| As long as the Internet has been around, it | | | | existence. |
| has remained a mystery to the mainstream | | | | |
| public how Web sites are listed at the top of | | | | The 2000s |
| search engine results. There are many | | | | |
| theories of how search engines and search | | | | SEO professionals have been seen in a |
| engine optimization (SEO) initially began. | | | | negative light over the last five years, due |
| | | | in part because in early 2001, enthusiastic |
| The 1990s | | | | webmasters quickly realized they could |
| | | | overwhelm search engine result pages by over |
| Alan Emtage, a student at the University of | | | | submitting Web sites. Unfortunately, as the |
| McGill, created the first "search" program in | | | | Internet industry developed, search engines |
| 1990 called Archie (still in use today), to | | | | quickly became cautious of new SEO companies |
| archive Web documents. The following year, | | | | attempting to generate visitors for their |
| Gopher started at the University of | | | | clients at any cost, however unfair or |
| Minnesota, and this is when the concept of | | | | unethical. Tactics such as keyword spamming, |
| search engines began. In 1993, Matthew Gray | | | | doorway pages, cloaking, and hidden white |
| created the World Wide Web Wanderer, the | | | | text placed on white backgrounds proved too |
| earliest known search engine robot that | | | | much for the search engines to tolerate. As a |
| assists with ranking Web sites. But search | | | | result, the search engines replied with |
| engines as we use them today were born in | | | | numerous countermeasures, created to filter |
| 1994. In that same year, Galaxy, Lycos and | | | | out any techniques considered spam. That is |
| Yahoo! were all started, two of which are | | | | good news, although it forced ethical SEO |
| still widely popular search engines today. | | | | companies to start using more subtle |
| | | | techniques to assist their clients Web sites |
| Yahoo! was among the first to implement SEO | | | | with obtaining rankings in the engines. |
| techniques, even though at the time they were | | | | |
| unaware of the potential growth the industry | | | | The "big 3" search engines, Google, MSN and |
| would soon have at the turn of the century. | | | | Yahoo!, have recently come to the realization |
| Yahoo! Founders David Filo and Jerry Yang | | | | that SEO as an industry is here to stay, and |
| were trying to get their site seen by others | | | | to maintain effective results, they needed to |
| on the Internet by giving it more exposure. | | | | accept the industry, even embrace it, and |
| Some excellent structure and tricky | | | | engines eventually partnered with successful, |
| hand-coding, their site became more available | | | | ethical SEO companies to establish typical |
| for new visitors. They were not questioned | | | | standards for fair and ethical optimization. |
| about ethical business practices because | | | | This is important to help keep information |
| nobody was sure what was considered ethical | | | | relevant and beneficial to visitors while |
| or unethical - there were simply no standards | | | | still being unbiased to people who create the |
| in place yet. | | | | content on their Web sites. |
| | | | |
| As the initial search engines were cataloging | | | | The Current State of SEO |
| the early Internet, many business owners soon | | | | |
| learned to appreciate the value of their Web | | | | Today, there are major differences in how |
| site being listed in the search engines, as | | | | search engines work and how to get ranked in |
| they first saw increases in visitors to their | | | | them. With the assistance of proper search |
| Web sites. They began submitting their URLs | | | | engine optimization, Web sites can now have a |
| on a continuous basis, and changed their | | | | equal fighting chance of obtaining high |
| sites to support the needs of search engine | | | | rankings. Because SEO is a highly specialized |
| robots. SEO companies started showing up, | | | | trade that requires both technical skills and |
| when they began experimenting with the | | | | business marketing knowledge, it is only |
| concept of search engine optimization, with | | | | through the combination of these two skills |
| the emphasis initially on the submission | | | | that one can properly implement SEO |
| process alone. Soon afterwards, the first | | | | techniques to obtain high search engine |
| automatic submission software was released, | | | | rankings. Many SEO specialists have since now |
| and it was then the notion of Spam came into | | | | realized it is "search engines or bust. |