First Search Engines - An SEO Guide -

The First Search Engines

Search engines as we know them today are not nearly what they once were. What we have come to know as “Googling something” actually began as a much simpler, data querying solution in the early 1990s. Now, more than 20 years later, we take to search engines to discover seamlessly anything and everything about the world in multiple media formats. Our search engines are ridden with AdWords and SEO-rankings; things that were not a twinkle in the Internet’s eye at the time of the first search engine.

How it Began

The first search engine was called “archives” and later shortened to “archie”; referring to the solution for a data scatter problem which would match a user query to a database of web-based filenames. To put things in perspective, at the time of use, Archie was able to access roughly 2.6 million files on the web and 150 GB of information. Compared to the incredible oversaturation of the Internet today, this may seem like nothing. But looking back, it was pretty impressive for the time.

At this time, there was no such thing as the World Wide Web. Instead, to share information, users would establish a File Transfer Protocol (FTP), which could be located by others using an FTP client. In 1991, the World Wide Web was invented and the opportunity to build websites – not just host faceless files on servers – became a reality.

Something to Search For

Search engines developed steadily from the mid-1990s on. As more content became available on the WWW (W3), search engines were used to crawl the web for information from websites, similar to how we use them today. Search engines of the 90s – and even early 2000s – were less complex and slower than today’s top engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

What is a Search Engine?

A search engine is comprised of three parts that allow users to enter a query and see results from around the W3: spiders, indexes, and search interface and relevancy software. The first aspect – the spider – crawls the web by scanning pages that have been indexed or recently updated. The second part – the search engine index – is actually a catalog of content, which almost accurately represents the current content on the web. And the third ingredient to a working search engine is the software, which acquires a user query, quickly checks the query for accuracy and relevancy to other queries, and then gathers a list of relevant results. The results are ranked based on the content of the pages in relation to the query.

This is relevant because now, as the world focuses a tremendous amount of attention on the Internet, everyone is eager to create content that lands high on searches, no matter of its true relevance. Even when a website is relevant to a query, it is not guaranteed to show in the first page of search results because of how much content exists.

Search Engines of the 1990s

There were a number of search engines conceived in the 90s, all with various searching concepts that are quite foreign to you and me. Here are a few that didn’t make it past the early 2000s:

Open Text:

The original search engine of Yahoo. The company did not fully disintegrate, however, it switched gears to focus on enterprise search solutions, instead.

MagellanInfoseek:

Infoseek planned to charge people for their searches. Interesting how search engines do make money today, but in a very different way.

SnapDirect Hit:

Had potential when first launched, utilizing a groundbreaking technology, but was neglected after the company was purchased and formally closed.

These, along with many others, strove to deliver information from across the web using what little was really known at the time about how people were going to use search engines. Some of our major technological advancements have come from understanding user behavior and developing solutions to fit them.

Interesting Exceptions

As early as the late 90s, we saw companies trying to monetize search engines. Some – like Infoseek – wanted to have users pay to use their service. This is kind of like paying to read a book you could easily get for free at the library. Others saw the future and potential of search engines as a necessity and leveraged their funds from companies who wanted to appear in search results. Search Engines like Overture – previously, GoTo – provided paid listings for other sites and those who paid the most would rank the highest in the search results. Interestingly, companies like MSN and Yahoo still use these paid listings, resourced from Overture.

By the early 2000s, most search engines were using a variation of the crawler technology. Some, however, like LookSmart favored human-powered results. While LookSmart doesn’t act as a traditional search engine anymore, it is utilized by some larger companies like MSN to provide search results based on the combination WiseNut crawler technology and human-powered results.

What We Know Today

The most popular search engine in use today is of course Google. Google was conceived in 1998 as a research project and continued to develop the ability to analyze web links and produce an entirely new way of generating extremely relevant search results, contrived from crawler technology.

The Internet as we know it is currently made up of 60 trillion individual pages. Today’s search engines have the power to crawl those 60 trillion pages within the index in just the click of your Enter key and sort the results by relevancy and quality of content using extensive algorithms and formulas to deliver the most accurate results in the least amount of time possible. Get this: as you are typing in your query – before you even press Enter – the search engine begins to analyze what you may be looking for as to speed up your search results and deliver to your browser the best results.

A Long Way

While it seems like search engine history is just that – history – what we have today would never have been if it weren’t for the very first database querying software, Archie. The endless resources we have at the tip of our fingers are thanks to twenty-five years of patient growth, trial and error, and incredible development in the world of technology and the Internet.

And hey, if it weren’t for people like you reading this blog and using the Internet – formerly referred to as the World Wide Web – there would be no need for the incredible advancements surrounding search engines.

What Is Black Hat SEO?

Black hat SEO refers to unethical techniques that can be used to increase ranking in search engine results places. These techniques are likely to go against the terms and conditions of the search engine, and any site that uses them is likely to find itself banned by the search engine. Black hat techniques may initially bring in a lot of traffic, but they will not bring any long term success and will do more harm than good if your website ends up getting banned.

To be able to avoid using black hat techniques, you need to know what they are. The following techniques are the most well known and have been confirmed by Google and other search engines as things that are expressly against their terms and conditions.

Keyword Stuffing

Your site should be optimized for keywords that are relevant to the products that you offer, but they must always be used in context. Just stuffing your page full of the keyword is not likely to be successful.

Article Spinning

You will need to create unique content to rank highly in a search engine. Some people will use article spinning software to get around this which will create a new article from one that already exists. Again this is something that can easily be detected by a search engine and will get your page banned.

One Saskatoon SEO Company company has stated, the key to ranking highly on a search engine results page is having unique content that is meaningful for your customers. Anything that makes your content look “spammy” is likely to be identified as a black hat technique. Although creating good content is hard work, it is worth it in the long run, because not only will it ensure that you rank highly in search engines, it will also make any customers that find your site more likely to make a purchase.

A Comparison Of The Major Search Engines On The Market

Search engines have become widely used among consumers all across the globe. They have become a staple in providing vital information to people everywhere. There are currently three major search engines on the market. In this article, we will be going over a comparison of the major ones.

Comparison Of The Major Search Engines:

Google

Google is the number one ranked search engine regarding users. The fact is, it is the most widely visited website in the entire world. It currently ranks in at number one regarding visitors above Facebook. Google is well ingrained in society and the technological space because Google is also the number one mobile operating system in the world as well. Because Google is a staple of the Android ecosystem, it is even more widely used on mobile devices.

Bing

Bing is the number two search engine in the United States. This search engine is powered by Microsoft, and it is an excellent alternative for those that do not like or enjoy the simplicity of Google’s design. Bing has a built in predictor for NFL games which a lot of people tune into each week during Football season. Bing is the backbone of the Windows operating system search feature. Therefore, it is a widely used search engine among Windows users and in particular – mobile users.

3. Yahoo

Yahoo’s search engine has declined in recent years. They have turned their business away from focusing too much on search. However, they still have one of the most prevalent search engines, and it is widely used among people that utilize Yahoo for mail, answers, and fantasy sports. Yahoo does not have their own mobile operating system, so they have a lot of work to do to make up for the loss in that area.

As you can see, there are plenty of options for consumers in the marketplace. The primary option that most people tend to go with is Google due to their dominance and their simplicity. Also, Google tends to have the best overall algorithm for keeping users happy with relevant content. Depending on what mobile operating system you use, you are likely going to want to choose between Google and Bing. Bing is great for people with a Windows smartphone or tablet because it is completely integrated with the operating system.

With thanks for contributions from Sacramento SEO company Comet Web Agency

The History Of Search Engine Optimization

It is impossible to imagine a world without search engines. This is despite the fact that they have been in existence for the last few decades. They have given people unlimited powers and knowledge at their fingertips, something that have witnessed great changes in people’s lives.

Search engines have greatly changed how people discover information. They have changed how people connect and socialize with friends and relatives. And most importantly, they have changed how people shop for goods and services. People are always actively looking for information online about the products and services they want to buy.

These changes in consumer habits have led to the explosive growth of search engine optimization as businesses constantly try to capitalize on potential clients searching for information online that is related to their services or products online. This article discusses the history of SEO and the major events that have changed the industry.

Early SEO

Content providers and webmasters began site optimization for search engines in early 1990’s. Initially, all a site needed was to submit the address of their page (URL) to various search engines which would in turn direct a “spider” that would “crawl” the page, extract all links to other pages from the URL, and return this information to be indexed. This process involved a search engine spider downloading pages and storing them on the engine’s server, where an indexer would extract different information and place them on a scheduler for crawling later.

It was during this time that website owners started recognizing the need to have their sites visible and ranked high on search engines, resulting in the creation of black hat and white hat SEO. However, it was not until 1997 that the term “search engine optimization” came into use. Computer programmer Bruce Clay is widely credited as being among the first people to popularize the phrase.

Early SEO techniques relied on indexed files in search engines, such as ALIWEB or webmaster-provided information, such like keyword Meta tag. Meta tags provided guides to a site’s content but it was found to be highly unreliable. Incorporating webmaster’s provided keywords in Meta tags sometimes provided an incorrect representation of a site’s actual content. Incomplete, inconsistent and inaccurate information in Meta tags would cause sites to rank high for irrelevant searches.

Jose Martinez, an Albuquerque search engine optimization professional stated “Site owners also manipulated various attributes within HTML sources of a page in an effort to have their sites ranked high. They started using different factors such as keyword densities to make their sites visible and ranked high on search engines. Search engines, therefore, suffered from massive abuses and endless ranking manipulations.”

Modern SEO

Engines had to find ways of ensuring that users were provided with better results. They had to make sure that their result pages only showed the most relevant results as compared to useless pages stuffed with high number of keywords from unscrupulous content provider. They responded by developing complex ranking algorithms that utilized factors that were difficult for content providers to manipulate.

In 2005, Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web (AIRWeb), an annual conference, was set up to bring together researchers and practitioners with interests in SEO and other related topics. From then on, site owners employing aggressive techniques for SEO purposes can have their sites banned from search results. Google banned a company known as Traffic Power in late 2005, for allegations that it used such aggressive techniques.

Search engines have played a big role in the development of the SEO industry through sponsoring frequent SEO chats, seminars and conferences. They have been providing guidelines and information to aid in healthy site optimization. Google even has Sitemaps, a program that helps webmaster find out if Google is encountering problems when indexing their sites. Bing has some webmaster tools that allow a site to monitor its site optimization process.

By 2005, search engines had successfully incorporated countless unclosed factors in ranking algorithms in an effort to reduce link manipulations. Search engines do not disclose the factors and algorithms they use in ranking pages. “However, it is believed that major engines such as Bing, Yahoo and Google use over 300 different signals.” according to SEO consultant in Vancouver BC Einar Gustaffson.

Search engines have also put into place measures that punish those sites that copy content from other sites. This is because sites used to duplicate content from other sites in ranking high in search results. They are also some measures that punish sites whose content is not unique.
The SEO industry has gone through some tremendous changes since its inception in the last few decades. The process is still ongoing with search engines and other players committed to ensuring that companies do not use unethical means for SEO purposes. This is to ensure that web users get relevant information anytime they browse the internet.

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