A Brief History of SEO
It all started in the mid-1990s! SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, began its journey on the internet back then and today, it revolves primarily around Google and focuses heavily on it.
However, the practice that we now know as SEO actually existed before the world’s most popular search engine, Google, was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In this article, we will review the history of SEO and explore how search engines began to optimize.
The history of search engine marketing and search engines began with the launch of the first published website in 1991, or perhaps with the birth of the first web search engine. However, the story of SEO officially started a little later, around 1997.
In fact, it was John Audette from the multimedia marketing group who first used the term SEO on February 15, 1997. But ranking high on search engines in 1997 was still a completely new and very directory-focused concept.
Before DMOZ became Google’s main classifier, LookSmart was designed by Zeal, Go.com had its own directory, and Yahoo Directory became one of the main players in Yahoo’s search engine. This is exactly what Yahoo was founded on—the ability to find the best websites available, verified by editors. In fact, SEO was first used when the World Wide Web was still a completely new concept for many people.
Comparing Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing
Before Search Engine Optimization or SEO became an official term, other phrases were used:
- Search Engine Placement
- Search Engine Positioning
- Search Engine Ranking
- Search Engine Submission
- Search Engine Registration
- Website Promotion
But what is search engine marketing?
In 2001, a notable figure in the industry suggested that instead of using the term search engine optimization, we should use search engine marketing. Naturally, that didn’t happen.
Although SEO is not a perfect term—it should be noted that we don’t optimize search engines, we optimize our websites for search engines—but we’ve been using the term SEO in the industry for more than 20 years.
What about search engine marketing?
This term is still in use today but is now more associated with paid search marketing and advertising. These two terms coexist peacefully today, even after the history of SEO.
1994
In the early days of SEO history, we reach the year 1994. Yahoo was founded by two Stanford University students, Jerry Yang and David Filo. Yahoo was originally a bookmark list and a directory of interesting sites on the internet.
Webmasters had to manually submit their site’s pages to the Yahoo directory for indexing so that Yahoo could find the content when a user searched for it. After a while, AltaVista, Excite, and Lycos were also launched.
1996
Page and Brin, two Stanford University students, created Backrub. This new search engine ranked sites based on the relevance and popularity of inbound links. Backrub eventually became Google!
1997
Following the success of the Webmaster’s Guide to Search Engines, Danny Sullivan launched Search Engine Watch. This website was dedicated to providing news about the search industry, tips on web searching, and information on how to rank websites better.
1998
Goto.com was launched with sponsored links and paid search. Advertisers on Goto.com would bid to appear above the organic search results generated by Inktomi. Goto.com was eventually acquired by Yahoo. DMOZ became the most popular place for SEO professionals to list their pages. MSN entered the search space with MSN Search, initially designed by Inktomi.
1999
In the course of exploring SEO history, we arrive at 1999. In this year, the first search marketing conference, titled Search Engine Strategies (SES), was held. This conference continued to be held until 2016.
The Google Revolution
In 2000, Yahoo made what is considered the worst strategic move in search history by partnering with Google. Yahoo allowed Google to power their organic results instead of Inktomi. Before this, few people knew about Google, and it was not well-known among search engines. What was the outcome? Each search result on Yahoo carried the note: “Powered by Google”! Eventually, Yahoo managed to introduce its biggest competitor to the world and turn it into one of the most powerful brands. Up to this point in SEO history, search engines primarily ranked sites based on the on-page content, domain name, ability to be listed in directories, and basic site structure (breadcrumbing).
However, Google suddenly caused a significant upheaval in the industry with its web-crawling robots and PageRank algorithm. Now, Google could evaluate both on-page SEO and off-page SEO factors, as well as the quantity and quality of external links pointing to a website. Essentially, Google’s algorithm was based on the idea that “if people are talking about you, then you matter”. Although links were only one component of Google’s PageRank algorithm, SEO professionals identified them as the most crucial factor, leading to the creation of a sub-industry called link building.
A glance at SEO history shows that for a decade, the primary competition among all sites was to acquire as many links as possible in the hopes of achieving higher rankings. Links became a tactic for severe exploitation, something Google had to address in the years to come. Also, in 2000, Google Toolbar became available on Internet Explorer, allowing SEO specialists to view their PageRank score (a number between 0 and 10). Additionally, starting in 2000, companies could pay to appear at the top of Google search results.
These paid search ads appeared at the top, bottom, and right-hand side of Google’s organic results (i.e., unpaid results). That same year, a group of webmasters informally gathered at a pub in London to share SEO-related information. This informal meeting eventually became Pubcon, a significant conference on SEO and search that continues to this day. For years now, the SEO world has been accustomed to the monthly Google Dance—a period when Google updates its index, sometimes causing major fluctuations in website rankings.
Google AdSense or Earning from SEO Content
Continuing our exploration of SEO history, we arrive at the year 2003. In 2003, following the introduction of Blogger.com, Google launched AdSense, which delivers targeted ads from Google to publisher sites.
The combination of AdSense and Blogger.com led to a surge in simple, revenue-generating publisher sites and sparked a revolution in the blogging world. However, at that time, Google didn’t realize how this could lead to the proliferation of low-quality content.
AdSense led to spammy tactics, with sites created solely for AdSense being filled with low-quality, worthless, and stolen content produced merely to rank well, get clicks, and generate revenue.
Local and Personalized SEO
Around 2004, Google and other prominent search engines improved search results for geographically-targeted and regional queries. When you search on Google for a restaurant, plumbing services, or other types of businesses or service providers in your city or neighborhood, your query has a local intent.
In 2006, Google launched Maps Plus Box, which made an impression on its users. Additionally, around 2004, Google and other search engines started increasingly using end-user data (like search histories and interests) to personalize relevant search results for different users.
This means that when you and your friend, sitting next to each other at a coffee shop, search for the same topic on Google or other search engines, you would receive different results.
Also, in 2005, nofollow tags were introduced as a tool to combat spam. SEO enthusiasts began using this tag as a way to sculpt PageRank.
Google made several updates during these years:
- Jagger: The Jagger algorithm was responsible for combating low-quality links, such as reciprocal and purchased links.
- Big Daddy: Released in December 2005, this algorithm was technically an infrastructure update. Over a few months, it changed how Google handled certain technical issues like redirects and URL canonicalization.
YouTube, Google Analytics, and Webmaster Tools
Continuing our journey through SEO history, we arrive at October 2006. In October 2006, Google acquired YouTube, a user-generated video-sharing network, for $1.65 billion. Today, YouTube has 2 billion users and is the second-largest search tool in the world.
Due to its immense popularity, video SEO has become very important for brands, businesses, and individuals who want to be seen.
Google also launched two incredibly important tools in 2006:
- Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a free tool designed for monitoring websites, enabling site owners to optimize their sites using data and reports.
- Google Webmaster Tools: Now known as Google Search Console, this free tool helps businesses monitor their websites to achieve the best results on Google’s search results pages. To use this tool, you only need a Gmail account.
Examining the history of SEO, we see that 2006 was a very fruitful year for the industry. In 2006, XML sitemaps received global support from search engines.
An XML sitemap allows webmasters to display all the URLs of their websites that are available for crawling by search engines. XML sitemaps not only contain a list of URLs but also provide a range of information to help search engines crawl websites more intelligently.10
Universal Search
All these updates aim to improve the search experience for users. Let’s now look at Google’s Universal Search.
Until this stage, search results consisted of 10 blue links. After this stage, Google began to blend traditional organic search results with other types of vertical results like news, videos, and images.
This move can be considered the biggest change in Google search—and SEO—since the Florida algorithm update.
Cesspool Cleanup
As we continue our journey through SEO history, we reach the year 2008. In 2008, Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Google, said, “The Internet is becoming a cesspool, and brands can help clean it up.” He further added, “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”
Less than six months after this statement, Google introduced an update called Vince. It seemed that major brands began to rank significantly better in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). According to Google, the aim of the Vince update was not to reward brands but to build more trust. As a result, well-known brands found better placements in the SERPs due to the higher trust people had in them. Shortly after this update, Google launched another update to improve the speed of page indexing, known as Caffeine.
As reported by Search Engine Journal, Caffeine was “a new architecture for Google’s web search that was supposed to be faster and more accurate, providing better and fresher results and covering more of the web.”
After some time, in 2010, Google announced that site speed would also be a ranking factor.
Bing and Search Alliance
In 2009, Microsoft Live Search was rebranded as Bing. After this, to compete with Google, which had nearly 70% of the search market in the US, Yahoo and Microsoft signed a 10-year agreement, though it only lasted for five years before being canceled.
Search Alliance showed Yahoo’s organic and paid search results. Despite being the second choice after Google, Bing couldn’t break the vast dominance of Google in the United States and worldwide. In October 2020, Bing was officially renamed Microsoft Bing.
Schema
Schema markup was introduced in 2011 to help search engines interpret the context of queries. You can see all types of schema markups on Schema.org.
Schema isn’t a ranking factor and there’s little evidence that it impacts your search performance. However, schema helps you achieve a better display in Google’s SERP with featured snippets.
