We’ve come a long way in 25 years especially when thinking about how the web has changed the way we live and work. Along with the web, SEO has also had to change and develop from keywords and clickthroughs, to what it is today.
Head back to 1991 when the very first website went live; now we have over 673 million at our fingertips, quite an impressive development. Due to the increase in website numbers there was a need to organize and catalog them – enter the search engine.
In the beginning, circa 1990-1991, we had Archie and Gopher which then evolved to Excite, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Google, to name but a few.
Following the creation of these search engines came the SEO Community. Search Engine Watch launched in 1997 providing tips and information about search. This inspired the launch of the Search Engine Strategies Conference in 1999 which is still going today.
Move forward through the 2000s and we get the Search Engine Journal, SEOBook, SEOMOZ and events surrounding Search Engine Optimization including Mozcon and the first ‘Searchlove’ conference, in 2011.
The biggest revolution amongst this was Google launching in 1997 and developing PageRank to rank websites more accurately and it is still used today. Developments throughout the 2000s saw numerous additions such as the possibility to use backlinks to artificially make a page display for unrelated searches in 2002; the introduction of Google Analytics in 2005 to give SEO pros a way to track and monitor their sites; the ban on BMW for ‘cloaking’ in 2006; 2009 Google Caffeine, 2011 Google Panda, 2012 Google Penguin and finally Google’s ‘disavow tool’ helping websites recover from penalties due to bad links in 2013.
What can we learn from 25 years of SEO?
A search engine’s goal is what it has always been; a way to deliver the most suitable and appropriate content to searchers when they look for it whilst also rewarding the websites that are the most authoritative and high-quality.
They will continue to evolve and black hat practices which become increasingly penalized. The rewards will always go to quality, informative, unique content, so it’s wise to invest in great content. It’s competitive, therefore, know the correct tools to find low competition, have high ROI keywords, and the fundamentals in place to achieve success in these areas.
Below is a detailed infographic from SEO experts Keyword Eye that takes you back through the changes of the last 25 years in SEO. It’s always good to know where we’ve been so we can get the best out of where we are going.
