EGS Creative Founding Partner Matt Anderson has been following and adapting to the dynamic and constantly evolving SEO space since 1998. SEO enhances online visibility, making it easier for potential customers to find a website through Google. It helps companies rank higher in search results, which is crucial as most users rarely go beyond the first page. Our proprietary present-day SEO methodology, strategies, and accountability are category-defining. Embracing the marathon, not a sprint philosophy, we report everything we do for our clients, weekly.
SEO HISTORY
1994: Jerry Wang and David Filo launch Yahoo as an Internet bookmark list and directory of interesting sites. AltaVista, Excite, and Lycos launch
1996: Page and Brin, two Stanford University students, built and tested Backrub, a new search engine that ranked sites based on inbound link relevancy and popularity.
1997: Search Engine Optimization emerges for the first time to describe the category and quickly catches on. SEO was widely adopted to where it would become a Wikipedia Term in 2003. During this period, Ask Jeeves launched and Google was registered.
1998: Goto.com launched with sponsored links and paid search. Advertisers bid on Goto.com to rank above organic search results, which were powered by Inktomi. Goto.com was ultimately acquired by Yahoo.
2000: Yahoo pulled off the worst strategic move in the history of search and partnered with Google and let Google power their organic results instead of Inktomi. Beforehand, Google was a little-known search engine.
2003: Google acquires Blogger.com. Google launches AdSense, which serves contextually targeted Google ads on publisher sites. The mix of AdSense and Blogger.com led to a surge in simple, monetized online publishing – and a blogging revolution.
2006: Google Acquires Youtube for $1.65B. Due to its soaring popularity, video SEO becomes crucial for brands, businesses, and individuals. Google also launches two incredibly important tools, Google Analytics, and Google Webmaster Tools.
2007: Google launches Universal Search which blends traditional organic search results with other types of vertical results like news, video, and images. This marked a sea change in Google search and SEO broadly, starting Google down the path toward owning 93% of the search market present day.
2009: Microsoft Live Search becomes Bing. With the goal of challenging Google’s then nearly 70% grip of the U.S. search market, Yahoo and Microsoft joined forces to partner on a 10-year search deal (though it ended up being reworked five years later). The Search Alliance saw Microsoft’s Bing power Yahoo’s organic and paid search results. While it made Bing the clear Number 2 search engine, they have ultimately failed to break Google’s massive grip on search in the U.S. and globally. In October 2020, Bing officially rebranded to Microsoft Bing.
2015 & 2016: Google launches a much-anticipated Mobile Friendly Algorithm Update, designed to give users “the most relevant and timely results, whether the information is on mobile-friendly web pages or in a mobile app. Google also introduces Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) in 2016. The idea behind AMP was to instantly load content. Many news media and publishers quickly adopted AMP and continue to use it today.
2017: In January, Google announces that page speed will now be a ranking factor, and that it will begin to devalue pages with intrusive pop-ups.
2019: In July Mobile First Indexing is enabled for all new websites.
2021: All websites are switched to Mobile First Indexing.
2024: Google has continued to out-innovate and outpace the search category to the point where they have captured 93% of the search market, and all SEO roads lead ultimately to Google.
EGS CREATIVE SEO
On-Site
Content Keyword Embedding
Title and Heading Adjustments
Image Optimization
Call To Action Positioning
Article Writing
Navigation and User Experience Optimization
Above Fold Editing Optimization
Off-Site
Social Media Management
Ethical Backlink Campaigns
Follower Building
Article Submissions
Directory Submission
3rd Party Profile Building & Optimization
Review Building
Content Keyword Embedding
Title and Heading Adjustments
Image Optimization
Call To Action Positioning
Article Writing
Navigation and User Experience Optimization
Above Fold Editing Optimization
Social Media Management
Ethical Backlink Campaigns
Follower Building
Article Submissions
Directory Submission
3rd Party Profile Building & Optimization
Review Building
