History of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

History of Search Engine Optimization (SEO): -

Search engines have made such activities as old-fashioned as buggy whips, hoop skirts, and door-to-door brush vendors.

Have everything at the fingertips within a smart device or a stylish desktop computer.

This flow of information has become one of the most important marketing channels today.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website through a variety of tactics and constant modifications to appear in search results.

To improve the user experience of the website and improve the performance of that site in search results.

SEO ultimately drives traffic (and business) to the website.

1991: Welcome to the World Wide Web:

Invention of the first browser, the World Wide Web, more often referred to as the "Web". 

The pioneers of the web released a code library.

So that participants could create their own web browsers and servers.

1994: Eric Ward pioneers link building:

Link building started before Google had a sizable stake in increasing search rankings.

An important factor in website marketing.

Link building is one of the most important Google ranking factors and one of the top three.

1995: Browsers get GUIs, search engines are born:

The browser wars began, sparked by the release of Netscape, the first commercially successful web browser.

This was followed in 1995 by the introduction of Microsoft's entry into the browser field, Internet Explorer.

Those browsers have graphical user interfaces (GUI) and can embed text and graphic images on a single page.

This innovation greatly drove the popularity and growth of the Web. 

The Internet was growing faster than the ability of search engines to index it.

1997: The first use of the term Search Engine Optimization:

The first use of the term SEO is a reference from a web marketing agency, which offered "search engine optimization.

1998: Google Search is born:

Google is the most popular search engine, with almost 5.6 billion searches per day.

Google's algorithm is extremely complex, and the company continues to make search engine updates, both large and small.

Once marketers began to understand how Google reads and ranks websites, they began to find ways to manipulate the search engine results page.

They were able to improve their ranking in search results, without Google filtering the quality or relevance of the website.

2003: Black Hat Tactics and Google's First Big Algorithm Update:

A lot of imprecise behaviors started causing web pages to rank faster for specific keywords.

This practice of counterfeit tactics is known as black hat SEO.

Black hat SEO tactics include things like stuffing pages with keywords, duplicating content, and hiding text and links.

2011: update of Google's Panda algorithm 1.0:

Google continued to update its algorithm to create a better user experience.

Panda targeted these pages with thin, low-quality content and narrowed down the results.

It also rewards pages that have unique, high-quality content. 

Demand Media and companies that relied on high volumes of low-quality content suffered an epic drop.

2012: Google Penguin 1.0 algorithm update:

The Penguin update dipped deeper into the link building schemes that many SEOs practiced.

Many received penalties for ranking thin content with many links pointing to it.

Penguin was a way to discover the value of links and to see if those inbound links were coming from highly authoritative and relevant websites.

2013: Hummingbird Helps Google Decipher Intent, Go Local:

Panda and Penguin, while influential, were additional smaller updates to Google's search engine.

In contrast, the Hummingbird update covered the entire algorithm.

Helped to show results with better or truer search intent by translating semantic search.

Semantic search is the way most search queries are read.

The Hummingbird update also helped websites targeting local results and showed more of a directory on local organic results.

2015: Google presents Rank Brain:

Rank Brain was Google's first algorithm update to use artificial intelligence (AI).

Its purpose was to help understand new queries as they arise and determine what the user's intent is.

Rank Brain updates the algorithm on its own and takes a closer look at user satisfaction by measuring how they interact with the results.

Google continues to dominate the search engine space, with nine out of ten queries going through its algorithm.

It also continues to constantly update its algorithm.