The Hustler's Digest StaffVisibility is one of the primary currencies on the internet — more visibility of your website means a bigger audience seeing your brand and visiting your site, which can lead to more business.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of ensuring that your website is visible to people searching for what you offer. It includes improving the website and employing various techniques and tools to help the business’s content rank well in search engines like Google.
While SEO has been around since soon after the internet became available to the public, it has evolved immensely. No one knows that better than Bruce Clay.
Bruce Clay was at the forefront of this new field from the beginning. In fact, a quick Google search on “who is the father of SEO?” names Bruce Clay in pages and pages of results, owing to his contributions at the forefront of the field.
Bruce started dabbling in the practice of SEO before it had an official name. In January 1996, he was a one-man show working from his dining table, applying his programming and math skills to figure out how to help websites rank in search engines. Given his proactive attitude, passion for understanding the evolving internet and pragmatic thinking, he knew that search marketing would become the next big pivot point in the business world.
Thus, Bruce Clay Inc. was launched in 1996, almost three years before Google. Bruce recalls his company’s start: “I had run other businesses successfully, but with Bruce Clay Inc., I pivoted into a whole new, yet-to-be-discovered industry, and I was once again succeeding.”
Consulting for a variety of clients, Bruce began to test the effects of website changes on search engine rankings. He wrote the first webpage-analysis software program (a precursor to the Single Page Analyzer tool that is currently part of the company’s proprietary SEOToolSetⓇ software suite), one of the earliest tools for efficiently analyzing and optimizing web content for search.
He particularized his company’s niche in 1997 by introducing its offerings as “search engine optimization” services. Given his knowledge in this budding field, Bruce gave his first SEO training session in 1999. Since then, more than 5,000 people have taken his SEO training courses. From then on, his passion began to directly translate into steady growth for the company — he truly was helping to shape the SEO industry as an innovator and leader.
In 2000, Bruce Clay Inc. increased its scope by opening an office in Southern California. Around that time, Bruce also did something that instantly made him a recognized name among marketers everywhere. He created the first-of-its-kind Search Engine Relationship Chart, which was so helpful in making sense of the crowded search engine market that it generated more than 300,000 downloads in the first month.
As SEO was increasing in popularity, some people in the field were trying to game the search engine system using deceptive tactics. That’s why Bruce Clay’s agency developed and introduced an SEO Code of Ethics for the industry, which was subsequently translated into 14 languages.
That was just one contribution. Over the years, the SEO agency’s SEO tools, training classes, and thought leadership blog further guided SEOs by bringing helpful insights to the industry.
Most importantly, Bruce Clay Inc.’s services were providing top-notch results to clients, increasing their visibility in the search results by significant margins.
International markets began seeking Clay’s digital marketing optimization services, prompting him to open offices in South Africa, Australia, Japan, India, and more.
Given his thorough knowledge of the field, the multinational publishing company Wiley approached him to publish a book for a comprehensive introduction to SEO. Thus, 2009 saw Bruce Clay become a published author with “Search Engine Optimization All-in-One for Dummies.” Now in its fourth edition, the 700-plus page SEO book is a go-to resource for many businesses.
In recognition of his contributions to SEO since its early days, Bruce was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 from The History of SEO advisory board.
Bruce says the following of his dedication to the field: “I have spent much of my career educating and answering on SEO through many conferences, classes, and especially my website. I want to help others, and I hope I have been seen that way. Nobody owns SEO; it is a great frontier, it is a dynamic and changing experience, and I have been honored to be a player in the space.”
It is clear that ethical and effective SEO would not have developed if not for visionaries like Bruce Clay. This development required skill and determination – and he displayed both. And as a result, Bruce Clay Inc. continues to be at the forefront of SEO.
