The Early History of SEO

“Many years in a land far away” would be an appropriate beginning to many histories. However, search engine optimization (SEO) is another — albeit unique — story. Not only is it still a relatively new industry, but its true inception as an entity is about as ambiguous as nailing down the ROI for a link earning strategy. What is certain is the importance SEO holds in the online marketing industry and the potential SEO holds for traffic and ecommerce revenue. These factors have led me to wonder where the practice of search engine optimization began and who the people were responsible for its initial growth.

In researching the topic (online of course), it didn’t take me very long to realize that the history of SEO was far from an exact science. There’s no reference to one true event or one individual, but rather most agree search engine optimization techniques began being used in the mid to late 1990s. Obviously, the practice of search engine optimization was dependent on a list of technical advances including the computer, the internet, and search engines themselves.  As search engines became more popular so too did webmasters realize that the higher their sites appeared in those search engine results, the more traffic and potential revenue (if so desired) would follow.  There’s a long list of people who were early pioneers in the field from Danny Sullivan and John Audette to Marshall Simmonds and Bruce Clay but what strikes the common observer is the commonality and exchange of ideas and information these folks had when discussing their early activity.  Danny Sullivan particularly was important to the growth of SEO first with his newsletters then as the founder of Search Engine Watch and finally as the first to organize a conference dedicated to the search industry.

What may be seen as a slight surprise to younger internet lovers was the absence of more well-known personalities in the SEO industry today like Rand Fishkin or even Matt Cutts during the first few years. The energetic Fishkin didn’t really get involved in the field of search until 2002, and the Matt Cutts, whose words can influence a site’s rankings faster than insider trading on Wall Street, didn’t start his career at Google until 2000. Cutt’s employer and all that which truly moves the SEO needle today, Google, got a somewhat late start before climbing to the top as well. While Yahoo was founded in 1994, along with other search engines, whose names are now lost in the annals of history, Google didn’t appear on the scene until 1998.

What’s exciting is that if you are reading this post at the time of publication, you are truly witnessing the infant stages of SEO (that is unless you believe SEO is dead … a possible topic for this blog at another time). Equally as important is the fact that it’s an industry that’s still not exclusive. If you truly want to become involved there’s no time like the present. And who knows, maybe in a few decade your name will be mentioned in a brief history of SEO?