This document summarizes the history and evolution of search engines from the early 1990s to present day. It discusses the first search engines like Archie, Veronica, and Jughead and how they indexed early internet content. It then explains why Google became dominant by providing more relevant and faster search results using PageRank and analyzing link structure. The document outlines Google's original and subsequent algorithms and ranking factors for organic and local search results. It also notes Google's use of over 200 signals and semantic analysis to continuously improve search relevancy.
2. In the Beginning 1990 - Archie Searched early Internet File Names via FTP 1991 - Veronica Gopher Protocol Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computer Archives 1993 - Jughead 1993 - World Wide Web Wanderer: 1st Web Robot 1993 – ALIWEB: 1st to crawl meta data & allow submission 1994 – WebCrawler: Indexed entire pages 1994 – Lycos: Introduced Word Proximity Bonus 1995 – AltaVista: Fast, Fresh
3. Why Google Won More Relevant Results Faster Much More Simple Less Spam
4. Google PageRank Flow Google was the 1st search engine to use the value of links to help rank pages in their results. PageRank (named for founder Larry Page) is assigned to each webpage. This was a HUGE leap forward in serving more relevancy with less spam.
11. Organic Ranking Factors Website Infrastructure Information Architecture Content Accessible Hosting Right Keywords in Right Places Title Heading Body Content Anchor Text Inbound Links Quantity / Quality / Relevancy Anchor Text Social Media? May 2010: “no” Dec 2010: “relatively lightly” “most within realtime search”
12. A Closer Look: Titles Exact Match Keyword Proximity Modifiers Cheap… Buy… …Ideas Length (70) Commas, Pipes | Semicolons; Keyword Repetition Singular vs Plural Synonyms
13. Local Ranking Factors Proximity to Geographic Centroid Optimized Place Page Categories Description, Hours, Photos, Coupons… Citations Consistent Contact Info Matching Website Info Quality / Quantity Links Local Links – C of C, Travel Guide, Area Biz Association, Newspaper Industry Links Reviews Yelp, CitySearch, Judysbook, InsiderPages, Trip Advisor, Urban Spoon
14. Sophisticated or Complicated? “we use more than 200 signals…” for each query “Various parts of our algorithms can apply to sites at different times, depending on what our algorithms find” Scholarly Papers The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine 244 Patents by Google Indexing Documents According To Geographical Relevance June 2010 Mobile Image-Based Information Retrieval System May 2010 20,000 Employees 12/31/2009 Clustering Related Queries Based on User Intent Q: Why don’t I rank #1 for “Cars in Nashville” anymore? A: Because you just searched for “Lightning McQueen Movie Times” Semantic Analysis “Phrases are identified that predict the presence of other phrases in documents” – 2006 Patent
15. Resources Google Google SEO Starter Guide 310 Videos @ YouTube Webmaster Central – Matt Cutts SEOmoz.com Beginners Guide to SEO Search Ranking Factors David Mihm’s Local Ranking Factors DavidMihm.com FireFox & Chrome SEO Extensions SEO for FireFox SEO Site Tools SEO Quake Woorank.com
16. SEO Site Reviews Website Infrastructure Domain Age Right Keywords in Right Places Unique Content - Copyscape Inbound Links Google Place Page Competition Robots.txt Woorank.com Ross Jones - 615.715.9099 - rmjvol@gmail.com