This Day in SEO

2008 October, 2nd
Google Removes Directory Submission from Webmaster Guidelines - It was only a matter of time for Google to officially change its stance on directory submissions and on this day in 2008, it did. As a sign of things to come where most directory links would not only become irrelevant, but potentially dangerous, Google removed the following suggestion from its Webmaster Guidelines: "Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites."
This Day in SEO

SEO moves so incredibly fast; it’s easy to forget just how young it is. I’m not even thirty 1 and I’m older than the oldest website. Think about that for a second.

I set out to research the history, evolution and critical milestones of SEO in part just to see what I’ve missed. Although it’s been my job to know SEO from front-to-back over the past seven years, it’s impossible to catch it all. Suffice it to say, from over 150 hours of research and more than 500 events cataloged across 366 days 2, I’ve learned A LOT. Hopefully you can take something away from this research as well. Every day a new event will be posted with a link to more information about it.

The types of historical SEO events include:

  • Search engine launches and key events
  • Important SEO acquisitions
  • SEO patents
  • Famous Google Bombs
  • Major events in internet history
  • Standard-setting legal cases in SEO
  • Search engine algorithm updates
  • High-profile search engine penalties

There are too many websites I used for this research to mention them all, but here are the ones I certainly couldn’t have pulled this off without:

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  1. Ugh. I’m really freaking close though.↩

  2. can’t forget leap year↩