What does SEO mean and when did it appear?
SEO, in full, Search Engine Optimization, means "search engine optimization".
Through SEO we undertake a process of improving a website, with the goal of increasing the visibility of its pages in search engines – Google, Microsoft Bing, etc.
As we manage to increase the visibility of pages, bringing them into the top search engine results, the chances that users will reach our site also increase. The goal of search engine optimization – the goal of SEO – is to attract visitors to the site who will become customers.
We've been talking about SEO and various website optimization techniques since around 1998. The first recorded use of the acronym "SEO" dates back to 1997, and we started talking about various ways (at the time we couldn't really call them "strategies") of bringing a website's pages as high up as possible in search results when Google patented its first ranking algorithm.
How we started doing SEO. From the first ranking algorithm, to Mobile and AI (artificial intelligence)
From 1998 to 2024, Google experimented with many kinds of algorithms and updates that, over this whole time, changed the legendary list of 200 ranking factors and shaped the way we do SEO.
Google's first ranking algorithm is called PageRank (PR) and determines the importance of a web page compared to other similar pages. The patent for PageRank was filed in September 1998 and became the very first algorithm used by Google for ranking.
In 2024 we're talking about SGE – Search-Generative Experience, an algorithm Google is preparing that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to give users fast and as accurate as possible answers to their searches.
To better understand these changes to how Google works, and how to adapt our SEO strategies in real time, we've split this period into 2 major stages, as follows:
- Traditional SEO: 1998 - 2015
- Modern SEO: from 2015 to the present
Traditional SEO: concepts, terms and optimization elements
For traditional SEO strategies, we've considered the period 1998 – 2015, during which concepts, terms and optimization elements that specialists still rely on today became established.
The simplest concepts used from the start, for how the search engine works, and which we still use today in SEO strategies are: the web domain and URLs; keywords; web page content (text, images, video), backlinks.
Keyword strategies consisted of a list of short and fairly general searches, which we integrated into the site's SEO components: in the web domain and URLs; in Meta Keywords; Meta Title; Meta Description; in the headings of text paragraphs (H1…. H6), in the anchor text for internal and external links, in image file names, and in the HTML tags for links and images (link title attribute; ALT image).
What happened to these ranking factors over time?
Meta keywords: this is an HTML tag embedded in the code of a web page in its first part (in the head) and its content is a string of keywords representative of the page's text content. This tag was completely removed from Google's list of ranking factors in 2009.
Meta Title and Meta Description: these two HTML elements, Meta Title and Meta Description, have been important for optimizing a web page from the very beginning. They are still taken into account for a web page's ranking today, but the criteria are more complex now.
Google recommends we use these elements – Meta Description and Meta Title – to present, very clearly and briefly, what the content, the message of the web page is.
Content quality: Google is paying closer attention to the quality of the content it indexes, and in 2011 it launched an algorithm to filter the content published on site pages. As a result, the Google Panda algorithm penalizes and removes from the search engine's index:
- spam-type content: guest posts and unnatural comments on blogs and forums;
- web pages with low-quality, irrelevant, or copied/duplicated content;
- over-optimized content, through the forced repetition of the same keyword phrase (keyword stuffing).
Long-tail keywords & more complex SEO strategies: Google continues to develop algorithms that understand and correctly respond to users' medium and long-phrase searches (long-tail searches). By "long-tail" we mean searches based on longer, more specific phrases, which expect an equally precise answer.
For a good ranking, besides optimizing site and blog pages for long-tail keyword phrases, other strategies and marketing campaigns are also needed, related to building a brand, backlinks, popularity/appreciation on social networks, reviews, etc.
Link Building strategies: in SEO, the main goal of Link Building strategies is to increase a web page's ranking, through quality external links. The volume and quality of links pointing to a web page were among the Top 3 ranking factors until around 2021-2022, according to statements from Google engineers.
Off-page optimization techniques changed after the launch of the Google Penguin algorithm (2012); this analyzes the quantity, quality and relevance of the sites sending links: what types of sites send links to our site; the anchor texts; the volume of backlinks and the profile of the web domains, etc.
MODERN SEO. Mobile SEO and Google algorithms based on artificial intelligence
Mobile SEO, optimization for smart mobile devices, aims to adapt the SEO techniques and strategies we've already discussed to the requirements or behavior of users who use their mobile phone to quickly find information, place an order, etc.
What we approach differently in mobile SEO optimization: site design, keyword strategy, content structure, the way of navigating the site on a mobile phone, and technical SEO aspects.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Google started using artificial intelligence (AI) and integrating it into its indexing and ranking algorithms as early as around 2015. Since then we've talked about algorithms such as RankBrain (2015), BERT (2019), Passages Indexing and SpamBrain (2021), or about SGE, an algorithm Google is still working on.
Each of these algorithms has a well-defined role, but they all share a few common traits:
- they learn human user behavior, how they phrase their searches, what types of sites they prefer and access more often, etc.;
- they understand the relevance of the content on site pages, for users' different search intents (informational, commercial, transactional, etc.);
- they understand the meaning of words, with all the nuances of context, and understand conversational language;
- they return relevant answers to written searches and to voice searches.
We've brought the story to the present day, to the controversial ChatGPT. We frequently get questions like:
- Will Google penalize my site if I write my texts/articles with ChatGPT?
- Will an article/advertorial written with ChatGPT be penalized by Google?
- Should we not use ChatGPT or any other AI tool at all to write articles and texts for the site's pages?
The answer, as usual, is simple and short: "It depends!"
Traditional and Modern SEO… and there's something else too. Technical SEO
The two stages, or kinds of strategies, we've discussed, Traditional and Modern SEO, also have a technical side. We're referring to Technical SEO, and here we have on our to-do list:
- a website's correct and optimal functioning on desktop and mobile devices;
- correct indexing in the search engines' database;
- the navigation structure and the interaction features between users and the site;
- the structured data system built into the website, server configuration, and much more.
The complete study on the evolution of website optimization techniques and what Traditional and Modern SEO mean can be found on the Bookisite.ro blog! If you have questions or additions, we look forward to seeing you at the SEO courses organized by Informal School of IT:
