SEO World Championship is Over
UPDATE: Yes it’s official – I won! 
Thanks to GetUpdated/EastPoint for the contest. Here are the official list of winners.
Previous post below, before winners were declared….
Although my GlobalWarming Awareness2007 entry was the current number 1 site when the contest ended, they say they will come up with the final results after 24 hours. So to make it official, I guess we will have to wait.
A few things I can say about this contest in my own opinion:
- Content is still king! Good content keep people stay, come back and spread the news in a natural manner.
- Design is still important. Not that it has to be really superb, but at least it does not look bad that people will not trust you nor trust the content of your website. Make it clean and presentable to help drive more traffic, world-of-mouth promotion and more effective website link baiting.
- And SEO is a pay-it-forward type of industry. The more help you give out to other people, the more help you receive when you need it.
SEO contest is a test of one’s skill to rank for a certain keyphrase in search engines. But the real SEO work is really much more than that. I happy I was able to showcase my skills in this contest and was victorious, but I have high respect for all the other competitors since it was not an easy win. I was still worried and nervous up to the last minute of a come-from-behind win from the other competitors. I would like to add that 20% of my efforts in getting the top spot in this contest were through the help of the many SEO professionals in the Philippines. This win is not completely my win. It is a win of SEOPhilippines. Where competent and skilled SEO professionals are, SEO professionals in the Philippines have high reliability in off-shore SEO outsourcing.
While waiting for the official winner announcement, in the meantime, I have prepared my long list of thank you’s already and tried to make sure I left no one out. Arranged in no particular order, but trying to do it chronological as how I remember it.
SEO Philippines Community
- Jason Torres – RoR,AJAX,PHP,MySQL,XHTML,CSS rich talent.
- Mike Lopez – PHP,MySQL expert
- Whin Clores – Internet Marketing Consultant, On-page Optimization Expert
- Mia Carmel – SEO Cebu, but seems to love programming more.
- Riz Sanchez – SEM, Guitarchic, PinkSEO
- Alfredo Palconit, Jr. – Filipino Web Designer
- Mae Paulino – Designer/Blogger
- Gio Castro – SEO, Link Builder
- Abel Quitoriano – SEO/Designer
- Rostom Hernandez – Expert Domainer
- Eli Tapiador – WickedWP, up and rising SEO.
- Neil Maranan – Kapeng Barako Viral Videos/Website Joker
- Leo Mirabuna – SEO for Newbies
- Philip Tiangson – Monetize Blogger
- Almer Viloria – SEO Blogger, LinkHealer, with an Article Directory and talks about Mayon.
- Jun Macarambon – Our brother from the South, Wyzemoro.
- Andrew Dela Serna – Alleba Blog DotA Allstars Strategy Darn Slick Gadgets
- Roland Lacre – Naypi
- Muller Tambis – IT Consultant
- Zaldy Dalisay – Major Kontrapelo – Online Money Maker
- Mito Pontillas – SEO, Link Building Expert
- Marvin Arceo – SEO Pinoy
- Marhgil Macuha – SEO contest winner, blogger
- Marc Macalua – Mr. SEO Philippines
- Elimar Apao – Jozzua on Pinoy Entrepenuershi
SEO Friends in San Diego
- Mikhail Tuknov – SEO/PPC/New Media Manager – Astone Agency
- Jesse Morgan – Web Designer/Developer
- Mike McCarthy – Web Designer
- Shawn Hilt – Web Designer
Marko Nikolic, Dru Kelly, Glen Batuyong did not help me in this contest but they did in the past in another SEO contest. Maybe this is still a nice time to say thanks to them also.
Services I got from our friends on Digital Point
- Mas Dini Muzammal – Blog Poster from Malayasia
- Arvind Srivastava – Manual Directory Sumissions from India
- Col Crawford – Blog Poster, SEO
I did not ask for the services of other friends in India Robin Gupta’s Directory Submission, Sunil Submitshop in this contest but these two guys are cool tool. They helped me out in earlier contest I joined with their services.
Clients
If ever this list is incomplete and I failed to remember you, sorry, I’m just human, it’s sometimes hard to remember everyone.
I did a backlink check as well to help remember some people. I will not mention diggers and people that fell for my link baits since I really don’t know you anyway. *LOL* And for those that added my site to the Cialis and Viagra sites all on different domains that all looked the same, I don’t know if you were helping me or doing the opposite. *LOL* Peace out guys. I understand that competitions are really like that.
Of course thanks to my family and people in my company who were patient with me as I went through the contest as well. I love you all.
[...] before I decided to stick with SEOReligion.com. The SEO World Championship is over, and I won, thanks to everyone that helped me out. Will I try shopautodotca seocontest? I doubt I have a chance. It’s too [...]
Hi Benj,
Arshad here Congrats for putting such good efforts !!
I am India’s or may be world’s youngest seo (age 18) and will complete my 19 yrs of age on 25th November.
Let me discuss with you something about my seo contest Era.
I was alone working on my seo contest website, i was searching for the good people (SEO Experts) to do work on my site but no one knows about seo.
So, i found very difficult to work alone and there was exams of BSCIT (first year) in my college for 2 weeks. That was a key jerk made my site down very bad from 4th position to 16th in google. And i was finding very hard to retain my place, than i worked for last 12 days for my seo contest i.e.18th,April….which boost my ranking to 8th position on google on last day of contest !…….
I think we both can become good friends…please let me know when you are free to have chat with my id ******@gmail.com or we can have email communications
Regards,
Arshad
Seo/Sem Analyst
9198205*****
Mumbai,India
Wowee, a Filipino won? Congratulations on your achievement!
Regards,
Massa P
fruityoaty.com
You left this comment on Aaron Roselo’s blog. Hehe. I don’t know SEO. Weird talaga.
Whenever I feel down or depressed, I go to this post and read all the comments. wahahahahaha
[...] SEO World Championship was over and won by Benj a friend and collegue at SEO Philippines who then snatch the 1st place winning the [...]
Hi Benj, I congratulate you on spreading far and wide the light of the Filipino nation…Taas noo kami sa iyong pagkapanalo. By this way our nation will not only be known as sources of DH but also of venerable talents able to compete head on with the best of the world.
[...] later wrote in his href=”http://blog.benjarriola.com/2007/05/02/seo-world-championship-is-over/ “personal b…that his victory was possible with the help of Filipino search engine marketing specialists who have [...]
Congratulations! You make me more proud to be a filipino. sorry for the late greetings. i just started my blog last march and i had not much idea about blogging and the filipino bloggers. again congratulations..
i hope you can give my blogs a visit and tell me how to improve them. i got the top spot for the keyword “legitimate earning sites” in google, but i don’t even know for sure how i did it.
well, just visit my blogs and ill be super honored.thanks and Go Pinoy!!!
[...] Ariola – SEO World Champion 2007. Wheres my hug dude? you owe me one last Ituloy AngSulong too bad your wife is there. hehe! [...]
[...] Benj proudly credits the SEOPhilippines forums for his win, saying it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of countless individuals in the local SEO industry. [...]
While content is the king,sometimes you can’t have it..
I am a photographer and I think google should really ease up on flash sites. I need to have my site in flash,in order to show style and make my site look presentable. I can’t have content on it. Google should make content important for informational sites,such as blogs and articles. Media/entertainment sites are not suppose to have a lot of content
[...] I got to meet a few cool Philippino SEO’s including Benj Arriola (who I was made aware is the SEO world champion), Elymar Apao, and quite a few other cool gents (who didn’t give me cards;). I also met a few [...]
may mga upcoming seo contest paba?
[...] forum is not as big as the previous SEO World Championship last year by GetUpdated that gave me a car. This contest is only $1,000 but so far this is the biggest one I can find this year and all [...]
Congratulations sa pagkapanalo mo… add ko link ng blog mo sa http://www.pagodkanaba.blogspot.com at http://www.broodonline.com … paki add din naman if pwede.. Thanks and congrats ulit!
[...] entry has been in the wilds in the past weeks but now, he’s leading the pack. I remember the 2007 SEO World Championship where Benj started late and yet, he was able to clinch the title. Will history repeat [...]
Hi. You’re invited to attend the 14 hour internet marketing hands on workshop at the Mall of Asia on March 28-29,2008.
Details at http://internetmarketingphilippines.blogspot.com.
-Marie for Jomar Hilario
[...] in my previous SEO Contest win I had a long list of thank you links. And I am pretty sure i won’t get this the first I post [...]
congratulations…you did it again! whoah..!!!i wish you can give some tips how the blog more traffic and to be successful in all search engine.
This is a cool championship.. But this is over i hope they could make another Championship this year 2011