Granted, we may never know if this tale is more revisionist history
or 100% fact, all signs definitely point to the term SEO originating
around 1997.
Do a little more hunting around and you’ll see John Audette
of Multimedia Marketing Group was using the term as early as
February 15, 1997.
Ranking high on search engines in 1997 was still a pretty new
concept.
It was also very directory driven.
Before DMOZ fueled the original Google classification, LookSmart
was powered by Zeal, Go.com was its own directory, and the
Yahoo Directory was a major player in Yahoo Search.
If you’re unfamiliar with DMOZ, the Mozilla Open Directory Project
(remember, Mozilla was a company and Moz was a brand well
before SEOMoz), it was basically a Yellow Pages for websites.
Which is what Yahoo was originally founded upon, the ability to
find the best websites out there as approved by editors.
I started doing SEO in 1998, as a need for our clients who have
built cool sites but were getting little traffic.
Little did I know, it would become a lifestyle.
20 YEARS OF SEO: A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION