Nalini Seo Analyst - Find me on Bloggers.com Search Engine Optimization: History of SEO and The Google Age

Wednesday 24 October 2012

History of SEO and The Google Age

In the early days of search engines, webmasters needed only to submit their page addresses or URLs to the various search engines, who would then send spiders to crawl through and index the sites. As soon as people started to realize the value of having their websites show up on the first page of SERPS, they began looking for ways of manipulating the search engines indexing algorithms.

Back then, search algorithms relied on on-site information to determine page rankings. In other words, they relied on information that was provided by the webmaster, things like keyword density, meta tags and index files. All people needed to do was put in the right keywords in the sufficient density and they would start seeing front-page SE rankings in no-time. Web content providers also started manipulating HTML source attributes to get clients higher rankings. This started to result in the SERPS becoming unreliable, often filled with spam pages whose keyword tags did not accurately represent the pages' actual content.

Google, a company founded in September 4, 1998 by Stanford grad students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google's algorithm, PageRank, determines site rankings by measuring the quantity and quality of their inbound links. Google's superior, relevant search results immediately attracted a loyal following, and competing search engines started to realize the importance of keeping up with Google's new page ranking methodology.



The Google Age


Google, MSN and Yahoo! LogoBy 2004, the three major search engines that are left, Google, MSN and Yahoo!, start incorporating undisclosed page ranking factors into their algorithms. The era of keyword-spamming SEO is long over. Webmasters and content providers have to rely on more creative ways to promote content and generate inbound links in order to achieve long term increases in SE rankings.

In 2005, Google starts personalizing search results, taking into account a user's search history to come up with customized results pages when that user is logged in. In 2007, Google starts a campaign against paid links affecting PageRank. In 2009, the company announces it is attempting to stop the effects of PageRank sculpting that come as a result of nofollow links.

Today, SEO is, for the most part, a conversation with Google Search. Google has over 70% of today's search engine users and is thus the place you have to be in in order to start driving organic traffic your way. SEO campaigns are much more laborious and complex now than they were a decade ago, but this is largely a good thing. Users get better relevant results and webmasters and content providers have to provide actual value in order to rank high on search results.

Get SEO Services By EVS Technologies

1 comment:

  1. Search Engine Optimization is a fascinating field, with a relatively recent beginning. seo sheffield

    ReplyDelete