Search Engine Optimization - SEO

WHO INVENTED THE TERM(s) - WHOM DO WE CREDIT

[usa1]

Can anyone find the earliest usages of the term(s)?

[bcolflesh]

This page:

larryswanson.com/search-engine-marketing.htm

claims it was Danny Sullivan from SEW.

[redzone]

No way! We were calling it SEO in early '97, and that was before Danny was on the radar.... :)
Danny was the first to publicly write about it though...

There was something in Infoseek's FAQ's concerning spamming, that referenced SEO, if I remember correctly... But who know's where they got the term? There was a core group of us at SEF in the early days also... I don't think anyone will be able to come up with who originally coined the phrase, but it would be interesting if the origination could be found...

[bcolflesh]

A spammer's email from 1997 contains the phrase:

groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=33E33F48.5915%40c031.aone.net.au&rnum=1

[usa1]

doing search on recall.archive.org
for
"search engine optimization"

it seems that their earliest record is late 1997/early 1998

but - doing a search
for
"search engine placement"

Shows that THIS was one of the original terms - but it was eventually passed over as the "official" catch-phrase
a couple of years earlier....

WHY....HOW...?

Since "search engine placement" is a more "natural" term!

It sought of reminds one of the recent use (catching-on) of FLORIDA update to describe the "MID-NOVEMBER" re-algorithmization.