“Way Back Machine” Is SEO Gold…

Did you know that Facebook used to be called “The Facebook”, Twitter was spelled “twttr”, YouTube started life as a dating site.

Or, did you know that if you type “relentless.com” into a browser it redirects to Amazon? To find out why that is, keep reading!

This hack requires the usage of archive.org or the “Way Back Machine” as it is also called.

For those unaware, “archive.org”, or The Internet Archive, began preserving the Internet in 1996 when the interwebs was still in its’ infancy.

Web material, like newspaper content, was transitory, but no one saved it. Simply put, if their bot spotted the site, it would regularly capture the main page. Over 334 billion online pages!

So, the SEO hack?

If you like a competitor, go see what works for them.

What services did they aim to introduce?

If they aren’t giving the same service, it plainly didn’t work. Examine whether items or services are still prominently displayed. If they remain constant, then that feature has always been popular.

It takes a lot of changes and modifications to find the perfect tone and message on a homepage. This hack allows you to pull up monthly or quarterly screenshots of your key competitors and track their progress.

Overall, I strongly recommend using archive.org’s “Wayback Machine” to investigate your rivals.