Todd Malicoat is joined by Greg Boser of 3dogmedia.com and Marshall Simmonds of NYTimes.com for a discussion on the history of search engine optimization as told by the SEO's that were there to see it happen. In part one, the early years dating back to 1995 are covered all the way up to the duplicate content changes in 2006. There's lots to learn here, but also some fascinating anecdotes from a time when SEO's were shouting at the world and no one would listen.

Length: 1 hour 13 min.

You will learn:

• How SEO has it's roots in the Yellow Pages
• How SEO was shaped by black hats
• Why it is a myth that SEO is constantly changing
• The most important SEO variables today
• Why SEO's have to be more patient these days
• What SEO was like in the early days
• The origins of cloaking
• Why on-page optimization is critical for highly trusted websites
• How Google changed search engines and what it meant for SEO's
• What killed AltaVista
• How Google's "Florida Update" established trust as a major factor in search rankings
• When Google woke up to it's spam problem and how they fought back
• When Google changed to treating websites as guilty until proven innocent
• How AdSense helped bring down the walled gardens protecting premium content
• How duplicate content changed the way SEO's execute their plan