"Search Engine Optimization"

The term "search engine optimization" made its first appearance in an article published by the New York Times in 2002 in an article by David Gallagher entitled, "New Economy." In the article, Gallagher describes the term as sort of under-the-table jargon for how business owners were able to drive their sites to the top of google search terms, increasing their bottom line in the process. The term did not appear in the LA Times or Chicago Tribune at all.

In terms of scholarly articles, the term was recently defined in "Academic Search Engine Optimization (ASEO): Optimizing Scholarly Literature for Google Scholar & Co." by Joran Beel and Bela Gipp. The article defines search engine optimization as a process that "involves creating or modifying a Web site in a way that makes it 'easier for search engines to both crawl and index [its] content." Other scholarly articles simply mention search engine optimization as an available service that a company provides its clients, as in the case of "Secrets of a Rainmaker," by Joanna Pachner. Others also refer to it as a means by which users are more vulnerable to spam, as is pointed out in "The Economics of Spam by Justin Rao and David Reiley.

The term itself that was so eloquently defined in the Beel & Gipp piece carries the same meaning as that when it was referred to by the NY Times in 2002. Because of its tangential rise with the ability to search on sites like Google, the term has not evolved outside of its original meaning.