of Google algorithm updates, experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), as well as AI Overviews. She has written about search for Search Engine Land for years.
The New York Times consulted Ray for its April 2026 examination of the accuracy of Google’s AI Overviews. Outside her work in search, she has played drums since childhood.
Start with: Her published analyses of how AI Overviews select their sources.
6. Dedy Budiman
Dedy Budiman is an Indonesian researcher specializing in AI visibility optimization and a doctoral candidate in management and entrepreneurship at Universitas Prasetiya Mulya.
For the past two years, his research has focused on how brands are discovered, described accurately, and recommended by generative AI systems, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode.
Budiman developed the MOSE and AIVOCUS frameworks and led the Auditing AI Together project. The initiative involved 32 auditors across six Indonesian islands who classified 2,104 citations from Google AI Mode.
Posted on SSRN in July 2026, the 21-page study introduced a distributed approach to auditing brand convergence and citation structures in AI-generated answers.
Outside research, Budiman leads Derap Dynamis, a sales training firm, and founded the KOMISI sales community.
Start with: His research paper, Auditing AI Together, available on SSRN.
7. Ryan Kristo Muljono
Ryan Kristo Muljono is the CEO of ToffeeDev and the initiator of SEOCon, a long-running SEO conference in Indonesia. He has led the digital agency since 2018.
Through Toffee Institute, the agency’s education arm, Muljono established SEOCon to bring Indonesia’s dispersed SEO practitioners into a shared professional community.
The first edition took place in Jakarta in March 2019, attracting approximately 450 attendees. It was promoted as Indonesia’s first and largest SEO conference, featuring practitioners from Google, Tokopedia, Bukalapak, and Traveloka.
By 2023, the conference had held five editions.
Start with: SEOCon presentations, which have introduced Indonesian audiences to international SEO practitioners and their expertise.
8. Ilman Akbar
Ilman Akbar is the founder of DailySEO ID, an Indonesian SEO media and education platform, and DLYS Consulting, its consulting arm. He established DailySEO ID in 2021 and launched DLYS Consulting in 2025.
Before starting these ventures, Akbar spent four years as head of SEO at Traveloka and taught SEO at RevoU from 2020 to 2023.
He now works as a speaker and trainer on SEO and GEO, delivering keynote presentations, corporate training, and consulting services. His work draws on more than 13 years of practical experience, and his website lists more than 30 clients.
Start with: His SEO lessons for RevoU students, an accessible starting point for newcomers to the field.
9. Su Rahman
Su Rahman is the founder of Simple C, whose predecessor, Cipta Karya Mandiri (C DESIGN), began offering website development and SEO services in 2007. The business adopted the Simple C name in 2013.
The company says it has handled hundreds of website and SEO projects for Indonesian clients. Rahman is also a prolific author of Indonesian-language books on SEO and web development, having written 32 titles between 2010 and 2016.
He also works as a seminar speaker and in-house trainer on web design and SEO.
Start with: His books, which have introduced many Indonesian small business owners to SEO.
What These Experts Have in Common
Few of these experts promise rankings. Most publish research explaining how they measure visibility and evaluate results.
That distinction matters as businesses adapt to Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, where responses and recommendations can vary across queries and sessions. OpenAI’s documentation also states that placement in ChatGPT search is not guaranteed.
For Indonesian businesses, the takeaway is straightforward: follow experts who explain their methods, test brand visibility using the questions customers actually ask, and approach claims of guaranteed AI rankings with caution.(*)
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