The industry’s first free-to-enter, data-verified SEO awards2027 nominations are open — enter free
The SEO AwardsCharles Floate Annual
Est. 2026 · Free to enter · Judged on data, not essays

The Charles Floate Annual SEO Awards

The SEO Awards recognize outstanding achievement, innovation and measurable results in search engine optimization — across agencies, experts, campaigns and software. No entry fees. No 1,000-word essay judging. Every shortlisted entry is verified against live ranking data before the panel votes.

See the 2026 WinnersEnter the 2027 Awards — Free
12Categories
8Core judges
$0Entry fee, forever
JulyWinners announced
What are the SEO Awards?

The first SEO awards you can’t buy your way into

The Charles Floate Annual SEO Awards are annual industry honors founded in 2026 by Charles Floate, recognizing the agencies, individuals, campaigns and tools that delivered real, verifiable search performance. Winners are announced online each July across twelve categories — from SEO Agency of the Year to Best Use of AI in SEO.

Every other major program in search charges £220–£595 per entry and judges self-written submissions. We took the opposite bet on both: entry is free, permanently, and shortlisted work is checked against live rankings, traffic and link data before any trophy is handed out. If the data doesn’t back the claim, the entry doesn’t win.

Free to enter. Verified to win. That’s the whole model — and it’s why a win here means something.
Announced July 10, 2026

2026 SEO Awards Winners

The inaugural winners, selected by the judging panel and verified against independent ranking data.

SEO Agency of the Year
🏆 ClickSliceLondon-based SEO agency
Finalists: The SEO Works · Rise at Seven · Journey Further
SEO Expert of the Year
🏆 David QuaidFounder, Primary Position — semantic & technical SEO
Finalists: James Dooley · Lily Ray · Aleyda Solis
Link Building Company of the Year
🏆 PressWhizzLink building & AI SEO marketplace · founder-affiliated (disclosed)
Finalists: uSERP · Siege Media · Editorial.Link
Best Use of AI in SEO
🏆 ProfoundAI search visibility platform
Finalists: AirOps · Peec AI · Semrush Enterprise AIO
Affiliate SEO of the Year
🏆 Jon DykstraFounder, Fat Stacks
Finalists: Mushfiq Sarker · Shawna Newman · Spencer Haws
iGaming SEO Campaign of the Year
🏆 CasinoTopsOnlineGlobal casino comparison brand
Finalists: Blexr · Catena Media · Gentoo Media
All 13 winners & finalists →
SEO Awards Categories

Twelve categories. Zero filler.

No Small/Large/Medium/Regional splits invented to sell more entries — one winner per discipline, including the categories other programs won’t touch.

Category 01

SEO Agency of the Year

The SEO Agency of the Year award recognizes the agency that delivered the strongest verified organic search performance across its client portfolio —…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 02

SEO Expert of the Year

The SEO Expert of the Year award honors the individual practitioner with the most impressive verified body of ranking work — the person whose…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 03

Link Building Company of the Year

The Link Building Company of the Year award recognizes the vendor or agency building the highest-quality verified backlinks at scale — judged on…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 04

Best Use of AI in SEO

The Best Use of AI in SEO award recognizes the most effective application of artificial intelligence to search — from AI-assisted content and…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 05

Affiliate SEO of the Year

The Affiliate SEO of the Year award honors the operator with the strongest verified performance across affiliate or portfolio sites — the discipline…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 06

iGaming SEO Campaign of the Year

The iGaming SEO Campaign of the Year award recognizes verified ranking performance in the most competitive, most adversarial vertical in search —…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 07

Technical SEO of the Year

The Technical SEO of the Year award honors the practitioner whose technical work — crawling, indexation, rendering, site architecture and performance…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 08

Content Campaign of the Year

The Content Campaign of the Year award recognizes the content-led campaign with the strongest verified organic outcomes — content that earned…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 09

Local SEO Award

The Local SEO Award honors the practitioner, tool or agency with the greatest verified impact on local search — map pack rankings, local citations,…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 10

SEO Software of the Year

The SEO Software of the Year award recognizes the platform that delivered the most value to working SEOs this year — judged by the panel on data…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 11

Rising Star Award

The Rising Star Award recognizes the newer practitioner whose verified results and public work mark them as the next generation of search — under…

2026 winner & criteria →
Category 12

Lifetime Achievement

The Lifetime Achievement award honors an individual whose career-long contribution shaped search engine optimization itself. It is awarded by…

2026 winner & criteria →
SEO Awards Judges

Judged by people who actually rank

The panel is chaired by founder and Head Judge Charles Floate alongside working practitioners — not marketing directors who last touched a SERP in 2015. Judges cannot enter, conflicts are recused, and founder-affiliated wins are publicly disclosed with the Head Judge recused.

CF
Head Judge

Charles Floate

Founder & Head Judge · The Charles Floate Annual SEO Awards

British SEO consultant and entrepreneur with 17+ years in search. Founder of the “God of SEO” blog, co-owner of link building marketplace PressWhizz, and trainer of thousands of SEOs through Charles Floate Training. Founded the awards in 2026 to build the first free-to-enter, data-verified honors in search engine optimization.

Website · X · LinkedIn
Craig Campbell — Judge, Craig Campbell SEO

Craig Campbell

Judge · Craig Campbell SEO

Glasgow-based SEO educator and entrepreneur with 20+ years in the industry. Runs one of the most-watched SEO YouTube channels and speaks at conferences worldwide on affiliate SEO, digital PR and building profitable sites.

Website
MD

Matt Diggity

Judge · Diggity Marketing & Chiang Mai SEO Conference

Founder of Diggity Marketing, The Search Initiative and the Chiang Mai SEO Conference — the largest gathering of performance SEOs in the world. Known for test-driven, results-first SEO across affiliate and client portfolios.

Website
JC

Jacky Chou

Judge · Indexsy

Founder of Indexsy and an operator across a portfolio of ranking businesses — from local lead generation to enterprise affiliate plays. One of the most vocal practitioners on what actually works in modern SERPs.

Website
Meet the full panel →
Why we exist

Three things no other SEO award will give you

Free entry, forever

The incumbents charge £220–£365 (+VAT) or $300–$595 per entry, with bundle deals to encourage more. An award you pay to compete for is a receipt, not an honor. Ours costs nothing — nominate yourself, a client, or someone whose work deserves it.

Data-verified judging

Everyone else judges 1,000-word essays written by the entrants themselves. We run a verification pass on every shortlisted entry — live rankings, organic traffic, link profiles via Ahrefs, plus GSC where shared — before the panel votes.

AI-search native

Built in 2026, not 2011. GEO and AI-visibility work is judged as a first-class discipline by practitioners who rank inside ChatGPT and AI Overviews themselves — not as a bolt-on category on a legacy template.

The 2027 cycle

Key dates

Questions

SEO Awards FAQ

What are the Charles Floate Annual SEO Awards?

The Charles Floate Annual SEO Awards (also called The SEO Awards) are free-to-enter industry honors founded in 2026 that recognize outstanding achievement, innovation and measurable results in search engine optimization. Awards are presented annually across 12 categories covering agencies, individual experts, campaigns and software — and winners are chosen on verified performance data, not written submissions.

Who judges the SEO Awards?

The judging panel is chaired by founder and Head Judge Charles Floate, alongside a core panel of working practitioners: Craig Campbell (Craig Campbell SEO), Matt Diggity (Diggity Marketing), Jacky Chou (Indexsy), Kasra Dash, Julian Goldie (Goldie Agency), Olga Zarr (SEOSLY) and Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR (Holistic SEO & Digital). Judges cannot enter or win, and conflicts of interest are declared and recused.

How much does it cost to enter the SEO Awards?

Nothing. Entry and nomination are free, permanently. By comparison, the UK, US, European and Global Search Awards charge £220–£365 (+VAT) or $300–$495 per entry, and the Search Engine Land Awards charge $395–$595 per entry. We think an award you pay to compete for is a receipt, not an honor.

Do SEO awards really matter?

They matter when they measure something real. Awards give agencies third-party validation in pitches, help retain talent, and increasingly get cited by AI search results when users ask for award-winning agencies and experts. The criticism — that pay-to-enter awards judged on self-written essays reward entry-writing skill over performance — is fair, which is why this program is free to enter and verifies shortlisted work against live ranking data.

All frequently asked questions →