SEO History Lesson: Why SEO Is What It Is Today

People have been trying to rank well since they first realized the Google’s commercial potential. If you can get the top-ranked results for targeted keywords, you can get more web traffic and with more web traffic come more leads and more conversions.

Before we get into the thick of it, we must first think like a search engine. How does Google decide what gets ranked first and what gets ranked second?

Google wants its search engine to deliver users the best, most-relevant results for their search terms. If someone searches “pizza,” it’ll deliver the best, most-relevant results for pizza — but what does that mean?

First, Google will look for pages that have the word “pizza,” eliminating a staggering amount of non-relevant results. However, a pizzeria could game the system and stuff its website’s content with pizza and other relevant terms, turning the results into a rat race.

Second, Google will look at pages’ backlinks, which are basically votes of confidence. Links are essentially source citations, indicating that the linked page has authority on the subject (which is why anchor text matters, but that’s a topic for another time). The more backlinks a page has, the more votes it has.

Now, Google has launched algorithm update after algorithm update to keep the game fair, preventing link building schemes, but these two core concepts remain true. Good SEO is founded on relevant keywords and quality backlinks.

To rank well, you must convince Google that your page is the best, most-relevant result for a targeted keyword. This lesson is what the history of SEO teaches us.