How did Search Engine Optimisation Come About?

Not so long ago if you wanted to find information you would flick through a dictionary, encyclopaedia, book, look through the Yellow Pages, or simply ask an expert. Fast-forward to 2018 and the chances are you will “Google it” to find an answer. “Google it” means to search for information on the internet, regardless of which search engine you use; it is a phrase that has slotted into day-to-day conversation with ease.

A world without search engines – such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others – now seems like a distant memory. A search engine is rather like a global library and is a term used to describe a host of information accessible to people via the internet, such as pictures, charts, websites, and documents.

While search engines have been around since the 1990’s, it was not until 1997 that the term ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ (SEO), came into widespread use. Danny Sullivan, an American journalist and co-founder of the publication Search Engine Land, is attributed to popularising the term. Website owners paid attention as they realised the importance of SEO for their own sites.

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Put simply, SEO is a way of increasing traffic (visitors) to a website. If a company ranks highly in the search engines for a particular search term, the more trustworthy and relevant it appears to be. The more visible a site is in the search engines, the more visitors it is likely to attract. This, in turn, puts a company in the best possible position to convert these visits into sales. In short, a well ranked website pits small companies against the main players and can help a business grow, especially when combined with other factors that enhance a company’s reputation, such as quality of goods and services, great reviews and a professionally designed website.

When you look for something on the web, you type in a set of keywords. These keywords are identified through web-crawling, and indexing puts these results in order in the shortest amount of time. While there are several different aspects to SEO, a significant part of it is tweaking or re-writing content so it ranks higher in the listings for certain keywords. SEO is a cost-effective form of marketing, relevant to all types of businesses, and can achieve an excellent success rate over time. To find out more about search engine optimisation, Essex, and what we can do for you, click on the link above.