In 1999 it pays to The History of SEO

Searchenginesused
tobeeditedby humans.

Searchenginesused
tobeeditedby humans.
Not spiders.

They have come a long way.
THEY
HAVE
COME
A LONG
WAY– – – – –

“Astudyofthesearchengine
resultpages(samplesize:
10k)revealedonly15%had
nonews,nolocal,novideo,
noimage,noknowledge
graph,...

Thefuturerole
ofanSEO
isgoingtobe
alotmorecomplex.

Let’slook back
onwhat’shappened
overthepast
twodecades.2000
1994
2014
2010

THE YEAR IS 1994
AND THESE GUYS
ARE REALLY BIG.

MEANWHILE,
SOMEWHERE
IN WASHINGTON.
Washington

MEANWHILE,
SOMEWHERE
IN WASHINGTON,
BRIAN PINKERTON
CREATES THE FIRST
CRAWLER TO INDEX
ENTIRE PAGES.

MEANWHILE,
SOMEWHERE
IN WASHINGTON,
BRIAN PINKERTON
CREATES THE FIRST
CRAWLER TO INDEX
ENTIRE PAGES.
IT GENERATES A LIST
O...

IT’S CALLED
WEBCRAWLER
AND LOOKS
LIKE THIS.

Exciteiskindof
abigdealinthe
90s.Itlaunchesin
1993andpurchases
Webcrawlerin1996,
buteventuallystops
gatheringitsown
listin...

Launchedin1994,
Lycosisoneofthe
earliestcrawler-based
searchengines.
By1997 ithas
indexedover60
milliondocuments.It
eventu...

Yahooisstillpowered
byhumans,with
crawler-basedresults
frompartnersonly
showingifnohuman-
poweredresultsexist.

DANNY SULLIVAN
LAUNCHES
SEARCH ENGINE
WATCH TO
DISCUSS ALL
THINGS SEARCH.

DANNY SULLIVAN
LAUNCHES
SEARCH ENGINE
WATCH TO
DISCUSS ALL
THINGS SEARCH.
He’s kind of
a big deal in
search …

They have come a long way.
THIS
WAS
SEARCH
ENGINE
WATCH
IN 1997.

Googlelaunchesand
usesPageRank torank
websitesmoreaccurately.

Googlelaunchesand
usesPageRank torank
websitesmoreaccurately.
PageRank looks at
incoming links for
a webpage to help
deter...

GOOGLE’S PAGERANK IS
KNOWN AS “LINK JUICE”
AND STARTS A LONG
ROMANCE BETWEEN SEO
LINKS.
SEO LINKS

DANNY SULLIVAN
LAUNCHES THE
FIRST CONFERENCE
JUST FOR SEARCH.

TOPICSCOVEREDINCLUDE:
1.DesigningSearchEngine
FriendlySites–Tipsforthose
whobuildsitestomakethem
moresearchenginefriendlya...

In 1999 it
pays to be
awesome at
meta tags.
TOPICSCOVEREDINCLUDE:
1.DesigningSearchEngine
FriendlySites–Tipsforthose
whobu...

In1999,SEOsstillhave
problemswithsearchengine
updates.Altavistarelaunches
itswebsiteandchangesits
algorithm.Lot’sofsitesdi...

Googlelaunches
PaidLinksAdWords
asCPMmodel.

Googlealsoreleases
aPageRanktoolbar
soSEOscannow
recordtheirPageRank.

GOOGLE’S PAGERANK
TOOLBAR HELPS SEOS
FIGURE OUT THE BEST
PAGES TO GET LINKS
FROM.
SEO LINKS

GOOGLE
BOMBING
IS A
THING. Use links
to make
a page rank
for unrelated
searches.

Itmakesitalltheway
totheBBCNews.

BobMassalaunchesthe
first“PRAdNetwork”
tobrokertextlinkad
dealsbetweenpotential
buyersandsellers.

BobMassalaunchesthe
tobrokertextlinkad
buyersandsellers.But Google
doesn’t like
t...

BobMassalaunchedthe
tobrokertextlinkad
buyersandsellers.But Google
didn’t like
th...

GOOGLE
GETS INTO
CONTEXTUAL
ADVERTISING
WITH ADSENSE.

ManySEOstakeadvantage
ofAdSensebydeveloping
MFA(MadeforAdSense
sites).

PATRICK GAVIN
LAUNCHES
TEXT-LINK-ADS
GIVING USERS AN
EASY METHOD TO
BUY SELL LINKS.

GOOGLE’S
FLORIDA UPDATE
PENALISES
TACTICS POPULAR
IN THE LATE 90S
LIKE KEYWORD
STUFFING
AND OVER
OPTIMISATION OF
ANCHOR TE...

RAND FISHKIN
LAUNCHES SEOMOZ
AND QUICKLY
TURNS IT INTO ONE
OF THE INDUSTRY
AUTHORITIES
ON ALL THINGS
SEARCH.

AARON WALL
RELEASES THE FIRST
PDF VERSION OF
SEOBOOK, ONE OF
THE BEST KNOWN
BOOKS ON THE
SUBJECT OF SEARCH.

Spamisstillanissue
withcompanieslike
TrafficPowerbannedfor
tacticssuchasJavaScript
mouseoverredirectsand
doorwaypages.

Spamisstillanissue
withthecompany
TrafficPowerbannedfor
tacticssuchasJavascript
mouseoverredirectsand
doorwaypages.
Google...

SETH GODIN
WRITES
A POPULAR BLOG
POST ON WHY SEO
IS AN UNRELIABLE
TRAFFIC SOURCE.
The Problem with
Search Engine
Optimisat...

In2005,Google
releasesthe
nofollowtagto
combatblogspam
whichissupported
bybothMSNand
Yahoo.
Blog
comment
spam

SEOsuseitforPageRank
sculptingtofunnelPageRank
toimportantpages.
LINK #1 LINK #1
LINK #2 LINK #2
LINK #3 LINK #3
LJ=1 LJ=1...

Googlelaunches
GoogleAnalytics,
givingSEOsan
easywaytoanalyze
andtrackthe
performance
oftheircampaigns.

IT’S RUMORED THAT
GOOGLE IS RELEASING
AN AGING FILTER,
MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO
RANK NEW SITES. THIS IS
OFTEN REFERRED TO AS...

Shoemoneywrites
oneofthefirst
“SEOisDead”posts.
Thiswastobecome
apopulartopicafter
eachGoogleupdate.
SEO is Dead
http://bi...

IN 2006 GOOGLE
ANNOUNCES
THAT BMW IS
BANNED FOR USING
A TACTIC CALLED
CLOAKING.

IN 2006 GOOGLE
ANNOUNCES
THAT BMW IS
BANNED FOR USING
A TACTIC CALLED
CLOAKING.
Cloaking shows
users and search
engines di...

Whatasearch
enginesees
Whatausersees

XMLSitemapslaunchandare
supportedbyallofthemajor
searchengines.

GoogleSuggestlaunches.
ThisgivesSEOsanothertool
tohelpwithkeywordresearch.

In2009,socialnetworks
arehelpingtoprovide
real-timeresultsforusers.
Googlewantstomake
sureitsindexcanprovide
fresherresult...

GOOGLE CAFFEINE
UPDATE MEANS
GOOGLE CAN
INDEX THE WEB
MORE OFTEN AND
PROVIDE FRESHER
RESULTS.

Googlelaunchesreal-time
search includingTwitterresults.

Itendsin2011whenGoogle’sdeal
withTwitterexpired.

MEANWHILE …
EricSchmidt,
GoogleChairman
The internet is fast
becoming a “cesspool”
where false information
thrives. Brands...

GOOGLE
VINCE IS
A MAJOR
UPDATE THAT
MANY SEOS
FEEL FAVOUR
BRANDS.

GOOGLE
VINCE IS
A MAJOR
UPDATE THAT
MANY SEOS
FEEL FAVOUR
BRANDS.
Vince ...
Get it?

In2010,theNewYorkTimes
printsastoryaboutDecorEyes,
acompanywhousesbad
serviceasawaytocapture
highqualitylinksfromuser
comp...

Itdoesn’tendwell.Google
penalisesthesiteandthesite
ownergetsarrested.

Itdoesn’tendwellwithGoogle
penalisingthesiteandtheowner
gettingarrested.
GoogleSmackDown

IN AN INTERVIEW WITH
DANNY SULLIVAN, BOTH
GOOGLE BING CONFIRM
TWITTER FACEBOOK
INFLUENCE SEO.
SEO SOCIAL

IN 2011, THE NEW YORK
TIMES PRINTS A STORY
OUTING JCPENNEYS
LINK BUILDING TACTICS,
WHICH THEY REFER TO
AS “BLACK-HAT”.

GooglepenalisesJCPenney.
Thepenaltyonlylastsforthree
months.

GooglepenalisesJCPenney.The
penaltyonlylastsfor3months.
GoogleSmackDown

GooglelaunchesPanda.
Itsaimistopreventsites
withlowqualitycontentfrom
acquiringtop-tierrankings.

GooglelaunchesPanda.
Itsaimistopreventsites
withlowqualitycontentfrom
acquiringtop-tierrankings.
Google Panda forces
SEOs ...

AspartofGoogle’slaunch
forGoogle+,itstarts
encryptingkeyworddata.
SEOsnowseeahigh%
oftheirorganictrafficfrom
“(notprovided...

AccordingtoClickConsult’s
counter,trafficfrom“(notprovided)”
hasgrownalotsinceitslaunch.

GOOGLE RELEASES
PENGUIN TO PUNISH
WEBSITES THAT
ARE BUILDING LOW
QUALITY LINKS.

Link-buildingtacticslikearticle
spinning,blognetworksand
directoriesareallinthefiringline.

Googlereleasesadisavowtool
tohelpwebsitesrecoverfrom
penaltiesduetobadlinks.

SEOMozrebrandsto
Mozandbecomesan
inboundmarketing
company.

SEOMozrebrandsto
Mozandbecomesan
inboundmarketing
company.
Inbound
marketing,
what is that?

InboundMarketing
Makemarketingpeoplelove.
Bypublishingtherightcontentin
therightplaceattherighttime,
yourmarketingbecomesr...

WantExpertSEOAdvice
WithYourCoffee?
Getfivedaysoftipsdelivered
toyourinboxfromtopSEO
experts.Eachtipcanberead
andimplement...

In 1999 it pays to The History of SEO

HubSpot

In 1999 it pays to