How Fast Is SEO Really Changing? A Look Back At Search Ranking Factors
Ready for a walk down memory lane? The Search Ranking Factors studies by well-known SEO Rand Fishkin started in 2005, and he and his group have been churning out perceptive insights every two years ever since.
If you take a look at how the findings have changed throughout the eight years that the studies have published, some interesting trends emerge. And, if you’re struggling with justifying SEO investments with the C-suite or investors, a historical perspective might be just what you need.
Quick Background
Don’t get me wrong: just one year’s study is packed with mountains of information. Attempting to summarize five studies is a daunting undertaking, so this comparison is by no means comprehensive — consider it a “highlight of highlights.”
Each study was comprised of leading SEO experts scoring the impact of a wide range of SEO factors. The exact factors studied were revised and improved every two years, so there is no true direct study-to-study comparison. I focused my time here on this survey data, not the correlation data added in 2011 and 2013.
There are a couple of risks in writing a post obsessing about Moz’s work. First, I might look like a helpless Moz poster child. I assure you that is not the case, and I am well rounded in my SEO reading habits. Second, it might look like Rand paid me for this. Ha! But he is still welcome to send compensation, you know, just in case.
Humble, Insightful Beginnings: 2005 and 2007
I was unable to find the original 2005 and 2007 Search Ranking Factors studies on Moz.com. However, with enough time on Archive.org, you can find anything. So for you SEO history buffs, here are the original SEOmoz Search Ranking Factors from 2005, and the v2 update from 2007.
It brought a smile to my face to see Rand celebrating 671 del.icio.us tags in 2005, closing in on Vaughn’s “diligently updated” Google Ranking Factors List. Rand can probably pull off 671 shares in about 1.5 minutes these days.
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