SEO/SEM News

When Isulong SEOph started on June 1 with zero results in the SERPs in Google, one of the first to appear was Markku Seguerra’s isulongseoph.net. Markku’s Isulong site was pretty stable on number 1 for the first weeks of June, using PR from RP, RebelPixel. He had nothing on his site that time but “Isulong SEOph Let’s Get It On!” And many people believed in the power of the domain was what was putting him up there and that an isulongseoph domain was a necessity to win which I do not believe, but of course it will help you definitely, but if you do not have one, you can still find ways to win. But the work may be harder. Today, Markku’s IsulongSEOph.net is on the 3rd page, but has more relevant content this time and are we going see Markku’s comeback?

Just as many thought Makku was stable up there and the experienced SEOs kept saying it is to early to say he’ll stay on top, which became true. With no eyes paying attention to Gio Castro’s isulongseophil.com, it was like he came out of nowhere to snatch away Markku’s top spot surprising everyone with a bunch of links from everywhere, all these sites along with the article site Article Wheel. He has been in the top spot for a long time in July. And even if the number 1 rank for Isulong SEOph is not his, Gio never seemed to go lower than number 3. His site looks pretty stable in the top spots and is still in attacking distance for the top Isulong Seoph prize. Please note that during the period Gio’s site was number 1, Rostum Hernadez’ isulongseoph.org was at number 2 that did not grab my attention then since I was looking at Gio’s site all the time.

Again, just as many thought the spot was already secured by Gio, Alfredo Palconit Jr.’s isulongseoph.offshoreoutsourcingphilippines.com started inching it’s way up the rankings, and eventually getting the number 1 spot as well. Often times Alfredo has expressed his views on blackhat and whitehat in the SEO Philippines mailing list. Hitting on the topics of what is fair and unfair in the Isulong SEOph contest. Unfortunately his views were all bounced back by other people criticizing his views. Currently his website is at page 12. Is this his actual rank? Or did he do some major changes like an IP change or DNS change? I have experienced this for one of my sites, isulongseoph.com that was on page 2 and I did some major server changes and my site which made the site missing for a while. It then reappeared at page 15, and everyday it changed to a and higher page and eventually stopped again at page 2 with some occassional page 1 rankings. Is Alfredo’s site going through a similar process? Did some major server change made his Isulong SEOph website drop and will climb up the SERPs again? Or did everyone else just really got better sites today than his Isulong SEOph entry? Will Alfredo have another streak going to the number 1 spot on Google for Isulong SEOph? Note again that during this period, Rostom’s isulongseoph.org was always near by.

With often exchanges of number 1 spots between Gio and Alfredo, sometimes the switching happens within the same day, no one paid much attention to Janjalani’s pinoynets.com/isulong-seoph. His backlinks blown everyone away. At one time, Yahoo’s link check was giving his site 40,000 backlinks! They were coming from all sorts of sites. And just right after the July 13 PR update, Google showed a number of his backlinks on a subdomain of his own domain pinoynets.com. Although Google does no display it anymore, and it does not exist anymore, but if I remember it correctly is was on info5.pinoynets.com, that had a bunch of content that look like scraped content. All pages had links going to his Isulong SEOph entry. This was also when several competitors kept talking about his entry being blackhat, it’s not right, blablabla. Come on, give him a break. When I personally saw his technique, the first thing I did was smile, and said p**ang ina, hindi ko naisip yun ah! (***** ****, why didn’t I think of that!) *LOL* It was already clear from the start of the competition, blackhat or whitehat, the entry is a valid Isulong SEOph contest entries. Janjalani’s Isulong SEOph site seemed to be unbeatable with the sheer number of backlinks he had built up in whatever way he has done it and stayed on the top spot for quite some time. And even if he was on the number 1 spot, Gio’s isulongseophil.com had some brief exchanges in the number 1 and number 2 spots with Janjalani. Note again that Rostom’s isulongseoph.org was always near by.

Some say that Janjalani’s link building was too fast and too soon, that Google will decrease the ranking of the site because of the unnatural link building (which I believe all of the competitors are doing that, although some are building slowly to appear natural.) Janjalani’s pinoynets.com/isulong-seoph has dipped to the 3rd spot today. As he (or she, Janjalani’s identity seems to be well hidden. But not because he/she may be hiding, but maybe because he/she just never came out in the open.) was first overtaken by Rostom’s isulongseoph.org.

Current leader right now is Rostom Hernandez’ isulongseoph.org. Looks like Rostom had it going correctly from the start as he was always in the top positions. If this was a cycling race, he always had everyone else ahead him in visual distance that reminds me of my biking days. As some people would advice me saying “Si ano, tutukan mo ‘yan, dapat hindi mawala sa paningin mo. Buntutan mo, bantayan mo, tapos banat na lang sa huli.” (Stay on his tail, he should not get out of your sight. Stay on his tail and pay attention to him, and strike at the last moment.) Contrary to popular belief, it is not all about numbers of backlinks. As you can already see Rostom and Gio’s entries are higher than Janjalani’s in ranking and they are not even close to half of the backlinks Janjalani has.

These top 3 positions seem to be stable on top of the rankings, as they do not fluctuate often. Will these current leaders still change? The remaining part of August and the month of September is still a long time. And in the past, we have already seen changes happening every month, from Marrku, to Gio, to Alfredo, to Janjalani, then Rostom. 2 and a half months has past, and 5 times has the number 1 spot changed. An estimate of 75 days with ranking changing 5 times. So I guess on the average, at it’s current frequency, there are changes every half month as a very rough estimate. With the remaining of August and the month of September, are we expecting more changes?

I think even as we see the top 3 positions pretty stable up in the rankings, you should still keep a close look at Jozzua’s SEO Comics isulong-seoph.com, Noel’s noels-isulong-seoph.com, Jedi’s isulongseoph.ph, Whin’s bicolbusinessdirectory.com/isulong-seoph, J. Angelo’s go-oogle.com.ph/isulong-seoph, Major kontrapelo.com, Moslemen isulongseoph.joomlamoro.com, and everyone else on page 2 can still catch up.

As many of the competitors say in the SEO Philippines mailing list, “Masyado pang maaga, marami pang pwedeng mangyari” (It is still too early. A lot of things can still happen.)

Posted in SEO Contest News |

Posted on Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 10:33 pm under SEO Contest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.