Search engine optimization began in the early 1990s with the development of the first search engines like Archie and Gopher. In the mid-1990s, the first search engine robots were created, and Lycos, Yahoo, and Galaxy popularized the concept of search engines. Some companies began experimenting with search engine optimization techniques in 1994 by focusing on submission processes. However, spamming of search engines also emerged, leading to an ongoing "cat and mouse" game between optimizers and engines to manipulate or prevent manipulation of results. Black hat SEO techniques became common, though search engines adapted algorithms to curb spamming and provide better services to users.
2. Webmasters today spend quite some time optimizing
their websites for search engines. Books have been
written about search engine optimization and some sort
of industry has developed to offer search engine
optimization services to potential clients. But where did
this all start? How did we end up with the SEO world we
live in today (from a webmaster standpoint seen)?
3. A guy named Alan Emtage, a student at the University of
McGill, developed the first search engine for the
Internet in 1990. This search engine was called "Archie"
and was designed to archive documents available on the
Internet at that time. About a year later, Gopher, an
alternative search engine to Archie, was developed at
the University of Minnesota. These two kinda search
engines triggered the birth of what we use as search
engines today.
4. In 1993, Matthew Gray developed very first search
engine robot - the World Wide Web Wanderer. However,
it took until 1994 that search engines as we know them
today were born. Lycos, Yahoo! And Galaxy were started
and as you probably - two of those are still around today
(2005).
5. In 1994 some companies started experimenting with the
concept of search engine optimization. The emphasis
was put solely on the submission process at that time.
Within 12 months, the first automated submission
software packages were released. Of course it did not
take long until the concept of spamming search engines
was 'invented'. Some webmasters quickly realized that
they could swamp and manipulate search results pages
by over-submission of their sites. However - the search
engines soon fought back and changed things to prevent
this from happen.
6. Soon, search engine optimizers and the search engines
started playing some sort of a "cat and mouse" game.
Once a way to manipulate a search engine was
discovered by the SE-optimizers they took advantage of
this. The search engines subsequently revised and
enhanced their ranking algorithms to respond to these
strategies. It was clear very soon that mainly a small
group of webmasters was abusing the search engine
algorithms to gain advantage over the competition.
Black Hat search engine optimization was born. The
unethical way of manipulating search engine resulted in
faster responses from search engines. Search engines
are trying to keep the search results clean of SPAM to
provide the best
8. The search engine industry quickly realized that SEO
(Search Engine Optimization) as an industry would not
go away, and in order to maintain useful indexes, they
would need to at least accept the industry. Search
engines now partially work with the SEO industry but
are still very eager to sort out SPAMMERS that are trying
to manipulate the results.
9. When Google.com started to be the search engine of
choice for more than 50% of the Internet users it was
highly visible to anyone in the industry that search
engine spamming had reached a new dimension.
Google.com was so much more important to the success
of a website that many webmasters solely concentrated
on optimizing their sites for Google only as the payoff
was worth the efforts. Again - Black Hat SEO took place,
pushing down the honest webmaster and their sites in
search results delivered. Google started fighting back.
Several major updates to Google's algorithms forced all
webmaster to adapt to new strategies. Black Hat SE-
optimizers but suddenly saw something different
happening.
10. Instead of just being pushed down in the search results
their websites were suddenly completely removed from
the search index.
11. And then there was something called the "Google
Sandbox" to show up in discussions. Websites either
disappeared into the sandbox or new websites never
made it into the index and were considered in the
Google Sandbox. The sandbox seemed to be the place
where Google would 'park' websites either considered
SPAMMY or not to be conform with Google's policies
(duplicate websites under different domain names, etc.).
The Google Sandbox so far has not been confirmed or
denied by Google and many webmasters consider it to
be myth.
12. In late 2004 Google announced to have 8 billion
pages/sites in the search index. The gap between Google
and the next two competitors (MSN and Yahoo!) seemed
to grow. However - in 2005 MSN as well as Yahoo!
Started fighting back putting life back into the search
engine war. MSN and Yahoo seemed to gain ground in
delivering better and cleaner results compared to
Google. In July of 2005 Yahoo! Announced to have over
20 billion pages/sites in the search index - leaving
Google far behind. No one search engine has won the
war yet. The three major search engines however are
eagerly fighting for market share and one mistake could
change the fortune of a search engine. It will be a rocky
ride - but