A Brief History of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Today, search engine optimization revolves more or less completely around Google.
However, the practice now recognized as SEO predates the invention of the world’s most popular search engine by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Before Search Engine Optimization became the official name, other terms were used as well:
Search engine placement,Search engine positioning,Search engine ranking,Search engine registration,Search engine submission,Website promotion.
One prominent industry writer proposed search engine marketing as a replacement for search engine optimization in 2001.
Obviously, this did not occur.
While the term SEO isn’t perfect – after all, we’re not optimizing search engines, we’re optimizing our web presence
It has been the correct terminology of our industry for far more than 20 years and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.
Here’s a short glossary of important terms used in this guide:
Index – Google stores all web pages that it knows about in its index. The index entry for each page describes the content and location (URL) of that page.
To index is when Google fetches a page, reads it, and adds it to the index: Google indexed several pages on my site today.
Crawl – The process of looking for new or updated web pages.
Google discovers URLs by following links, by reading sitemaps, and by many other means.
Google crawls the web, looking for new pages, then indexes them (when appropriate).
Crawler – Automated software that crawls (fetches) pages from the web and indexes them.
What is SEO?
It refers to the process of optimizing a website’s content, structure, and technical aspects to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
The goal of search engine optimization is to increase organic (unpaid) traffic to a website by improving its relevance and authority in search engines’ eyes.
This is achieved through various techniques, including keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, technical optimization, and content creation, among others.
The ultimate aim of search engine optimization is to provide the best possible user experience to website visitors and help search engines deliver the most relevant and high-quality results to their users.
Remember, the higher the website is listed, the more people will see it.
Technical SEO
Technical search engine optimization refers to the process of optimizing a website’s technical aspects to improve its search engine visibility and ranking.
In refers to website and server performance improvements that aided search engine spiders in more effectively crawling and indexing your site (to help improve organic rankings).
This includes various technical aspects, such as website speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, indexability, schema markup, and structured data, among others.
Technical SEO aims to ensure that search engines can efficiently crawl and index the website’s content.
It understand the website’s structure and organization, and provide the best user experience to the website’s visitors.
Technical search engine optimization attempts to address all technical aspects of your website that affect SEO, such as hosting and site speed, as well as XML sitemaps and meta robots tags.
Dozens of search strategies involve you to modify and perfect your technical SEO implementation.
This, in turn, can help improve the website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive more organic traffic to the website.
Some common technical SEO techniques include optimizing website;
load speed,
fixing broken links and redirect errors,
optimizing website navigation and site structure,
implementing HTTPS security,
optimizing images and videos,
and implementing structured data markup to enhance search engine visibility.
In essence, while general SEO covers a broad range of optimization strategies, technical SEO hones in on the technical elements that enable search engines to access and understand your website’s content better.
Both aspects are crucial for achieving higher search engine rankings and improving a website’s overall online presence.
A comprehensive SEO strategy often involves a combination of both SEO and technical SEO efforts.
