Part I: The beginning
seo gold search engine optimization is the process of optimizing websites to achieve high rankings on major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Hailed as a completely new service, search engine optimization has been around for over 10 years, the first appearance of the term “search engine optimization” was on the popular Internet discussion system of the time called Usenet. The message was titled The truth about internet marketing and went on to explain various methods of Internet advertising. [1]
There is a lot of speculation as to why search engine optimization was created in the first place. The reason it was invented is the same reason everything else in the world was invented: necessity. When the internet first kicked off in the early 90s, search engines were a whole different monster than they are today. Back then, hardly anyone used the internet and it certainly wasn’t user friendly. As the popularity of the Internet began to grow, so did the amount of use of existing websites. Invariably, as the number of websites grew, so did the need for organization, and the search engine was born. With an endless increase in users and the need for relevant web pages, the search engine optimization industry was born.
Starting out as an elite group of web designers and internet gurus, the SEO field was small and information was hard to come by. However, despite this fact, companies in the know were beginning to recognize the Internet as a medium for advertising. Business owners began to realize that people are spending more time and money on the internet, and if they could rank high on any search engine, then their traffic and ultimately their customer base would increase. Then the game started, internet marketers started optimizing and in certain cases cheating search engine ranking high. The few who knew about it had amazing results, adding to the “WOW” effect of SEO. In the early days, something as simple as having accurate, keyword-rich meta tags was enough to rank high, even for a competitive keyword. However, a barrier prevented the industry from picking up speed. The fact that there was still limited search engine technology, a limited user base, and limited ability to generate profit led many companies to prefer the mass medium to the Internet.
Part II: Evolution
After the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, companies didn’t touch Internet services with a 10-foot pole, the world was in a skeptical frame of mind, wary, apprehensive, and unwilling to take unnecessary risks. This mentality was reflected in all sectors, especially in the business sector. It took a few years, but eventually Internet spending began to rise and so did public confidence in the US economy. With the flow of money, everyone started looking for market opportunities, and the Internet was the opportunity. Those who were lucky enough to get the top ranks in major search engines gained a huge share of business and web traffic. People and businesses began to see through the dotcom haze that Internet marketing was not only viable but also lucrative.
Search engines have become an integral part of the Internet experience and around 91% of all Internet users use search engines. It is surprising that 100% of Internet users do not use them. However, as use has grown, the methods have changed. Things like meta tags didn’t work anymore and were useless. Competition for popular keywords or phrases grew substantially and some deceptive users began to realize that there were methods to manipulate search engines. As the popularity of SEO services and internet marketing grew, the need for more talented and knowledgeable employees also increased.
As the industry grew, tried and true SEOs began to be differentiated from those using deceptive or manipulative techniques, a metaphor for this dichotomy was created and is known as White hat and Black hat SEO. Later, most of the Black Hat SEOs were rejected and considered as spammers and even called Spamdexers. Many consider this an inappropriate metaphor and claim that there are SEOs or spammers.
Part III: Google: We are here to stay
In a brave new world, there were many competitors vying for the #1 most used search engine, the one that trumped all previous search engine technology and changed the way everything works: Google. The way search engines originally worked was that they searched everything on a page, such as keywords or metadata. There were many factors then as now, but in those days keywords were enough. However, Google decided that, in order to defeat manipulation and increase the relevance of search results, it would base its results in part on link popularity. The number of internal one-way links or (backlinks), topic relevance, backlink website page rank, the number of external links, and many other factors influence how well a search engine determines which website is most relevant to a keyword.
As it turned out, the decision to give backlinks more weight than metadata proved to be a good one for Google. Taking its place as the most popular search engine of the day, Google has become a giant of technology and advertising revenue, giving it the ability to compete with large corporations like Microsoft. With one main search engine to focus on, SEO became a huge industry that began to diversify. What started as a few simple editions of web pages became an industry with a multitude of techniques, technologies and careers. Words that were pioneers in the search engine optimization industry, such as metadata and keywords, lagged behind in use as link building; Social and Local media took their place.
It was in 2002 that SEO professionals began to gain recognition and the industry as a whole went mainstream. Starting with a series of legal issues such as KinderStart.com LLC vs. Google Corporation, [2] In this groundbreaking case, Kinder Start LLC sued Google Inc because Google was practicing unfair business practices through the use of spam filters, which ultimately led to the removal of Kinderstart.com from Google’s index. Ultimately, Google won the lawsuit and even filed for Rule 11 Penalties, which required Kinderstarts attorney John Yu to pay part of Google’s legal expenses. Countries’ eyes were on news that was more important, but this case began to expose the legal precedence of something that would become very important as the years passed.
Since its inception in 1996, search engine optimization has gone from being almost unknown to one of the fastest growing and most profitable career options in modern society. Starting with a simple Usenet message and surviving through the 90s dotcom bust, SEO is a modern day vernacular, something that is no longer marginal but necessary. Really when it comes to the line SEO is a subset of marketing, the only difference being the technology and procedures that work most effectively. One thing is clear, as long as there are products to sell, there will always be marketing, and as long as the Internet exists, there will always be SEO. The question is not whether search engine optimization has made or will make a difference, but what difference it will make to the lives of billions of people.
