WebCrawler– the same year that Yahoo! Search launched, saw the launch of Web Crawler. Site owners can add Informational sites for free, but commercial sites had to pay $300/year. They include man-made descriptions for the URLs. The site was the first collection of web pages across the internet. The search engine ranks results in the order they were found.ġ994– David Filo and Jerry Yang create Yahoo! Search. A year after they invented the world wide web (1991– Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the 1993– JumpStation brought a new leap with their linear search which showed a page’s title and header in the same results. Search Engine Timelineġ990– The first search engine is Archie. To do that we start at the beginning of search and continue through Google’s storied existence. To understand how Google search works, we need to explore the history of the Google Search Engine. In the history of search engines, we have to admire the ever-changing Google’s search algorithm that continues to meet the increasing demands of searchers around the world. SEO's history teaches us that the best way to prepare for the future of SEO is to not cut corners it's to use ethical optimization techniques and publish content that holds actual value for your visitors.It is hard to believe Google search is 22 years old now. It began working on algorithm updates that would reward quality, relevant content to connect users with what they really want to find.įrom then to now, hundreds of algorithm changes have been made, and SEO has rapidly evolved, forcing marketers to explore alternative strategies. Google saw an opportunity to do something that other search engines weren’t. So, marketers could use hacking practices and leverage keyword stuffing and spammy links to rank higher in search results. In the beginning, anything went in terms of SEO. Thought I was going to say Google? Well, you’re right because BackRub eventually became Google and was registered as a domain in 1997. However, in 1996, SEO really took off when Sergey Brin and Larry Page began building what would become the biggest, most recognized search engine to date: BackRub. In 1993, Excite revolutionized how information was categorized, and in 1994, Alta Vista, Yahoo, and others joined the scene. So, there was a huge need for structure and accessibility, and the world’s first search engines were created. Around this time, the world’s first website was launched, and one quickly turned into many as websites crowded the internet. It is believed that SEO was born in 1991. To better understand SEO and its importance, we need to look back at its origin. Implementing an SEO strategy helps more people find your website naturally on Google and other search engines-without paying for digital advertising. The higher it ranks, the more people will see and click on it. Rand Fishkin, founder and former CEO of Moz, defines the term as “ the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of the traffic that you earn through the organic results in search engines.”īasically, the better optimized your website is, the more highly it can rank in search engine results. SEO stands for search engine optimization.