Table of Contents
General Search Engine and SEO Information
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Cold Stats and Numbers
Past Search Engine Market Share Data (provided by Hitslink)
Relationship Charts
- SEO Code of Ethics written by Bruce Clay, which was adapted directly or indirectly by many SEO Companies
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Interesting Historic Information
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Bruce Clay is credited to be the person who invented or coined the term "Search Engine Optimization", but that can not be proved with absolute certainty. Below are some old articles and forum threads about the "Hunt" for the origin for the term SEO, other names used instead, such as website promotion, search engine placement, Search Engine Ranking, search engine submission, search engine registration or search engine positioning.
Did you know? The Term was endangers to be replaced by the "Father of SEO" himself, Mr. Danny Sullivan. What was the Reason? The results of a pull he conducted (original servey results are not available anymore)
Survey: I-Search, Sept. 2001, poll on the I-Search mailing list in September 2001.
Various terms were suggested to readers and the top 2 choices were:
1. 39% "search engine marketing"
2. 35% "search engine optimization"
It did not happen though and SEO remained to this day the term used.
- History of Search Engines: From 1945 to Google 2006 - a very comprehensive article from the roots of the basic mathematical principals over the first web search engine "World Wide Web Wanderer" from 1993 to the Google Multi-Billion Powerhouse of 2006. Written by Aaron Wall of SEO Book, published at search-marketing.info.
SEO Articles by World Leading SEOs
- SEO Articles by SEOMoz.org. Good and compact collection of free and premium (paid) articles to search engine optimization and search marketing. To become a SEOMoz premium member, click here.
- SEO Articles by Aaron Wall (from SEOBook.com) at Search-Marketing.info
- Search Engine Submission Tips (formerly called A Webmaster's Guide To Search Engines) - Essentials, Optimizing and Optional but Helpful Information for Webmasters that are new to Search Engines and Search Engines Optimization and people who want to learn how Search Engines Work - A Guide at Search Engine Watch
- The SEO Playbook - Welcome to the Rabbit Hole Alice, an "advanced beginner's guide" to SEO, web design, usability, linking and content distribution by Todd Malicoat aka Stuntdubl
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Search Engine Ranking Faktors
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- Google Ranking Factors SEO Checklist - at Vaughn's One-Page Summaries
- Search Engine Ranking Factors V2.0 (2007) - compiled by Rand "randfish" Fishkin, 37 contributers, who are considered leaders in the world of organic search engine optimization, provided insight and opinion. The list was also optimized and reduced to only 55 factors instead of 100+ like the old list.
- Simplified Ranking Factors Reference here at Cumbrowski.com. Small and handy.
- (old) Search Engine Ranking Factors V1.0 (2005) - compiled by Rand "randfish" Fishkin and comments by Danny Sullivan, Dan Thies, EGOL, Graywolf, Jill Whalen, Donna Fontenot, Michael Martinez, Bill Slawski, Ammon Johns, Scottie Claiborne, 2K and Todd Malicoat.
- Link Value Factors - 40 factors evaluated and ranked by 17 SEO experts, published by Wiep Knol
- How search engines index text in HTML - Experiment 2/2007 by IWDN. 10 different Search Engines tested, if they consider text in places like innerHTML, written via document.write, Title text for a generic element, Rel text, hidden divs via visibility:hidden or display:none and several others.
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Ranking, Algorithms, Issues, Patents etc.
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Original scientific Paper by the Google Founders Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page
Other Ranking Algorithms
- HITS algorithm (1997) - Hypertext Induced Topic Selection (the project became later known as "Clever") filed by Jon Michael Kleinberg (IBM researcher) (US Patent 6,112,202)
- Direct Hit Algorithm (1998) owned by Ask.com and used for a while by MSN, HotBot, Lycos and other Search Engines. The algorithm is not using links for ranking, but clicks by users on search results. The more links to a site were clicked, the higher the site would rank. For some more detailed information, check out this old post from August 4, 1998 at Search Engine Watch by Danny Sullivan.
- The Hilltop Algorithm (1999) by Krishna Bharat and George Andrei Mihaila
- Teoma (2000) by Ask.com incorporates the Direct Hit algorithm and Subject-Specific Popularity(sm). Teoma does use links to determine the subject of a site based on the sites of its community (sites it links to and sites that link to the site). Links are also used to identify hubs and authorities within each community.
- Teoma V1.0, the original (2000) by Apostolos Gerasoulis, founder of Teoma.com, bought by Ask Jeeves (2001)
- Teoma V2.0 (2003) provided improved relevancy, more accurate communities, spell checking, "Dynamic Descriptions", more advanced search tools and an expanded index.
- Teoma V3.0 (2004) provides increased relevance, improved freshness, expanded index, international (support of asian characters) and several new features like page cache and the support of several new file types.
- Ask.com's ExpertRank (2004) by Andy Curtis, Alan Levin and Apostolos Gerasoulis for IAC (US Pat.7,152,061)
- TrustRank (2004) by Zoltán Gyöngyi, Hector Garcia-Molina and Jan Pedersen (PDF), Explained
- "Edison Algorithm" (2007) by the Ask.com Engineers Scot Gregory Zola, Eric J. Glover, Rohit Mittal, Apostolos Gerasoulis, Stephen Lee Orr and Gary Chevsky (speculated to be a mix of Teoma and Direct Hit and to become Ask.com's new ranking algorithm. Patent Application filed in April 2007).
Additional Ideas and Theories
- The evolution of web searching (Online Information Review - Apr 00)
- "Prisma" by Altavista (2002) which determines the strongest 12 terms associated with the users search phrase and offers them as additional refinement. Prisma is not really a ranking algorithm, but rather a mechanism for an unique search user interface.
- Teoma - The Superior Search Engine? (2004) Article at RustyBrick.com about the features of Teoma.
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Duplicate Content Research and Search Engine Patents
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Because of increased interest into the topic and its importance to Webmasters; was the content that used to be here moved to a page that is dedicated exclusively and only to the Issue of Duplicate or near duplicate content.
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Search Engine Friendly Web Design and Site Architecture
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