Bisaya Bloggers

I’d like to share with you a recent discovery I’ve made on the Web: Website Grader. It’s one of those finds that brings a smile to the lips of bloggers and webmasters. This online tool will help you analyze your site’s SEO health. While Website Grader works for all websites, it includes reports that are blog-specific.

When using Website Grader (WG), you will input your site’s URL and associated keywords. Optionally, you may submit your competitors’ URLs as well, for comparison purposes. After submission, WG will output an SEO score for your site. (This blog got a 92 out of 100.) Below that will be an exhaustive report on your site’s SEO preparedness. (more…)

Here’s what you need to know when you decide to advertise your business via the Internet. There are in fact a number of methods, and just as many platforms upon which to advertise online, but let’s stick to the World Wide Web for now. And to further simplify it, we’ll focus on search engine marketing.

Probably the most important target of online marketing is the search engine. And the ultimate goal is to have your website (therefore, your products / services) appear on the first page of search engine results. When people do a Google search for, say, “houses for rent in Davao”, the search engine returns links to websites, ordered by relevance. In other words, the links you see on the first search engine results page (SERP) are those of websites that are likeliest to be the most relevant to your search.

Appearing at the top of SERPs is desirable to Internet marketers because it’s a fact that most people click only on links from the first result page. So how is this accomplished? How do you get your website to come out on top? The key factor is context, or, how relevant your website’s content is to the search terms used. (more…)

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere

Here’s what you need to know when you decide to advertise your business via the Internet. There are in fact a number of methods, and just as many platforms upon which to advertise online, but let’s stick to the World Wide Web for now. And to further simplify it, we’ll focus on search engine marketing.

Probably the most important target of online marketing is the search engine. And the ultimate goal is to have your website (therefore, your products / services) appear on the first page of search engine results. When people do a Google search for, say, “houses for rent in Davao”, the search engine returns links to websites, ordered by relevance. In other words, the links you see on the first search engine results page (SERP) are those of websites that are likeliest to be the most relevant to your search. (more…)

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

Before the recently-concluded You Got Blogged! Review-a-Blog Competition was over, I received a strange inquiry from a blogger who had wanted to participate. Let’s call him “Manny”. Manny asked me if he could link to the contest sponsors with a nofollow attribute within the link tags. I told him if he did that, it would invalidate his entry. He didn’t participate.

The reason for Manny’s wanting to use the nofollow attribute was his fear of a possible “retaliation” by Google on his blog’s PageRank. He said he was afraid Google might penalize him for providing links.

Wow. This is really getting out of hand. People have gotten so confused — no, bewildered — over the recent upheavals in blog PR values that they have no idea what the real deal is anymore. Neither do I. And this confusion, in my opinion, is caused by Google’s overemphasis on secrecy. (more…)

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere

There are probably as many ways to judge how good a Web hosting provider is as there are providers. OK, I exaggerate. But there really are innumerable hosting companies out there. And there simply is not one set of guidelines that any of us can refer to with any degree of reliability.

That said, I’d like to give you one piece of advice. I would caution you if you came across Lunarpages. I do host with them — but only because I’m locked in for a year. I had two hosting accounts with them initially, and I was fortunate enough to have been able to cancel the second one and avail of the money-back guarantee. Thing is, they withheld a part of the total amount that I’d paid. (more…)

Well waddaya know, Digg.com has been refurbished somewhat. Not a big leap from the old GUI and eye candy, but the behavior’s been upgraded. The whole look-and-feel of the site remains, but you notice changes here and there, and that makes for a refreshing experience.

One thing that seems to have improved is the way the system checks for duplicate diggs. Before, it was always a nuisance to have to confirm that the story you’re digging isn’t a duplicate of previously-dugg items. Ever since I’ve been digging, I’ve never been presented with suggestions of duplicates that were anywhere near accurate. So now that’s changed, thank goodness — at least, one step in the digging process that’s been eliminated (or at least relegated to the background). (more…)