SEO 101 Ep 454 – Chapter 1 of The SEO 101 Learning Series

by | Sep 25, 2023 | SEO, SEO Podcast, Tips

This episode is Chapter 1 of a multiple episode series for learning SEO fundamentals. In this chapter Ross and Scott discuss the Beginning of SEO with a focus on the absolute basics of search engines and their growth to now. The topics discussed include what SEO is, why it is named that, who the noteworthy search engines are, their marketshare, and how search engines work. The next episode will be devoted to planning your SEO strategy from the ground up.

Show Notes:

  1. SEO is about improving website traffic from search engines. It prioritizes user satisfaction and engagement over spamming for SEO. SEO can be implemented after engaging visitors.
  2. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It helps search engines understand and rank your website.
  3. The term “SEO” was first used in 1997.
  4. SEO is also known as Search Engine Placement.
  5. Other terms used before SEO include search engine positioning, ranking, registration, submission, and marketing.
  6. Organic rankings involve factors like titles, content, navigation, images, headings, and schema.
  7. Local SEO factors include completing Google Business Profile, NAP consistency, and an optimized website.
  8. Search engine crawling is when bots follow links to discover web content.
  9. Search engine indexing makes content searchable.
  10. Google dominates with 92.57% market share globally (July 2023)  and 90.76% in the USA (July 2023)
  11. Google serves 100,000 searches per second, 8.5 billion per day, and over 3 trillion per year.
  12. Yahoo has 0.62% global market share and 1.70% in the USA.
  13. Yahoo used Google for search results from 2000 to 2004.
  14. Bing, with 2.11% global and 4.54% US market share, replaced Live Search in 2009.
  15. DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine, has 0.885% global market share.
  16. DuckDuckGo users are mostly male (73.3%) and aged 25-34 (26.42%).
  17. The next episode will discuss planning an SEO strategy from scratch.

Sources: 

SEJournal – The first recorded usage of the acronym “SEO” in 1997 is mentioned in this source.

Similarweb – Google Demographics  – Offers demographic insights into Google’s user base, including age and gender distribution.

Similarweb – Yahoo Demographics – Provides demographic information about Yahoo’s user base, including age and gender distribution.

Similarweb – Bing Demographics  – Offers demographic insights into Bing’s user base, including age and gender distribution.

Backlinko – DuckDuckGo’s Stats – Provides information on DuckDuckGo’s search volume and user engagement.

Radar by Cloudflare – Offers market share data for search engines in 2022.