The Evolution Of Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization has come a long way since its inception in the 90s when search engines first made an appearance. The earliest SEO involved manually submitting your website to the search engine so that it could be indexed and placed on the list of results that the engines returned. The earliest search engines used very limited factors to determine the ranking of a website. These factors included keyword density and links on a website, and webmasters soon started stuffing their websites with keywords, sometimes in invisible fonts and very high quantities to secure top rankings for their websites. Soon the search engines caught on to such tricks and updated their algorithms, which spawned the industry for SEO services that exists and thrives even today.

A Division in The SEO Industry
It has been a steady battle, between search engines and SEO services, each tries to outdo the other. Search engines try to filter out useless information and include only relevant results, while it is the job description of a Search Engine Optimization expert to ensure high ranking for his or her clients. Soon this race led to a fracture in the SEO industry out of which two different factions of the SEO experts were formed. White hat SEO experts use ethical means to promote websites, while the other faction, performs unethical, and sometimes downright illegal things to secure the top rank for their clients. This is known as black hast SEO. The penalty of being caught using black hat SEO is severe, and any business that wishes to enjoy long term success naturally prefers white hat SEO services. Search engines can do many things to penalize sites such as eliminate a website completely from its search results or give it a penalty to significantly drop its rankings.

The Increasing Complexities of Search Engine Optimization
Google is the biggest search engine today, and the primary focus of most SEO service providers. To counter unfair means, the search giant uses hundreds of factors that are combined together to calculate the ranking of a website. SEO companies have taken on this challenge and try to find new and innovative ways to improve SEO rankings. Some popular ways of boosting SEO rankings of a website are:

1. Studying the website and ensuring it has no code error

2. Optimizing website code for performance and faster loading

3. Ensuring that the website really has something useful to offer through quality content

4. High quality links from reputed and reliable sources

5. Ensure that a site has no broken links or duplicate content

From random stuffing of keywords, to highly sophisticated and targeted optimization techniques, Search Engine Optimization has come a long way. It has evolved magnificently and continues to do so. Each year search engines update their algorithms, and SEO services adapt their services to these new changes.

Modern SEO industry
The SEO services of today have evolved beyond all recognition and are drastically different from the services of just 10 years ago. Leading SEO companies continue to deliver great results for their clients. With the Google Hummingbird update, the rules of engagement have once again been changed, and the focus is now on creating websites that users will like. Google is all about sharing quality information and content with its users. SEO services continue to evolve, and they will no doubt adapt to this as well, and create even more effective Search Engine Optimization techniques. Google will constantly change and update their algorithm to benefit its users and so will the SEO companies continually have to change their strategy. This is something that will be continually ongoing and will never stop. If you need any help with your SEO or any other digital marketing, please feel free to reach out to the team at Mind Digital Group.